Solved! Which Laptop to buy (HP vs toshiba)?

[mesmero]

1_What is your budget?
$500-700 (lower the better)

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
games like KOTOR2 (basically not an avid gamer)

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
watching movies, surfing web, movie compressing, office apllication , multitasking (2-3 applications)

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
IPlease suggest 1vs2 and 3vs4vs5...basically not a big gamer (so thinking whether integrated graphics will be sufficient).

Hp
dv7-1245dx
AMD Turion™ X2 RM-72 2.1GHZ
ATI RADEON HD 3200 graphics RS780M
Video Memory
Up to 1918MB total available
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9166635&type=product&id=1218041148373


Toshiba
L505-S5971
Core 2 duo (2.0)
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Video Memory
128MB - 1341MB dynamically allocated shared
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9396762&type=product&id=1218098558628

toshiba
A505-S6965
Core 2 duo (2.0)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
Video Memory
512MB DDR3 discrete graphics memory; up to 1790MB dynamically allocated shared using ATI HyperMemory
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9371556&type=product&id=1218093379440

HP Pavilion DV6-1122us
AMD Turion X2 RM-74 2.2GHz
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics RS780M
Video Memory: Up to 1918MB
http/www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4942642&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs


toshiba
Satellite A505D-S6958
2.1GHz AMD Turion X2
ATI Radeon 3100 graphics with 256MB-1918MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory
http/www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11082488

 

[Guest]

Any of them should we quite fine for playing KOTOR2, and doing basic tasks for school. Even the Intel GMA x4500m chipset should be able to play Kotor2 (b/c it can play Left4Dead).

Just remember, Intel processors are more likely to provide a better battery life, and a cooler experience. Plus, Core2Duos are more efficient than the latest AMD cpus.. But AMD should provide good value.

Just find one that fits your budget, and style. It is better if you can actually try them out. I have both HP AMD laptop, and an Toshiba Intel laptop. Both of them pretty good. HP support kind of reeks though. Amd tends to get hot, but if it does, i just put it on my $15 Rolodex mesh stand, and it gets cooler.

Hp makes some of their laptops thinish, and gets hot though (for other reasons too). But Toshiba makes their laptops thick, which makes it cooler.

You can't really go wrong with any of them. All of them has 4gb ram, 2ghz dual core processor, and plenty of space. But i don't recommend the HP dv7, it is an outlet model, which is refurbished, not really worth it these days.

 

[frozenlead]

The Toshiba A505 series will outperform the rest. I'd recommend that one, if they're all near the same price.

 

[mesmero]

Thanks guys. after reading all you replies, as of now I am looking to buy either Toshiba L505 ($549) or Toshiba A505 ($700)...will prefer L505...since its cheaper

few questions:

How well toshiba laptops perform vs HP/compaq, DELL? they certainly are priced better than most of the others, do let me know if there is some major issue with them?

for casual gaming (may be I will play old like KOTOR2, lucas arts games, NFS, Thief ) do I need to shell out the extra 150 bucks? could you compare the kind of games (form the latest games) I will be able to play on the two? Also what else is the graphic cards needed for apart from gaming?

could you suggest any other alternative (HP,compaq, sony) with same features in the above price range?

 

[lostandwandering]

Take a look at this review from Anandtech: http/anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3618

It's is very good for looking at full platforms from either company. Basically, a Core2 will out perform a similar clocked Turion X2 in CPU intensive apps. However, the HD3200 is a much better IGP than Intel's 4500M HD for games, though neither is spectacular.