Laptop Choices

[rEd_SeCt0r]

Hi all,

The missus wants a new laptop.
Looked at a few & a couple of HP's look good.
Not 100% sure which one to choose.
Wondered if you could give me your opinions please.

The laptops................

HP Pavilion g6-1010sa 15.6" Laptop - Luminous Rose----------------HP Pavilion g6-1072sa 15.6" Laptop - Luminous Rose
Processor - AMD Athlon™ II X2 P360 2.3Ghz----------------------------Processor - Intel® Core™ i3-380M 2.53Ghz
O/S - Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit---------------------O/S - Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Ram - 4GB installed DDR3 memory-----------------------------------------Ram - 4GB installed DDR3 memory
Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250----------------------------------Graphics - Intel HD Graphics (integrated)
Screen - 15.6" Widescreen LCD LED Backlit 16:9-----------------------Screen - 15.6" Widescreen LCD LED Backlit 16:9
Screen Resolution - WXGA 1366 x 768 pixels----------------------------Screen Resolution - WXGA 1366 x 768 pixels
Hard Drive - 500GB SATA 5400rpm-----------------------------------------Hard Drive - 320GB SATA 5400rpm
LightScribe SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support-------LightScribe SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Multi-Format Digital Media Card Reader-----------------------------------Multi-Format Digital Media Card Reader
3 x USB 2.0----------------------------------------------------------------------3 x USB 2.0
Fast Ethernet (RJ-45 port)----------------------------------------------------Fast Ethernet (RJ-45 port)
802.11 b/g/n WLAN------------------------------------------------------------802.11 b/g/n WLAN
Bluetooth------------------------------------------------------------------------Bluetooth
Video Interface - 1xHDMI, 1xVGA-------------------------------------------Video Interface - 1xHDMI, 1xVGA
Altec Lansing speakers-------------------------------------------------------Altec Lansing speakers
1.3 megapixel webcam-------------------------------------------------------1.3 megapixel webcam

£379.99--------------------------------------------------------------------------£429.99

Basically, they are identical, except processor & graphics card.
She is not going to be doing heavy gaming etc, just surfing web & maybe photo's etc, but wants something that has a lot of features & will last a few years.

I have read the i3 380M is the better processor of the two, but the lower price one has 180GB more storage space & an ATI graphics processor which apparently is better than the Intel one.
But, does the better processor really warrant the £50 difference?

Which one of the 2 would you choose & why please?

Many thanks,

Pete

 

[WR2]

Hello rEd_SeCt0r;

There is a pretty fair gap in performance between the Athlon II X2 P360 2.3Ghz and Core i3-380M 2.53Ghz. More than just the few Mhz difference in the listed CPU speeds.
IMO £50 is probably a fair price to pay for the 'extra snappy' performance.
That's not to say that the P360 equipped laptop won't get the job done because it will.

Intel Core i3 380M review
AMD Athlon II P360

If you looked at the ranked performance order of notebook CPUs listed here:
Comparison of Mobile Processors
you'll find the i3-380M ranked #55 and Athlon II X2 P360 ranked #174

Passmark CPU benchmark scores:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
AMD Athlon II P360 Dual-Core = 1335
Intel Core i3 380M @ 2.53GHz = 2345

The GPUs are much closer in performance:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 review
Intel HD Graphics review

 

[AntiZig]

Hi,
I just wanted to note that out of the specs you listed I don't see the 180Gb storage difference...

 

[rEd_SeCt0r]

Hello rEd_SeCt0r;

There is a pretty fair gap in performance between the Athlon II X2 P360 2.3Ghz and Core i3-380M 2.53Ghz. More than just the few Mhz difference in the listed CPU speeds.
IMO £50 is probably a fair price to pay for the 'extra snappy' performance.
That's not to say that the P360 equipped laptop won't get the job done because it will.

Intel Core i3 380M review
AMD Athlon II P360

If you looked at the ranked performance order of notebook CPUs listed here:
Comparison of Mobile Processors
you'll find the i3-380M ranked #55 and Athlon II X2 P360 ranked #174

Passmark CPU benchmark scores:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
AMD Athlon II P360 Dual-Core = 1335
Intel Core i3 380M @ 2.53GHz = 2345

The GPUs are much closer in performance:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 review
Intel HD Graphics review

Hi WR2,

Thank you very much for your very informative reply.
Looks like the i3-380M powered laptop then.

Thanks again,

Pete

Hi,
I just wanted to note that out of the specs you listed I don't see the 180Gb storage difference...

Hi AntiZig,

Thank you for your reply.
Ooooops, typo.
The specs are almost identical so I cut & pasted from the AMD powered laptop & forgot to change the hard drive size.
My bad.

Well spotted.
I have amended the listing.

Thanks again,

Pete

 

[AntiZig]

ah so you get a smaller drive in the faster one, but unless your missus likes downloading large movies or games you should find 300 gb quite a lot.

 

[rEd_SeCt0r]

Ok, just thought I would update you all.

When we looked at these 2 laptops in the flesh, they looked cheap & nasty.

So, we went into another store & bought an Acer Aspire 5742 (Black).
i3 380M
4GB DDR3 Ram
500GB Hard Drive

Everything else the same except no bluetooth, but that is no biggy as I have a usb dongle, & we don't use bluetooth that much anyway, just to get pics etc off the phones.

Much more sturdy looking & nice keyboard.
Keyboard also has the numeric keypad, which the other 2 didn't.

Price was £404.00
It was display model that had not long been put out on shelf & has not been fiddled around with as it was spotless.
It was also discontinued/end of line, so we got 20% off.

So, got all the best spec for cheaper than we were gping to pay in the first place.

Thanks for all your advice.

Kindest Regards,

Pete

 

[WR2]

I think you'll be pretty happy. Let us know what you think after you're worked with it for a while.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/acer-aspire-5742.aspxAcer Aspire 5742 Review