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Geek Culture / Replacement Computer

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 4th Jan 2011 20:27
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I've finally got the money to replace my laptop, or at least I will have when I get paid (have a job at long last). I've been looking around, but since buying an Acer last time and it failing on me, I am a lot more cautious, enough to consult the brains of fellow geeks. I'm more interesting in stability and reliability rather than power, that was my mistake last time, I was pretty much, "Oh my goodness! A high spec laptop, I bet Crysis will look great on this thing." I was right, it did. So I'm not looking for a gaming laptop, though I'll play games on it, they just won't be that intensive.

I want a desktop AND a laptop, at least one of them will be a Mac, so if I get a decent enough pay at the end of the month, I might be tempted and grab a Mac Mini. My laptop budget is £400, but what I need to know more or less is what's reliable. Dell and Acer are on my 'don't buy' list, are there others I should look out for? And what's well built make that sells laptops for a reason price? My current assumptions are: HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, Toshiba and Sony would make good investments.

Please no computer wars, I mean, I'm a pot-smoking, tree hugging hippy, war is totally for squares man. There's no point arguing against my decision to own at least one mac, it's an informed one and if you decide to troll this thread, I'll direct an inhumane amount of hatred in your general direction, heck, I'll even write to your MP telling you how much I hate you. If your MP owns a mac, then may some deity have mercy on your soul.

Anyway this HP laptop looks reasonably priced, currently on offer for £349: AMD Athlon II P320 Dual Core Processor, 3GB memory, ATI Radeon 4250, 250gb HDD

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelaptops/product.php?id=XM667EA&experience=direct

Alternatively, a Compaq for £349 (Pentium Dual Core T4400), 2GB Memory, 250GB HDD, Intel HD Graphics:

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelaptops/product.php?id=WT647EA&experience=direct

I hear Lenovo are very good, but their cheaper laptops seem to have lower spec, but they've got some good deals going at the moment too, some where the only downside is that it has Intel Graphics, but then I'm not doing anything graphics intensive, so it wouldn't be so bad. But it'd be interesting to hear what others have to say.

Thank you.

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Slow Programmer
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Posted: 5th Jan 2011 03:16
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Unless you have your heart set on a Mac Mini I would look at getting a MacBook or MacBook Pro. If you watch the Apple store for refurbished units you can get a good deal and a full warranty while saving a few hundred dollars on a new machine. In my opinion with the non-Apple stuff it will be easier to find a quality desk top than a laptop. You could even assemble your own desk top and get a higher quality machine then you can buy from one of the big computer manufacturers.

There are two kinds of computer users. Those that use Macs and those that wish they did.
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Phaelax
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Posted: 5th Jan 2011 04:10
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Lenovos are good, I'd take one. I actually like my Dell Inspiron 1545, only issue I have is hibernate randomly not working properly.

The specs look nicer on the HP, but I prefer to stick with Intel chips. Either one you get, I'd bump the ram to 4gb.

It's hard to tell from pics, but it looks like the HP has a matte finish rather than a glossy one like the Compaq. That alone could sell me, I hate shiny black plastic.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 5th Jan 2011 09:05
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The HP does seem nice, if choosing between that and the Compaq, I might make the same choice. I had a look around on the Lenovo website more in depth and it seems impressive, I mean the extent they go through to make their laptops perform well and make them reliable and durable, that's definitely a selling point for me. At the moment the SL series are going for roughly half price, if they're still that cheap when I get paid, I might consider it.

As for refurbs I didn't think to look them up, I might check them out, cheers. If they work out around £400 I might make my laptop a Mac,

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crispex
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Posted: 5th Jan 2011 12:35
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Go with the HP. It's got a pretty decent graphics card, and AMD processors are pure amazing. Intel's have always been slower for me.

I just now realized I've had a typo in my signature for the past 3 years.
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charger bandit
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Posted: 5th Jan 2011 15:21
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You should consider these two options:

Intel and Nvidia: Runs cooler,a bit more rare to find.
AMD and ATI/AMD: A bit hotter,almost every decent laptop has such combo.


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Indicium
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Posted: 5th Jan 2011 15:46
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I also vouch for lenovo I've had this for almost 2 years, the only damage is from where i dropped it and crippled the optical drive locking mechanism, its always very cool, but it's very low spec :/

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 5th Jan 2011 20:00
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Well, if there's no more suggestions, what I may do is:

If I can get a well priced MacBook on refurbs, I'll get that.

If the ThinkPad is still at the same price when I get paid - then I'll get a Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 (£392.21 with Intel graphics or £444.10 with ATI Radeon)

If neither, then the HP.

Toshiba is another make I've got in my head, I might look at a few others. Probably as alternatives to the HP, I think after doing my research on Lenovos, they seem to be what I'm going for (reasonably priced, well-built, durable laptop).

Cheers.

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Indicium
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Posted: 6th Jan 2011 21:37
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Quote: "Toshiba is another make I've got in my head, I might look at a few others"


I had a toshiba and it had major heat problems, that's something to bare in mind, also, it seemed the bios died after I stupidly deleted a linux partition. Stupid thing to do, i know, but after I did that, there was no way to get into the bios options anymore.

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bitJericho
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Posted: 8th Jan 2011 13:33 Edited at: 8th Jan 2011 13:34
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There's always an option for a hackintosh, though it may be illegal where you live!

Asus and Toshiba are what I would buy when it comes to laptops.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 14th Jan 2011 13:44 Edited at: 14th Jan 2011 15:43
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Pay day in a little over a week

But I'm stuck between two choices.

There's the Lenovo G560 and the Lenovo G565.

The Lenovo G560 is £398 on DABs (or £592 on Amazon)
The Lenovo G565 is £359 on Amazon

(Lenovo's website only sells a G560 for £599, but higher spec and no other G Series models available)

The differences are:
Processor

G560 - Intel Core i3 370m
G565 - AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core P320 2.1GHz

From looking on PassMark, the Intel i3 performs a lot better. The i3 (350m, the one that comes with the laptop is a 370m) scores 2,055, whilst the AMD scores 1,269.

But:

Graphics:
G560 - Intel GMA HD (3D Mark - 2811)
G565 - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 (3D Mark 3236.8)

Other specs are pretty much identical (2GB RAM DDR3, upgradable to 8, 250gb HDD, Windows 7 64bit, Lenovo Enhanced Experience for Win7...).


Is it worth going for an Intel GMA HD card? Are they really that bad? From reading a review on the card, it sounds as though it performs like a GeForce 9400M or an ATI Radeon HD 4200.


Or is the i3 really that much better than an AMD Athlon? Whilst yes, its primary usage isn't going to be gaming (so in theory I should go for the better processor), but I might install the odd game on there and I'd want a smooth frame rate more than anything (as opposed to really flashy graphics), so I'd want the graphics card and processor to deliver.

[edit]

Then if I'm willing to spend more (and I probably am), there's the Thinkpad Edge models to compare.

ThinkPad Edge 15 AMD, comes with AMD Turion II DC P540 (1,501, so a higher score than the Athlon) and ATI Radeon HD 4250 (£459)
ThinkPad Edge 15 Intel, comes with Intel i3 and Intel GMA HD (£480)

Still 2gb RAM, but 500gb HDD and Windows 7 Professional 64bit (XP Mode FTW!)

The same questions apply, but I think with the Thinkpad Edge, I'd be getting more HDD space and a better version of Windows, as well as more reliability. Sure they're over budget, but still a bloody bargain in my book.

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charger bandit
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Posted: 14th Jan 2011 16:53
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You should go for the i3,the Radeon GPU that you get with AMD is really nothing special,I have a simmilar laptop and it's poop.


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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 14th Jan 2011 17:19
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In comparing performance it seems that the ATI is only slightly better, as one comparison says, the difference between driving at 10mph and 12mph. The i3 might be worth it, my only concern is that it's integrated graphics, which have traditionally been rubbish for any kind of gaming. But I've seen some YouTube vids of Crysis and Dead Space being run at low settings (not too ugly looking IMO) with a smooth rate, so if I decide to do any kind of gaming on this, I expect I'll get a fair performance on an Intel GMA HD, that is, if an i3 over a Turion makes it worthwhile. It's only £21 difference in price.

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charger bandit
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Posted: 14th Jan 2011 19:37
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The Turion has some horrible heating problems,i3 has even two hyperthreads so it shows up as quad core. It's a great CPU,you should really get it. If you want a bit of gaming,find one with i3/Radeon.


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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 14th Jan 2011 20:08
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I see, well heating problems is definitely something I want to avoid. I'm looking at over £600 for a ThinkPad with an Intel CPU and ATI GPU, as Lenovo only makes their Intel i5 models come with an ATI Radeon Card, it's a much better one mind you. But I'm going to be grabbing a desktop at a later date, so I don't need anything dedicated to gaming in a laptop, so for my budget, Intel GMA HD will suffice as long as I get the better CPU.


Cheers.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 28th Jan 2011 10:50
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My new laptop arrived yesterday! I didn't get as many hours at work as I had hoped, so I got paid less, so I decided not to go over budget as much as I could have done, but I decided to go for the Lenovo ThinkPad SL510, which set me back £420. It's Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2ghz, 2gb RAM (upgradable to 4gb), 250gb HDD, Windows 7 Professional 32bit, Intel HD graphics. Of course, I'm not using it for gaming (except FFXI, but it isn't at all graphics intensive), so the lack of a decent graphics card is no trouble at all. I have found so far, the laptop has been very snappy and it feels very solid. It feels very nice to use and the screen is very clear and I think I made the right choice.

Here is a pic:



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