Time for a new laptop

[Guest]

Mine is starting to overheat and is too slow for playing even the type of games I play - strategy and rpg mostly. So I'm on the lookout for a new laptop in the sales between now and christmas (probably for between 500 and 600 euros)

 

I have an ACER i5-5200Uwith 4GB of ram and Nvidia 920M

 

I use it for work - which obviously doesn't need anything out of the oridinary. I use it to watch football streams and to play games ( but not shooters or games needing incredible graphics).

 

I'd like to know what I should be focussing on.

 

Is it that I should go for an i7 intel (or is there the equivalent in AMD...) Is it most important that I get 8 or 16GB of RAM or is it something else that I know nothing about?

 

Can someone please give me advise as to the most important features I need to search for among the hundreds of choices out there. 

 

Thanks in advance.

[TheUltimateWinner]

42 minutes ago, FIF said:

Mine is starting to overheat and is too slow for playing even the type of games I play - strategy and rpg mostly. So I'm on the lookout for a new laptop in the sales between now and christmas (probably for between 500 and 600 euros)

 

I have an ACER i5-5200Uwith 4GB of ram and Nvidia 920M

 

I use it for work - which obviously doesn't need anything out of the oridinary. I use it to watch football streams and to play games ( but not shooters or games needing incredible graphics).

 

I'd like to know what I should be focussing on.

 

Is it that I should go for an i7 intel (or is there the equivalent in AMD...) Is it most important that I get 8 or 16GB of RAM or is it something else that I know nothing about?

 

Can someone please give me advise as to the most important features I need to search for among the hundreds of choices out there. 

 

Thanks in advance.

8GB memory should be ok and make sure it's an SSD and not a HDD. 

 

Depends how comfortable you are with upgrade your PC yourself, with an i5 already, you might find an SSD will improve the speed massively. How much storage space are you using right now? 

Edited 5 November 2018 by TheUltimateWinner

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, TheUltimateWinner said:

8GB memory should be ok and make sure it's an SSD and not a HDD. 

 

Depends how comfortable you are with upgrade your PC yourself, with an i5 already, you might find an SSD will improve the speed massively. How much storage space are you using right now? 

So SSD is a different type of memory that is much faster?

 

I've got about 300 GB free of my 1TB but I can always remove a couple of games or some stored video, if I need space.

 

I think I'd prefer to get a new laptop with the necessary requirements rather than upgrade a part of my existing laptop.

[Guest]

Is Ryzen 5 the equivalent of intel i5 or better?

[Uranyl Yellow]

Unless you're doing high end video/graphic processing an i7 is probably a bit of overkill - most software isn't written to fully utilize the extra cores. Personally, I'd go for 8Gb minimum (preferably 16Gb), and the best graphics card available for your budget. An SSD is nice, but the trouble is in a laptop you generally won't have a conventional HDD as an alternate (slower) data store, and unless you are spending loads the SSD capacities are fairly low in comparison to a standard HDD.

[HankMarvin]

Keep an eye on laptops you like now and see the price reduction on Black Friday 

[HankMarvin]

24 minutes ago, Uranyl Yellow said:

Unless you're doing high end video/graphic processing an i7 is probably a bit of overkill - most software isn't written to fully utilize the extra cores. Personally, I'd go for 8Gb minimum (preferably 16Gb), and the best graphics card available for your budget. An SSD is nice, but the trouble is in a laptop you generally won't have a conventional HDD as an alternate (slower) data store, and unless you are spending loads the SSD capacities are fairly low in comparison to a standard HDD.

With laptops lasting 5 years etc, it makes sense to go for the i7 if it’s within your budget, that way your laptop will last longer as technology/software upgrades over the years

[Uranyl Yellow]

36 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

With laptops lasting 5 years etc, it makes sense to go for the i7 if it’s within your budget, that way your laptop will last longer as technology/software upgrades over the years

It's possibly a valid point, though the i7 has been kicking around for a fair few years now and it's still really only high end software that fully utilises it. Sure, if money isn't a factor then go for it, but if it's a choice between an i7 and a better graphics card, then I'd go for the better graphics card every time.

[Guest]

What about Ryzen (3,5 or 7) with vega as opposed to intel i5 or i7?

[TheUltimateWinner]

1 hour ago, FIF said:

So SSD is a different type of memory that is much faster?

 

I've got about 300 GB free of my 1TB but I can always remove a couple of games or some stored video, if I need space.

 

I think I'd prefer to get a new laptop with the necessary requirements rather than upgrade a part of my existing laptop.

SSD is a type of storage, its replaced the conventional hard drive. I'd personally reccomend an SSD over a HDD as you will certainly notice the speed difference. I upgraded my 2012 laptop with an SSD and it's like brand new now. If you're buying a new laptop, I'd definitely reccomend looking for one with an SSD if its within budget 

Edited 5 November 2018 by TheUltimateWinner

[Uranyl Yellow]

13 minutes ago, FIF said:

What about Ryzen (3,5 or 7) with vega as opposed to intel i5 or i7?

I can't pretend to be any expert but I think AMD has come back over the years, and now probably has the edge in multi threaded processors  - but as I've mentioned before with regard to the i7, the vast majority of software doesn't really use any more than four threads (probably most of it doesn't use more than 2 threads), so you'll just end up with cores sitting around idle most of the time. I'd still go with Intel, unless it's for an application that is going to specifically benefit from having a load of cores working in parallel.

[yorkie1999]

As with all pc stuff, what do you want it for and how much do you want to spend?

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

As with all pc stuff, what do you want it for and how much do you want to spend?

 

5 hours ago, FIF said:

Mine is starting to overheat and is too slow for playing even the type of games I play - strategy and rpg mostly. So I'm on the lookout for a new laptop in the sales between now and christmas (probably for between 500 and 600 euros)

 

I have an ACER i5-5200Uwith 4GB of ram and Nvidia 920M

 

I use it for work - which obviously doesn't need anything out of the oridinary. I use it to watch football streams and to play games ( but not shooters or games needing incredible graphics).

 

I'd like to know what I should be focussing on.

 

Is it that I should go for an i7 intel (or is there the equivalent in AMD...) Is it most important that I get 8 or 16GB of RAM or is it something else that I know nothing about?

 

Can someone please give me advise as to the most important features I need to search for among the hundreds of choices out there. 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[yorkie1999]

5 hours ago, FIF said:

Mine is starting to overheat and is too slow for playing even the type of games I play - strategy and rpg mostly. So I'm on the lookout for a new laptop in the sales between now and christmas (probably for between 500 and 600 euros)

 

I have an ACER i5-5200Uwith 4GB of ram and Nvidia 920M

 

I use it for work - which obviously doesn't need anything out of the oridinary. I use it to watch football streams and to play games ( but not shooters or games needing incredible graphics).

 

I'd like to know what I should be focussing on.

 

Is it that I should go for an i7 intel (or is there the equivalent in AMD...) Is it most important that I get 8 or 16GB of RAM or is it something else that I know nothing about?

 

Can someone please give me advise as to the most important features I need to search for among the hundreds of choices out there. 

 

Thanks in advance.

I've just recently invested in a used laptop and replaced the components to the ones i wanted. The reason being i wanted a workstation standard laptop and couldn't justify the £1500-£2000 it was going to cost. Also, for the sort of money you want to spend it's kind of a mid range price, meaning a top of the scale crap laptop of a bottom of the scale decent laptop. After a bit of searching around i ended up buying a Dell Precision Mobile from Ebay for a couple of hundred quid. The ad showed 8 sold, refurbished but no power supply, so i knew it was a job lot that had probably been used on a docking station in an office, so the battery would be good. It was an i7 quad core 2.7gb, which meant i could stick 32gb of ram in it. I bought a 4gb graphics card, doubled the memory to 32gb, installed a 250gb ssd and put the 500gb hdd in the extra slot ( these laptops can have 2 hard drives), and bought a new power supply, that lot cost me about 300 quid. So for about 500 quid, i've got a very fast laptop with plenty of disc space that will run engineering software with no problems that would have cost about 2.5 grand 3-4 years ago.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

12 hours ago, FIF said:

So SSD is a different type of memory that is much faster?

 

SSD is solid state storage, like an SD card you pop into your phone/camera etc. Makes zero noise, faster transfer speed, takes up far less bulk/weight and generates far less heat. The only thing is you tend to get less storage for your money, but if you value the portability of your laptop (or the noise/heat/weight of a standard HDD laptop bothers you) it's definitely the way to go

[Suzie the Fox]

Depending on how much money you want to spend, there are some good deals out there.

 

8gb Ram is really a must nowdays if you are gaming, as is an SSD like others have said. If you play many games then you really want the games on the SSD drive for faster loading. But that depends on how many games and the size of the SSD. The bigger the drive the more games you can put on it.

 

MSI are a great brand and my son has just bought the following one, which although isnt cheap, is really fast and has been reduced from £1100 to £849.

 

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/173-msi-gl73-8rd-043-fhd-i7-8750h-8gb-ddr4-128gb-m2-sata-ssdplus1tb-hdd-4gb-gtx-1050-ti-usb-31-gen-t

 

[Guest]

I'm still trawling the sales.

 

Found this:

 

• CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 2500U - 2 GHz
• 15.6" - 1366 x 768 (HD)
• RAM : 8 Go (2 x 4 Go)
• 1 To HDD SATA - 5400 tours-min - 128 Go SSD - (M.2)
• Processeur graphique : AMD Radeon Vega 8

• Durée de fonctionnement : Jusqu'à 10.25 heures
• Interfaces : 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB 2.0, HDMI, LAN, Prise combo casque-microphone
• Système d'exploitation : Windows 10 Edition Familiale 64 bits - Anglais-Français

seems a great price at less than 500 euros.

 

It's an HP. Are they any good?

 

My real question is that it says 1366 x 768 HD but this is not "Full HD" is it? What is the difference? How important is it?

 

Thanks

[Carl the Llama]

1 hour ago, FIF said:

I'm still trawling the sales.

 

Found this:

 

• CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 2500U - 2 GHz
• 15.6" - 1366 x 768 (HD)
• RAM : 8 Go (2 x 4 Go)
• 1 To HDD SATA - 5400 tours-min - 128 Go SSD - (M.2)
• Processeur graphique : AMD Radeon Vega 8

• Durée de fonctionnement : Jusqu'à 10.25 heures
• Interfaces : 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB 2.0, HDMI, LAN, Prise combo casque-microphone
• Système d'exploitation : Windows 10 Edition Familiale 64 bits - Anglais-Français

seems a great price at less than 500 euros.

 

It's an HP. Are they any good?

 

My real question is that it says 1366 x 768 HD but this is not "Full HD" is it? What is the difference? How important is it?

 

Thanks

Answer from a Tom's hardware page:

 

The objective answer to your question is yes, 1920x1080 media will scale down to 1366x768, and no, it will not be true "1080p".

But if it is reasonable to do so (and if this laptop is 15.6"), then you should make a point to avoid 1366x768 resolution in a 15.6" display. 15.6" 1366x768 displays make things onscreen large, and tend to have very poor image quality due to low contrast. This, however, is not the case for 15.6" 1920x1080 displays.