Mobile CPU recommendations required!

[Rob_B]

Hi folks,

For travel due to work I use an ultraportable Vaio with a 1.06Ghz C2D.
I'm fairly happy with it however on high resolution video it can get pretty juddery, running lovefilm in fullscreen is hit or miss so I'm after something with a bit more oomph!
Not used for gaming apart from the odd low res portal session!

I'm looking at cheap laptops upto 14" and am wondering whether to get a faster C2D or move to something like an E450 (not much faster than my current one though?) or even an older Athlon II ? I'm total out of the mobile CPU loop!

Budget is around £150 max, i can get something like a HP nc4400 for that with a 1.83Ghz C2D but are there any other suggestions?

Cheers!!

Rob

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Make sure you get a laptop which has a decent enough IGP which can decode video effectively.

[Rob_B]

So.... Suggestions for a good igp?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So.... Suggestions for a good igp?

Avoid any Intel IGP under the GMA4500:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-G...HD.9883.0.html

The AMD HD4200 is generally better and is the minimum I would go for in an AMD laptop.

Zacate actually has a decent video decoder in its IGP.

[scaryjim]

E450 or E1-1200 if you want a low cost option. It's also possible that new Atoms will actually be better for video performance due to the newer video decoding blocks taking the load off the CPU.

For £150 though, you're going to be struggling to get anything with any quality, particularly in an ultra-portable form factor: smaller tends to mean more expensive (unless we're talking netbooks, of course ). Given the age of anything 14" or smaller that'll fit in your price bracket, I'd be concerned about how long it'd last. Sure you can't stretch the budget?

[Rob_B]

Cheers chaps!

Price bump? Not really no unfortunately, I'm going to sell the Vaio and buy the other one at what should be evens, it would have to be fairly close to that price, budgets constraints at the moment!

Assuming an older machine am I going to notice the difference between 1ghz and 1.6ghz (for example) when viewing 720p or is is not so much the speed as the tech that would hold me back?

I'd like to go for AMD as Zacate did look promising and would allow a tiny bit of gaming but I'm not sure what price bump I'd be looking at :/

[scaryjim]

you can get a 15" E1-1200 laptop for £250, so you'd be sacrificing some of the portability, but tbh if you were looking for a new laptop smaller than 15" you'd be talking about £400 starting price anyway.

Your viewing pleasure is largely going to be limited be technology rather than CPU speed - anything with a modern IGP can accelerate most video in hardware meaning the CPU doesn't get hammered (although it is somewhat dependent on drivers etc.).

The problem with selling the Vaio to fund this is that I can't see you picking up anything significantly better than the Vaio for that money. It's all going to be ultraportables of about the same age, which won't really help.

[Rob_B]

Even with the jump from 1ghz to 1.6+ though? I realise igp is important but surely a 60% bump in CPU is going to help with decoding even if it does still use a lot of CPU resources?

[scaryjim]

Depends on what CPU - I mean, it will help, but there's only so far software decoding can get you, and the harder the CPU has to work the more heat it generates, and shorter the lifespan on an already old computer.

I think what I'm trying to say is: don't buy an old computer to replace an old computer. If your main concerns is watching movies full screen, then how about a cheap Android tablet? If you're already carrying a 12" laptop around it will fit in the same bag and you can pull it out for the things the laptop can't handle (it sounds like you're happy with the laptop apart from the video watching experience!).

[Rob_B]

what are your thoughts on an NVIDIA QUADRO NVS 150M ? The Toshiba M10 has a 2.2Ghz C2D coupled with this for around my budget, sounds good to me!

Seems like its similar to a 9200

[scaryjim]

Quadro cards are professional cards for CAD/modelling, whilst they're based on the same silicon as the geforce cards they use different drivers that are optimised for productivity. I'm not sure how that will affect support for different programs. Also, whilst the chip does support hardware decoding of some media types, its an older GPU so it might not accelerate all video types/sources/programs.

Also, where on earth have you found a laptop with that spec for £150? Whilst it'll be old, it's a pretty decent spec for a business lappy

[Rob_B]

Older GPU but still faster than any IGP in my price range

£130 - 2.26Ghz C2D - 4GB - 320GB - NVS 150M - European keyboard and a bit battered though :/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,have you considered getting a tablet?? One thing is that battery life tends to be much better when watching videos!!

[Rob_B]

I have, but i do like a keyboard and a decent browser plus I'd like to install steam for some gaming hence the search for a 'reasonable' IGP/GPU

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have, but i do like a keyboard and a decent browser plus I'd like to install steam for some gaming hence the search for a 'reasonable' IGP/GPU

The NVS150M only has 8 shaders and drivers not optimised for games. I have a 9300M IGP in one of my desktops which has 16 shaders and higher clockspeeds,but even then I will be limited to quite old games.

Regarding the web browsers on tablets,many support multiple tabs,and many other features you see on desktop web browsers.

[Rob_B]

Yeah I realise I'm not going to be playing BF3 but a bit of portal or HL2 might be nice (low settings I know!)
it's 62% faster than a 4500HD which is the best IGP i'd likely end up with for my budget http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...M.11907.0.html

I've used tablets/iPads and just don't get on with them, I miss what a proper PC can give me ie browser/office/steam. I know I can get kinda close with a tablet but its not the same experience for me