Laptop processors and Windows 7

[crossy]

Got a small problem here hoping that folks can help with. My sister's just getting shot of her old Dell laptop (Inspiron 1300) and looking around for a reasonably costed replacement (budget limit is about £400 - so no Apple kit).

Her old box is running Windows XP, but she wants to be supported, so that's Win7 at the moment, with an eye to getting Win8 when it launches (well, after SP1 issues of course). She isn't a mad keen DVD ripper, so it's basically web, office, a bit of music and the odd facebook game. Big problem though is that she wants the system to be useful for as long as possible, say 4 years.

Given that she wants a box with a bit of longevity I'm wondering what processor spec she should be looking at? So far I've seen Celeron; Pentium; Athlon, Phenom or Turion dual cores; i3; i5; and even Phenom triple core and quad cores.

I've already said that dual-core or better is the way to go, but I'm wondering whether pointing her at the Intel Core-based stuff would be best? I've got no axe to grind myself - my gaming/media box is Phenom hexcore, but my main machine is Core2Duo. Also told her to stick to the main brands, HP/Compaq, Leonovo, Samsung, Toshiba, (and maybe Acer), no Advent, PacBell etc.

(Oh, and yes, I have already suggest that she might want to look at a tablet - given the low performance requirements).

All opinions valued and appreciated.

[Ben Rogers]

Difficult one as it needs to last four years for under £400.

The most reasonable and well made laptop that has an i3 CPU for that price range (IMHO) is a HP G62.

2.4GHz i3, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Intel HD graphics (I know, but to get a dedicated graphics card is impossible in this price range) HDMI port, 3 usb, good battery life and 15.6" LCD.

[pp05]

Got a small problem here hoping that folks can help with. My sister's just getting shot of her old Dell laptop (Inspiron 1300) and looking around for a reasonably costed replacement (budget limit is about £400 - so no Apple kit).

Her old box is running Windows XP, but she wants to be supported, so that's Win7 at the moment, with an eye to getting Win8 when it launches (well, after SP1 issues of course). She isn't a mad keen DVD ripper, so it's basically web, office, a bit of music and the odd facebook game. Big problem though is that she wants the system to be useful for as long as possible, say 4 years.

Given that she wants a box with a bit of longevity I'm wondering what processor spec she should be looking at? So far I've seen Celeron; Pentium; Athlon, Phenom or Turion dual cores; i3; i5; and even Phenom triple core and quad cores.

I've already said that dual-core or better is the way to go, but I'm wondering whether pointing her at the Intel Core-based stuff would be best? I've got no axe to grind myself - my gaming/media box is Phenom hexcore, but my main machine is Core2Duo. Also told her to stick to the main brands, HP/Compaq, Leonovo, Samsung, Toshiba, (and maybe Acer), no Advent, PacBell etc.

(Oh, and yes, I have already suggest that she might want to look at a tablet - given the low performance requirements).

All opinions valued and appreciated.

Any dual-core laptop should do the trick.

Something like this link or the newer Sandy Bridge link

I have the former laptop 15 months ago so it was only 2.1ghz machine but it is solid. The above is a lot quicker. Not much to think about, a bargain.

[crossy]

Difficult one as it needs to last four years for under £400.
The most reasonable and well made laptop that has an i3 CPU for that price range (IMHO) is a HP G62.
2.4GHz i3, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Intel HD graphics (I know, but to get a dedicated graphics card is impossible in this price range) HDMI port, 3 usb, good battery life and 15.6" LCD.

Thanks, but I was asking on processor choices - I get discounts on HP (employee) and Dell (EPP) so those'd be the brands I'd recommend. But to hear the G62 is a good box is worthwhile. Thanks!

pp05: thanks for the opinion. Got an old Dell D620 Core2Duo and I've found it to be a superb box.

[redddraggon]

For longevity I'd look at getting at least a dual core Sandybridge.

[Ben Rogers]

Thanks, but I was asking on processor choices - I get discounts on HP (employee) and Dell (EPP) so those'd be the brands I'd recommend. But to hear the G62 is a good box is worthwhile. Thanks!

There are just two things I would mention about the G62 that some users mind find annoying.

One being the shortcut keys on the left of the keyboard and the other being the touchpad being of the same material and colour as the chassis and it isn't very easy to use (for me at least). Even adjusting the sensitivity settings doesn't help so I stick with a mouse.

[scaryjim]

Might it be worth hanging on for a week or two and seeing what Llano laptops turn up? For her uses the CPU part of a laptop is unlikely to ever really be a bottleneck, and the much better graphics in Llano are likely to be better employed (e.g. in accelerating flash content & web page rendering, which IE9 already supports) than the massively overkill CPU power in Sandy Bridge.

The biggest problem with that suggestion is that it's anyone's guess when Llano retail laptops will hit the shelves