Laptops

[pp05]

Which camp do you think overall gives better performance for laptops, intel/amd camp? and if you're buying a laptop now is dual core way tp go.. person asking has just started uni..

[jamena]

is it for gaming? compiling code? 3d-graphics? CAD work? or just browsing, writing reports, editing the occasional photo etc?

[dave87]

Intel in most areas, and they have got the speedstep technology which is far superior to that of AMD

[pp05]

Not for 3D graphics or gaming. But browsing, reports, transferring files and bit of multimedia is important. As well as wireless connectivity.

Dave there are so many different cpu names at the moment. Turion, sempron, dual core, N100, L100, pentium M with centrino..

[jamena]

I would have thought that pretty much any reasonably recent laptop would fit the bill, so the main concern might be price...

So long as it has 512Mb ram (1024 would be nice but can be upgraded to later) enough hdd space for your multimedia and "file transfers", and wireless you'll be fine. Something else to consider is how large a screen and how portable a device he wants. If he's going to be moving it around a lot then he might want to look at the "ultra-portable" models, usually with smallish screens (12" wide is quite nice imo ) but if it's going to be mainly static then he could get a bigger screen and heavier device for probably the same money.

dual-core is nice to have but not really necessary for light use.
"cut-down" cpus (e.g. celeron vs pentium) will be fine also for light tasks

Usually the best thing to do is decide on a budget or an "all you'd like to spend on it" figure, then see what you can get for that?

[pp05]

Thanks Jamena. the budget is 800 but based on what it will likely be used for a cheapy one might do trick. Only downsde is of course is ultra portables are bit more expensive.

[dave87]

Something like Core 2 Duo (the new Dells have them) in the Inspiron 6400 or 640m would probably suit - mine was only slightly more, I'll dig out the spec list for you if you want