Help getting a laptop. Intel i3?

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savage388

savage388

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I've been looking for laptops for around 500 dollars and while I'm open to suggestions moat of my choices come down to the intel i3 or an amd quad core a6. Both have integrated graphics from what I've seen and RAM/ features are about the same. So it comes down to is intel's dual core i3 with hyperthreading better than an amd quad core? I just can't see the intel being faster even with a much larger cache. Any help or other suggestions are more than welcome.👍
 
In most situations, the i3 will win out in terms of pure CPU performance. However, the benefits of the A6 system is the intergrated graphics chip. Intel HD200 and HD3000 graphics suck (which is what comes on the i3), and suck in a big way compared to the AMD APU chips (which is a Radeon 6530 graphics chip). I'd recommend the AMD side due to this. Depends what you're running, weather it's a workhorse, or light games, etc etc.
 
bergauk
Any particular laptop models you're looking at? Also, which version of the i3 and A6?
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Not really I've just seen In my 500 dollar price range these are most common. Not sure which i3 but the a6 3420m is common and I found a 3430mx(?)
tlowr4
In most situations, the i3 will win out in terms of pure CPU performance. However, the benefits of the A6 system is the intergrated graphics chip. Intel HD200 and HD3000 graphics suck (which is what comes on the i3), and suck in a big way compared to the AMD APU chips (which is a Radeon 6530 graphics chip). I'd recommend the AMD side due to this. Depends what you're running, weather it's a workhorse, or light games, etc etc.
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Ill be using it for college so it'll do pretty much everything, hd video, converting, CAD possibly and lots of other media stuff. Ill also admit I want some good raw graphics power as I might try to run ms flight simulator x as my 5 year old desktop won't touch it.
 
If that's the case, you might want to go with the A6. Or if possible, save up a little bit more for it. 500$ will get you something that is alright for those tasks, but a little bit more, say.. 200$ would give you a lot more to work with.
 
^^ This. Scrape up as much as you possibly can. The next step up from an A6 is the A8, with a 6550 graphics chip (faster than the A6). I'd suggest a system with that.
 
Money is pretty much limited but I'll look for deals on the a8. Any other suggestions anyone wants to add for anything?
 
i5 is the best bang for the buck, and absolutely murders an AMD equivalent (also costs more for the same specs for Intel). Also, w/ Sandy Bridge, you'll get a large jump in battery life, if that makes a difference for you.
I used to be a huge AMD fan, but they haven't put anything out that can touch Intel in desktop, laptop, or server CPU's in several years (that's not me talking, there are plenty of benchmarks to back this up).
That being said... $500 is a low end laptop, but I found a Lenovo G570 on newegg w/ an i5 CPU, 4GB, 500GB HD for $549 w/ free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246309 - I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T410 and it's quite solid.

It does have integrated Intel HD graphics, which are not stellar, but have a good performance to power ratio, and should have no issue streaming Netflix HD content at all. Do some Google searches on i5 vs AMD equivalent, there really is no comparison.

Edit:

If you can spend a touch more - and graphics are of a concern - this is $100 more expensive, but has an 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT630M, which is a good jump over the Intel HD graphics:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246327

Cheers.
 
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