Another what laptop question.

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stephec

Legendary Member
Location
Bolton
Or to be more precise, do I go for one with an I5 in it, or one with an AMD R5 processor?

It's just for general household use, Web, email, and Netflix, no gaming.

I've searched for reviews and comparisons but most seem to be aimed at people who enjoy the subject, for me I'm not interested in what's inside, I just want to be able to switch it on and use it.

Is there really any noticeable difference between the two?
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
One question - do you need a DVD/CD drive on it for playing DVD's or CD's or making copies or loading stuff on?
Simply solved by a stand alone DVD drive, but something to think about.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
It used to be that AMD processors got hot and had noisy fans to cool, don’t know if still the case?
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
Thats my experience of AMDs as well, although I bought an Acer i5 from Argos at the end of April to replace a HP i3 that was running very hot, so maybe not just an AMD issue. Did not read the spec too much as it was more a case of what was actually available for the equivalent to the HP bar processor and was quite pleased to find unlike the HP it could be used outdoors without the screen becoming invisible. Argos ref 763/8578
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Intel processors here now, but did have a fast AMD years ago, and I believe they are pretty good again. Look at the level of the processor in the range. Mid range ones are fine.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Get one with a solid state drive and kiss goodbye to waiting for things to load. They are a real eye opener after clunky hard drives.
Indeed, and shockproof too! (My niece trashed her laptop hard drive by rough handling when shutting the laptop down, despite my warnings to her that it might happen...)
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
Laptops at a reasonable price with SSDs seem to be limited to 512GB - by the time W10 has taken its chunk there is not much left if you use it for videos
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Laptops at a reasonable price with SSDs seem to be limited to 512GB - by the time W10 has taken its chunk there is not much left if you use it for videos
Who records massive videos, especially if they only want the laptop for basic surfing and streaming?

My 3 year old Win10 laptop only has a 256 GB SSD but over 50% is still free. If I really wanted to store some massive files I'd plug in a big USB3 memory stick.
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
If you only want it for web browsing, emails, Netflix, YouTube and media consumption there’s really no point in getting a windows laptop. You’re much better off with either a tablet or a chromebook. We’ve got all these in the house and I can tell tell you my iPad Air (latest version) is by far and away the nicest to use for those tasks. iOS is perfect for a tablet and with the latest 13 version for iPads you even get mouse support so you can add a keyboard and mouse if you wish, very fluid and intuitive to use, even the base model provides a great experience. Another plus with iOS is if you have it stolen or damage it you simply sign into your account and all your phots, files, apps are there for you on a new machine.

My wife has a HP windows 10 machine and it’s just a pain to use, slow and laggy, she needs it for Word as all her files going back twelves years are in Word.

The kids have a HP chromebook and it’s fast and easy to use although it doesn't have a touch screen but most do now. For your intended use one of the mid range models would be fine. The Pixel Slate is reckoned to be pretty good.
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
Who records massive videos, especially if they only want the laptop for basic surfing and streaming?

My 3 year old Win10 laptop only has a 256 GB SSD but over 50% is still free. If I really wanted to store some massive files I'd plug in a big USB3 memory stick.
The video off a 4k sportcam soon eats up space, given all the other applications installed (Office for starters) - 64GB of 4k video is just over 2 hours. The last thing needed is trying to move the content off the SD cards only to find theirs insufficient disk space because I've not deleted or archived previous videos and they do not always run well off attached devices so a massive hard drive is the simple solution. Can honestly say I have never had a hard drive failure, its usually something far more terminal that happens with a laptop or in the case of a desktop it simply becomes too out of date.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Who records massive videos, especially if they only want the laptop for basic surfing and streaming?

My 3 year old Win10 laptop only has a 256 GB SSD but over 50% is still free. If I really wanted to store some massive files I'd plug in a big USB3 memory stick.
Mine is 256 gigabyte too and that's more than enough for my needs. I have a couple of 2 terabyte Seagate external hard drives but I never use them except for some recklessly infrequent back-ups.
 
OP
OP
stephec

stephec

Legendary Member
Location
Bolton
Thanks everyone, should probably have added that Mrs Stephec needs office and a proper keyboard as well.

I narrowed it down to a choice of two, both with 8gb ram 256 memory, a Lenovo with i5 from Argos, or an Asus with AMD from John Lewis.

Had they been the other way round I probably wouldn't have needed to ask. :smile:
 
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