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hideOriginal Post

Nov 16, 12 at 11:35amWingZero259

After years of faithful service, my Toshiba Satellite is ready to retire. I'm still in college, and like most of my peers, still broke. My parents bought my first laptop, but this time the bill is on me. Since I can't drop $1000 on something cool(or for some of you decent), I have turned to rent-to-own like Aarons, BestWay, RentACenter, etc where I can make payments.

As a benchmark, my Satellite had an Intel Core 2 Duo T5600. I would like something at the very least the equivalent. But I would really prefer something better obviously.

Based on the retailers I've been to, they all offer Pentium or AMD Processors. As far as I've known Intel is the best and AMD is more for just a dedicated gamer. I don't game much on my computers but I was considering Star Wars: The Old Republic when I made my purchase. But regardless I still need all around performance. Also, didn't Pentium originally come out back in like the 2000s? I remember my mother's first Desktop PC had Intel Pentium, but from my research this new line is Dual Core? On the flip side, there was one retailer that offered an i3 Processor, which I know is close to the top of the line so that will probably be my safe bet.

To keep from listing every single processor on the laptops I run across, I will only list those that I believe to be the "best" in the lineup. But for those more savvy than me, feel free to chime in with suggestions. I will list the few AMDs though because I have no clue how to decipher how they measure up to Intel's product line, if at all. It seems to me though that all the "high end" laptops these retailers offer have AMD processors, but I am just hesitant about the brand. I thought if I could get a few experts to put the specs in easy to understand verbage I might feel a little better about the whole thing.


Intel i3
i3-3217U

Intel Pentium
987
B980
B950 (2B)
T4500 (Listed only as "Dual Core", but I assume it is Pentium)


AMD
E-300
C60
A6-4455M
A8-4500M
A4-3305M
Athlon II

Thread Recap (last 10 posts from newest to oldest)

Nov 20, 12 at 8:26am
WingZero259

As far as speed will it be good? The processor selections are an Intel Celeron, Core(Pentium?), and some Samsung processor. I didn't know they made processors so I'm not really inclined to give that one a try.



Nov 19, 12 at 10:07am
10jdrole

quote harbin91
That would largely depend on what he needs the laptop for. Chromebook is fine for largely browsing the internet and listening to music but since everything sits in the cloud he would require constant internet access. I know it uses a version of Linux but I'm not entirely sure how it works if you lose connectivity. If he was gonna use a Linux OS then I'd recommend something else than that TBH.
If he's a student, I'd say he's probably gonna use this laptop primarily for school work, which would be ideal for a Chromebook because it saves documents to the cloud, meaning he could access his documents from any computer. Also, AFAIK, most colleges and universities have internet access throughout their campuses, so I doubt that connectivity would be an issue. Even so, Chromebooks can still function while offline (google docs WILL work, IIRC).



Nov 19, 12 at 2:17am
hiigaran

have a look through this. under CPU type, select AMD A-Series (under the advanced tab).

this laptop is a decent $500 one.

alternatively, for 20 bucks less, you can get this. less GPU power, more CPU power.



Nov 18, 12 at 5:45pm
WingZero259

3-4 months maybe. Which APUs would those be? I can try to look for them.



Nov 18, 12 at 8:13am
hiigaran

and how long would it take you to save up 400 or 500 bucks? there are some pretty great laptops with AMDs APUs (a CPU and GPU combined in to one chip) that would work really well for you.



Nov 18, 12 at 8:05am
WingZero259

quote hiigaran
so how much money are you willing to spend?
If I can make payments it doesn't really matter. I don't mind paying for something nice. But as far as cash in hand only a couple hundred bucks.



Nov 17, 12 at 1:57pm
harbin

That would largely depend on what he needs the laptop for. Chromebook is fine for largely browsing the internet and listening to music but since everything sits in the cloud he would require constant internet access. I know it uses a version of Linux but I'm not entirely sure how it works if you lose connectivity. If he was gonna use a Linux OS then I'd recommend something else than that TBH.



Nov 17, 12 at 1:45pm
10jdrole

If you absolutely need a laptop right now, just get a chrome book. They're affordable, pretty reliable, and have decent batter life. IIRC, Samsung has one for 250. In the meantime, you could save your money for something better.



Nov 17, 12 at 5:57am
hiigaran

so how much money are you willing to spend?



Nov 17, 12 at 12:07am
WingZero259

I've heard plenty of "horror stories" about RTO but really what choice do I have? Sure I could save but I need to still finish school, I can't go an entire semester or more without a laptop. I barely get by getting to the library and mooching off friends as it is. Based on the plan which is only 12 months, they make about $200 off me compared to the actual retail price. Being in sales formally myself I understand the verbage pretty well. It's their own version of financing. I could do the same thing at the big box stores such as BestBuy, CompUSA, etc. The only thing is their versions come in the form of a credit card. But they only approved me for $300, which won't get me much at all.


The Toshiba Tech on the phone told me it sounds like it needs a new motherboard. It shuts off randomly and when it turns on the screen sometimes won't work. He said it would need to be diagnosed to be for sure though. It costs $250 for them to do a diagnostic including shipping costs. That $250 will be applied towards the repair work as well; which he said could cost as much as $700. This laptop cost around that when it came out, so I don't see a reason to invest in it further.

It makes sense that due to the strides in technology the Pentium would be on par to my Core 2 Duo. I will look at Intel's site and I guess compare side by side the Pentiums and my current Core 2 Duo to see which comes out more as an upgrade. However if the money is not far off, I may stretch for the i3. I will eliminate the AMDs completely out of the equation if I can't get any real information on them.



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