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Question

Help with laptop for university

Aug 25, 2016 2:21PM PDT

Hi,

I need to decide on buying a laptop for university, definitely under £500. I will be using it mainly for work (MS Office), web browsing and streaming, and would like it to be able to handle many different tasks at once (such as several tabs). I have it narrowed down to two:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-yoga-510-14-2-in-1-black-10146159-pdt.html
LENOVO YOGA 510 14" 2 in 1, AMD A9-9410 APU, 1TB HDD

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-pavilion-15-au078sa-15-6-laptop-gold-10146521-pdt.html
HP Pavilion 15-au078sa, Intel® Core™ i5-6200U Processor, 256 SSD.

As far as I can tell, the only major difference are in cpu and HDD/SSD. I don't think I'd need anywhere near 256gb (and would be willing to buy an external drive later). Can someone please tell me which laptop is likely to handle more demanding tasks better? And whether one laptop would be better for light gaming (not to be used for games often at all).

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Not much has changed.
Aug 25, 2016 3:11PM PDT

The ability to have open many apps and tabs is something we had a decade ago. You have very current laptops so that's covered. While HP lost me over not honoring warranties, that means I'd get the Lenovo.

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Difference in speeds
Aug 26, 2016 2:34AM PDT

Would the AMD's higher clock speeds (2.9ghz, raised to 3.5ghz) not produce a substantial increase in performance over the intel's speed (2.2ghz to 2.8ghz)? (sorry i know very little about computers)

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With the apps you have listed you
Aug 26, 2016 6:01AM PDT

the processor you won't be using the extra clock speed so it's not much of an advantage. You didn't say that you would be talking it to class and using for note talking. If you are the more mobile PC might be a better one for u which means weight and battery life are more important than processing power.

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With video streaming
Aug 26, 2016 6:32AM PDT

Thank you for your advice, it's really helped me out. I'm not definitely veering towards the Lenovo. I just have one last issue.

Reading through some posts online, it seems to me that amd processors aren't as good for streaming videos on the internet as intel, which for me is a crucial factor. Do you think the AMD A9 will suffice for high resolution streaming?

Thanks

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Somewhere back in time
Aug 26, 2016 8:45AM PDT

Somewhere about the Core2Duo 2009 or prior we could play 1080p content with ease. You are looking at machines much faster and generations above those days.

My son had a nice AMD A8 which he did everything on. Gaming, videos, more. You're picking a better one from my reading.

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According to cpubenchmark.net ..
Aug 26, 2016 7:48PM PDT

... the Core i5 has about 1.5 time the processing power of the AMD A9. The core i5 has 4 processing cores to the AMD's 2. The Core i5 is also more energy efficient: 15w vs 25w for the AMD.

If I were you I'd keep shopping, and try to get a better mix of light weight, 2-in-1, touch screen, battery life, ssd and processing power.

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Answer
Perf wise
Aug 26, 2016 1:33PM PDT

The I5 wins.
It has a larger screen but it weighs more.
It has a ssd vs a 5400 rpm hdd.
It does not have a touch screen.
It has an optical unit.

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Answer
Either is good
Aug 26, 2016 11:08PM PDT

It seems to me that there are three main issues, of which you have identified two.

Processor: I would always go for Intel over AMD performance wise (and therefore how much you can do with them) Intel always wins. I have an Asus laptop with an AMD A8-4500, running at 1.9-2.9 GHz, Windows 7 and frankly, I'm disappointed with its performance - a 10 year old single core Intel Centrino, running at 1.5 GHz boots faster! Now some of this is probably due to all the junk Asus load on to their machines, which I haven't cleaned off yet. Even running applications, the intel machine is no laggard but obviously won't do as much in parallel.

HDD/SSD: I was late to the game on SSDs but my most recent machine (I rarely bu new but for what you want, the warranty is way more important than saving a few quid) has one and the difference it makes in a Windows environment is little short of staggering! Not so much in a Linux environment, my initial RAM disk load probably negates it for the software , though not for the data. You will be surprised how quickly your 256 GB disappears!
And please, whichever you choose, do make sure you make regular backups, your university work is way too important to lose. Maybe even more so on the SSD, where a failure can be catastrophic. As Bob P. always says, what we don't backup, we lose.

Weight: If you intend carrying this machine to classes, you will notice the difference. 15.6" laptops, even the thin ones, are bulky and relatively heavy.

Disclaimer: while I have no connection with the company, I am a great fan of Lenovo machines, going back to when they were IBM.

My personal opinion, your mileage may vary, given the two machines you name, I would probably go with the Lenovo, especially if I could find the Intel processor version for around the same price.

Good luck and success in your studies.