BoxheadTim said:
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
If you're buying new, anything Ryzen 3xxx is good vs similar spec Intel. I'd avoid Ryzen 1xxx and 2xxx by now (first and second generation of the current AMD processors), they're not that much cheaper but perform noticeably worse.
That said, given the requirements, pretty much any half decent current laptop model will do.
Those are desktop processors. Confusing. But a Ryzen 3xxx laptop processor is a 2nd gen Ryzen and not so great compared with intel.
Basically, you want a 4xxx AMD laptop processor right now, they are the ones outperforming intel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryzen#Mobile_4 You can compare to an Intel i3/i5/i7/i9 - 9xxx with similar number of cores/threads. It appears to be difficult to find this in chart form.
Further complicating things, lots of manufacturers will still have previous gen mobile processors from both manufacturers for sale (and intel has a LOT of iterations of the i series processors), so check google to make sure they are recent. I think the Intel mobile stuff right now is Coffee Lake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Lake#Mobile_processors. The older ones will have adequate performance, but in general with mobile stuff the power performance has been making huge gains each generation recently.
Core for core, the AMD has a slight advantage, but its also able to offer more cores for a significant advantage, and is more power efficient from what I understand. For your needs though, if you find a good machine that has Intel, go for it. Just don't turn down an AMD chip thinking its bad.
If you think the above is bad, video card naming/numbering convention is way worse :(
In reply to ProDarwin :
Thanks, that adds a bit of clarity.
Bumping this back up. Is laptop a availability any better now than it was 6-months ago?
I saw a bunch of Black Friday specials after a quick search, but I imagine most of those are pretty low-end(though I didn't look at specs on any of them).
Ok, so surfing around I found this $799 Asus:
- 4th Gen AMD Ryzen 7 4700U 2.0GHz Processor (upto 4.10 GHz, 8MB Cache, 8-Cores) ; AMD Radeon Graphics Integrated Graphics
- 12GB DDR4 RAM (8GB Onboard + 4GB SODIMM) ; 802.11ax Wifi, Bluetooth 5.0, 720p HD Webcam, Fingerprint Security System, Backlit Keyboard
- 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) Display; 45W Power Supply, 3-Cell 42 WHr Battery; Black Color
- 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD; USB 3.1 Gen1, 2 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI, USB 3.1 Type-C Gen1, SD Reader, Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack.
- Windows 10 Home-64, 1 Year Manufacturer warranty from DealKing (Professionally upgraded by DealKing)
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Hardware availability in general is still patchy - I'm trying to upgrade one machine and build a second one, and right now it looks like the second one is on hold due to unavailability of parts, and the first one required me to cobble together parts from multiple sources including eBay. I don't expect laptop availability to be much better.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
The Asus is a no-brainer in that comparison. The RAM can be upgraded past 12GB, and at the same price that's an easy trade for the better display and bigger SSD. I can't believe it's 2020 and people are still making 1366x768 displays.
Duke
MegaDork
11/19/20 6:49 a.m.
In reply to szeis4cookie (Forum Supporter) :
Plus, I have owned 1 HP laptop in my life and it was a cheap piece of crap, and felt like it.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
There has been a lot of laptop buying chatter here on GRM lately. That link should take you to two thread you might find helpful.
Well I finally pulled the trigger. New Egg has this Acer on sale today for $649:
Acer Laptop Aspire 5 A515-55-78S9 Intel Core i7 10th Gen 1065G7 (1.30 GHz) 12 GB Memory 512 GB PCIe SSD Intel Iris Plus Graphics 15.6" Windows 10 Home 64-bit
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Big screen, big processor, big ram, big ssd. Should be good for a long time.
John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:
If my 4 yr old Lenovo Think Pad computer crapped out, I would highly consider another Lenovo. There are fancier and flashier laptops out there but I like the "business sensible" design of my Lenovo. It has been trouble free too.
If I were spec'ing a laptop, and being price conscious, I would log onto NewEgg or similar and choose:
- Intel i3 processor (sure an i5 or i7 might be better but will cost more and my computer needs are basic)
- As much Ram as possible. Min of 8gb but 16gb would be better
- A 256gb Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Lenovo
On NewEgg, those specs are $302 for refurb or $675 for new
One thing I would change about my laptop is the fact that the camera is very low spec. That has never been an issue but now in this world of daily Zoom meetings, a better camera would be nice. True, I could add a remote camera via usb.
Mine is a Lenovo Thinkpad T440p , there is a large group of people running these and a website that tells you what you can upgrade and part numbers , plus lots of YouTube videos,
it also can have a DVD player if you want or Intel i3 , i5 , i7
and 2 sizes of battery and $45 replacementson Amazon
Jake
Dork
12/1/20 8:39 a.m.
Good call on the Acer. I bought a fairly similar one a while back (6mo?) because I needed an actual computer instead of a chromebook to get into my work PC remotely. I got a pretty basic one with decent RAM and added a $100 SSD for several more GB of storage, because I occasionally dust off a guitar and try to record something. I'm into the laptop itself for about $650-700 total and I seriously doubt I'll need anything else for quite some time.
I upgraded my home office space with a couple of big monitors and I use it to drive those every day - it's never had an issue, though it had a couple of initial quirks with configuration that I had to figure out. Nothing major, just settings.
