Help Choosing a Laptop

fergiesfolly

I'm looking to buy a laptop for my daughter.
Had settled on a Lenovo G580, but there's two variants for it.
One has a
Intel® Core™ i3-3110M processor
and the other
Dual-core Intel® Pentium® B960 processor

Which is the one to go for, keeping in mind that the first has 6gb memory and the second, only 4.

Thanks

uncle_sam_ie

The i3 is better but, what she going to do with it? If she is only surfing the web and going a bit of word processing then she that won't need that much power. What's the price on them?

fergiesfolly

€419 for the B960 version and €469 for the i3-3110.
Want something that won't show its age 10 minutes after buying it.
There's only 4gb memory on the i3 version, but thats an easier upgrade if needed later.

invaderzimirl

well heres a direct comparison on the processors from intel
ark from intel

just with a quick look it looks the I3 is a better CPU on all fronts

Speed,Threads, cache etc you can read on

uncle_sam_ie

Go with the i3 it has more horsepower with a HD Graphics 4000 and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology.

Zillah

Unless she's doing graphic design, video editing or computer gaming then she's not going to notice any difference between 6 and 4 GB of RAM, but the processor will have an impact on everything. Go with the i3 unless she's likely to be doing anything like the above.

fergiesfolly

Thanks for the replies.
i3 it is.

fergiesfolly

Thought I had my decision made, but someone pointed out two laptops in Argos with almost identical specs to the Lenovo.
One is a HP Pavillion G6 and the other a Toshiba C50.
Are these any better as regards build quality, longevity etc.
Thanks again

invaderzimirl

what are the specs?

if your looking for better prices go to laptopsdirect.ie get best prices.

for us to help you should prob say what the budget is and what the uses for the laptop will be.

and for how long do you think a lets say €500 laptop should live a usable life

fergiesfolly

Intel® Core™ i3-3110M processor
1tb hdd
4gb memory
Budget is €500
For regular day to day usage but that could be upgraded in time if needed.
I'd hope it would last 5 years or so....secondary school

invaderzimirl

if you want 5 years life from a laptop, you will need to spend a lot more then €500
i have a laptop they is 5 years old but i payed about €1300 for it now i dont use that one often but it still works ok but has battery issues as you would expect on any laptop over 2 years

with laptops you only low level tech upgrades you can do is Ram and or hard drive.

anything else is generally not worth upgrading due to price.

fergiesfolly

I've had a Dell Inspiron 6400 for around 6-7 years.
Never had a single issue with it.
Installed extra memory and solid hdd and switched to Windows 7 over the years, but only because I was bored, not because it needed it.
It cost a lot less than €500 and has outlasted a lot of newer fancier models.
I think you'll keep any decent laptop if its treated with care and maintained over its lifetime(this last bit's for my daughter)
Now, any advice on the models I've mentioned?

uncle_sam_ie

Unless she's going to do any kind of video or photo editing I'd go with the Toshiba.

TerrorFirmer

Serious over exaggeration here, no reason a solid i3 laptop won't last for years. For casual use - web browsing, youtube, media, whatever, 4 and 5 year - and above - old Core 2 cpu's are still perfect.

Also 4 vs 6GB will make zero difference, either now or years down the line, for casual use.