Hey everyone,

Its great to be part of this Forum.
I'm on a budget AMD laptop quest , I need advice on which AMD processor I should look for in laptops that would rival the intel i3.

I used to follow technology but since 2006, I've haven't been catching up with all that new stuff. My friends has an HP intel i3 laptop but somehow I don't like the i3 and so I want an AMD powered laptop that would rival the i3 at or around the same budget.

I game occasionally (counterstrike condition zero) which my Pentium D handles more than sufficient. I'm more a multi-tasker and my normal routine with computer is listening to songs on itunes, Ms Office, Firefox with two or three tabs opened, editing pictures on photoshop (simple filtering stuff)...nothing more. (I do all that on my Pentium D, 1gb ram easily and so this new laptop should perform a little better than my old Intel P D desktop.

Thanks.

Edited: 11/04/2010 at 02:44 AM by 24seasons

What is your price range and size desired?

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"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners." V.I.Lenin

HP tx1000 | Touch-screen | TL-64 Tyler | 4GB RAM | SSD + HDD dual drive | 802.11n | Win7 U-64 + Vista U-64

Depending on the Pentium D model, a budget laptop isn't going to have that much more number-crunching power. However the graphics chip will be much better (generally) as will the hard drive also be faster. Make sure if you buy AMD that you get matched memory modules - no 3GB! AMD's won't do dual channel mode with asymmetrical setups.

BTW, as much as I dislike intel you would likely do better with the i3... perhaps.

well my price range would be $650 tops! whatever I may be compelled to under that range.



I'm afraid so this will have to be...unless there are more enlightening replies.

Go for a dual core with higher GHz, rather than 3 or 4 cores -- P560, N530, N550; P650, N620, N640

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/To...4144048&skuId=1261624

http://www.buy.com/prod/lenovo...oc/101/215990067.html

On HP site, try upping the CPU a bit and consider the upgraded GPU if you can afford: http://www.shopping.hp.com/web...books/AMD/dv6z_series

Some other slower possibilities:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/To...8182225&skuId=1269043

http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-pav...oc/101/217116956.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-a...oc/101/217088328.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/toshib...oc/101/217447528.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-t...loc/101/217286417.html

-------------------------
"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners." V.I.Lenin

HP tx1000 | Touch-screen | TL-64 Tyler | 4GB RAM | SSD + HDD dual drive | 802.11n | Win7 U-64 + Vista U-64

core clock speed is more important then extra cores at this time. A few games will use 3 or 4 cores but most only use 1 or 2. The AMD N650 dual core 2.9ghz will yield best gaming fps when paired with a discrete video card. HP has a DV laptop that can be made custom for $679 -- 15" screen, 2.9ghz cpu, ATI 5650, 4gb of ram, etc.

Core I3/I5/I7 are fantastic processors but ive heard they tend to run really hot. Guys on the HP forums were saying their HP I5 was running like 90C under heavy load and some guy with N950 quad core was only around 60-65C under heavy load.

Edit: just FYI, the GPU is the most important part up to a certain point. If you want gaming get the upgrade video card without hesistation. My gateway FX scored 8500 on 3dmark06 with a 2.0ghz core 2 duo, i overclocked the videocard and the score didnt change which meant the CPU was bottlenecking the Geforce 9800M. However, the integrated GPU ati 4250 will only score like 2500 -- so any modern processor will not bottle neck a low end graphics solution.

Edited: 12/16/2010 at 09:17 AM by buttons252