Dilemma- levelheaded advice appreciated

Right, my budget has been busted and I'm down to 700quid for my new lappie and am looking at the Asus F3JP (AP104C) which looks pretty darn solid for that price. However, I can also get the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xa1526 for the same price (specs below!). That is the dilemma, and in posting in this forum I'm obviously most tempted by the Asus

(1) The main differences between the two are GPU: the Asus has a X1700, which with hypermemory is listed as 512mb. By comparison the Amilo has a GeForce 7600 (256mb) which I've read is significantly weaker, correct?

(2) Also, I'd appreciate some advice on processor speeds: the Asus has Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T5500, i.e. 1.66GHz, whilst the Amilo has AMD X2 TL56 2.0GHz Dual Core. I'm not too steady on Intel-AMD differences- is it significant?


Essentially it seems like I'm facing a tradeoff between faster GPU and slower CPU or slower GPU and faster CPU! Which is better for gaming? I want to run Oblivion on this thing, albeit on low settings (if it can handle that anything else will be fine methinks )


(3) Any significant heating issues with the Asus, or Amilo?

(4) Any significant stability issues?

(5) Soundcards! Anything I should be aware of, particularly with regards to gaming?


Many thanks! Reason I'm posting here is that I'm hoping for some real-life experiences on the Asus as I've spent the weekend reading benchmarks etc!



PS both machines seem very similar; 2Gig RAM, 160GB HD @ 5400rpm etc. Not concerned about different sceen sizes etc

Asus: http://www.techfever.co.uk/products.asp?partno=211480
Amilo: http://business.fujitsu-siemens-sho...edirect=1&idManufacturer=1222&idRange=1750571

PPS I apologise for such a long post

 

ATi is a little faster than the nVidia (a good bit of extra speed). HOWEVER, The Intel processor is quite a bit faster than the AMD (a lot). With the Fujitsu you are paying for the name and style (probably a little bit better build quality). The F3T is a very solid laptop, though, and I think would serve you best for the money.

 

For games, I would always suggest faster GPU and slower CPU over faster CPU and slower GPU. Games nowadays do not use the full juice out of the CPU; but they do out of the GPU.

I do not know exactly the differences between the AMD and Intel notebook CPUs; although I agree with Alex it's likely that the Intel is (much?) faster due to better architecture. Usually, the Intels will draw up less power and heat up less, as well. But I'm not too up to date with this sort of thing, so I might be wrong.

I don't know. Usually notebook sound is cr_ppy out of the notebook speakers, but with headphones or external speakers the quality becomes decent (without being extraordinary).

 

The Merom Core 2 Duos can almost hang with the AMD desktop processors (note, almost) whereas the Turions (while still very fine processors) are in a different league (not really close in performance, pretty much made to be cool running, low voltage things.) I would say the 1.66 Merom is about a 2.2-2.3 Tyler...I have a question though...the TL56 is a 1.8GHz processor, you have it as a 2.0GHz...are you sure that is a correct spec?

 

The Asus has the edge, the X1700 is faster than the Go 7600, even the C2D 1.66 should match the X2 2.0 speed, or even exceed it. Because the desktop C2D is faster than any of the AMD processors.

With both laptops I would suggest using a good pair of headphones for your needs. Speakers won't cut it, but use them when you don't feel like using your headphones.

 

Thanks for the input fellas. Asus it is then!

Darn I miss the days when higher numbers meant better performance