CPU and RAM questions

Whats the top CPUs for a laptop. I am so out of the loop i really have no idea.

is it
i7
i5
i3
other intel CPU

Is AMD still behind?


what's a good amount of RAM for windows 7. 2,3,4,6,8. whats the max?

Don't worry about use.

 

i7 is the top. AMD is still behind, but not as much.

Also, there are dual core and quad core i7s. The laptops with quads all have bad battery life due to switchable graphics being impossible on the quads.

 

thanks, I don't stay update anymore and over the last few years so much has changed.

my dad is asking for help with a laptop and figure i need to brush up a little. so many intel chips out there with strange model numbers.

 

Oh, and 3-4GB is good for Windows 7 64-bit. Even 2GB works, but with most brands you really need to do a clean install to keep memory usage down.

What is this laptop going to be used for?

 

thanks.

costco has Dell 8GB, i5 450M 17" laptop Integrated Intel® GMA HD Graphics for 799

and a HP i5-460M 6GB 17" with 512 ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 Graphics for 899 or a i5-580M for the same price (but will take 2+ weeks to get).


For the price i don't think i have seen a better computer. I'm thinking either will be a good computer for everyday use for many years to come.

his last computer was a Dell Latitude D505.

 

I suggest filling out the FAQ (in the What I Should Buy subforum).

 

i did fill that out

 

Erm, not really. AMD is still trounced in the mobile space... well in performance anyway. Price is the only reason to opt for an AMD laptop (if you can find one)

They have slow-clocked quad cores but they suffer from really poor single-threaded performance. It really is worth spending a hundred bucks more on a i5.

AMD upcoming products (e.g. mobile version of Bulldozer) do look like a lot more of a challenge to Intel, but that's not for a while yet.

 

Yeah, but the quads at least beat most i5s and i3s in multithreaded tasks.

 

Those are probably overkill for simple everyday stuff, actually.

 

If you can get the i5 580 for the same price as the 460, then do that. The difference is the clockspeeds with and without Turbo. i5 460 is 2.5-2.8Ghz while the 580 is 2.6-3.3Ghz.

They do seem like overkill for everyday fatherly use (does your dad play games, do video editing or CAD drawings?) and the battery life on a 17" i5 isn't going to be more than 3 hours if that. There are 15" and even 14" models out there that can nearly double the battery life go for the same price, maybe a bit less and it's a lot easier to take around a 4.5 lb 14" laptop than a 7 lb 17".

I always suggest to people to find a screen size they like and find a specific model with that size. You'll find nearly all i3 and i5 processors in all sizes, RAM and hard drives can easily be upgraded but for casual use, don't need to.