dv6t with Core i5 vs. dv6-3010us with Turion II

I would appreciate any thoughts on which is a better deal: 1) dv6t with i5-430M with Turbo Boost for $667 from HP, or 2) dv6-3010us with AMD Turion II P520 Processor for $580 from Staples. Is it worth the extra $90 or so to get the Intel i5 and bigger hard drive? However, the dv6-3010us has the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics card. Is Intel still the way to go? Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you.


1) HP Pavilion dv6t customizable Notebook PC
black cherry
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430M Dual Core processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.53GHz
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Intel(R) HD Graphics
15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision Webcam + Digital Microphone
Intel Wireless-N Card
Full-size island-style keyboard
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Estimated build date: July 14, 2010

Price: $829.99
Discount: -$33.20
APP Price: $796.79
Notebook instant rebate: –$30.00
Notebook instant rebate: –$100.00
Price after savings: $666.79


2) HP Pavilion dv6-3010us
Processor AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile P520 Processor
Memory (RAM) 4GB
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Expandable to 8GB
Hard Drive Size 320GB
Hard Drive Type SATA
Optical Drive LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVDñR/RW with Double Layer Support
Display Size 15.6"
Display Type High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Battery Type 6-Cell 55WHr Lithium-Ion
Network Card Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
Video Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 Graphics with 128MB Display Cache Memory
Other ports 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader
# of USB slots 4
Bluetooth Enabled Yes
HP TrueVision Webcam with integrated digital microphone

Reg: $699.98
Save: -$41.00
Now: $658.98
Instant Savings: -$79.00
Price after savings: $579.98

 

What do you plan to use the laptop for?

Gaming? Web Browsing/Email? School work? Heavy multitasking?

For simple web browsing and email and a little light gaming, i would go with the AMD setup.

If you need something for more intensive stuff, either upgrade the AMD processor or go with the Intel i5.

 

What video card does the one from HPs site have? It's not the 5650 that the SE version does, is it?

 

Thank you. I don't plan on doing any gaming, mostly web browsing, email, spreadsheets, etc. The dv6t on the HP web site offers the 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5470 for $75.00. I'm concerned that the AMD Turion II processor will be a lot slower than the Intel i5. Is that true? I'm also under the impression (right or wrong) that the Turion II is an older processor and, in general , AMD is inferior to Intel.

 

For email, web browsing and spreadsheets the Turion should be more than enough. The i5 is still superior though.

An equivalent AMD cpu to the Intel i5 430 would be an, AMD Phenom triple core or quad core. P820, M830, P920, N930 respectively.

Upgrade to the Radeon(TM) HD 5470 if you want to do light gaming. Or upgrade the Turion to a Phenom if you want more processing power.

If you are working with very large spread sheets then the more memory the laptop has the better.

 

That particular Turion II is actually brand new. Of course, it's still behind that i5, but the difference is only very noticeable in heavily threaded applications.

The ATI Radeon 4250 isn't really a graphics card, by the way. It's an IGP and offers only slightly noticeable better performance than Intel HD Graphics. Both are terrible for gaming and you'll have to upgrade if you want to play most games made within the last 2-3 years. (That's being generous.)