Best laptop specs out of these two (AMD-10 8600P vs i7-6th gen) & other specs?

[Red_Rattler]

Looking what people's opinion are best out of these two laptops with these main specs

LAPTOP 1 / LAPTOP 2
(I can't find any info on the brand's website for Laptop 2 yet)

• i7-6700HQ Processor (6M cache, up to 3.5Ghz) / • AMD A10-8700P

• NVidia GeForc GTX 950M graphics with 4,096 GDDR3 video memory / • 2GB Radeon R7 graphics

• 8GB RAM / • 16GB RAM

• Both: 2TB HDD, Windows 10

Battery: • 4 cell, 41 Wh Li-on / • I was told Laptop 2 has a 6 cell battery.​

(Notes:: Laptop 1 shows Intel Core i7-6700HQ HD Graphics 530 (2.6Ghz up to 3.5 Ghz, 6MB cache, 4 cores, but according to a search Intel HD Graphics 530 is intergrated, even though it says the NVidia card is dedicated.
Laptop 1 has a FHD screen, but one retailer for Laptop 2 claims a FHD screen on the info sheet, but another shows it as only a HD screen[/I])

Thanks

 

[JCitron]

The Intel i7-6th Generation (Skylake) CPUs has integrated video on the CPU now. Your laptop, however, that you spec'd out has a dedicated video card /chip as well. To enable this board, you would need to hit a keyboard combo or set the video preference in the BIOS. I'm not sure since it's been awhile since I dealt with this. Lenovo's old T400s had this if I remember, but those machines are like 6 years old now, I think.

Since I have a preference of Intel and NVidia over AMD, I would go with the Intel machine. That would be a nice machine, as that 950M is not a bad chip, though the 980s are much better. The issue I have with the Intel machine is the smaller amount of RAM. If that can be upgraded to 16GB that would really help.

You may find this interesting. The 970m is the equivalent to my 780TI which was their high end video card before the NVidia GTX 980 came out. This is actually a nice video card and runs T:ANE fine for others that have one as well as it does for me.

According to Notebook Check.net http://www.notebookcheck.net/

This is in the high-end range of mobile chips and is in the "Class 1" category
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970.146750.0.html

The AMD R7-series are mid-range chips and in the "Class 2" category

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-R7-M260.122208.0.html


You may want to poke around their website as they have good reviews and comparisons of the hardware you are looking at.

John

 

[johnwhelan]

I would also go Intel, one or two people are happy with TANE on the highest spec intel graphics, Integrated: Iris Pro Graphics 6200, with the sliders set back. I probably wouldn't be.

Cheerio John

 

[Red_Rattler]

Now let's try what I was going to write about 9 hours ago, without my post disappearing before it's finished this time - not that I can remember exactly what I wrote 9 hours ago!

The Intel i7-6th Generation (Skylake) CPUs has integrated video on the CPU now. I'm not sure since it's been awhile since I dealt with this. Lenovo's old T400s had this if I remember, but those machines are like 6 years old now, I think.

You said it's been quite a while now, are you trying to say that Laptop 1 as i call it may be an older model?

They know their are better graphics in other laptops, but very hard to get around locally, and the ones that do, you need a crane to lift them - And one of them you need two cranes!

Here are the two that they're looking at, but first, Laptop one said they're only get just under $60 "off", while Laptop 2 was $300 "off" the RRP.
Laptop 1: http://tinyurl.com/qapewh9
Laptop 2: http://tinyurl.com/o68yodp
(We can't find any info on the 2nd laptop on the official website)

Only issue with Laptop 1 is that someone "stupidly" made the characters on the key hard to see. (Why would you have dark green on black keys & background??!)
The best laptop for them is a 17.3 inch FHD screen, with 16GB RAM, but that's just too heavy.

Oh yeah, one retailer (& SOME websites) claim that AMD A10 is equivalent to i5 not i7 (And I suppose they chose a lower case "i" so it doesn't get confused with a lower case "L".)

 

[JCitron]

Now let's try what I was going to write about 9 hours ago, without my post disappearing before it's finished this time - not that I can remember exactly what I wrote 9 hours ago!

You said it's been quite a while now, are you trying to say that Laptop 1 as i call it may be an older model?

They know their are better graphics in other laptops, but very hard to get around locally, and the ones that do, you need a crane to lift them - And one of them you need two cranes!

Here are the two that they're looking at, but first, Laptop one said they're only get just under $60 "off", while Laptop 2 was $300 "off" the RRP.
Laptop 1: http://tinyurl.com/qapewh9
Laptop 2: http://tinyurl.com/o68yodp
(We can't find any info on the 2nd laptop on the official website)

Only issue with Laptop 1 is that someone "stupidly" made the characters on the key hard to see. (Why would you have dark green on black keys & background??!)
The best laptop for them is a 17.3 inch FHD screen, with 16GB RAM, but that's just too heavy.

Oh yeah, one retailer (& SOME websites) claim that AMD A10 is equivalent to i5 not i7 (And I suppose they chose a lower case "i" so it doesn't get confused with a lower case "L".)

No. Your laptop No. 1 is not an older model. Intel has been doing this for sometime with their integrated video which at one time was on the motherboard as a separate chip and now included on the CPU die. This makes for faster performance from the Intel Graphics chips-video, but it's still a limited graphics set compared to the better NVidia choice.

Yes, I have one of those beastly laptops; it weighs in a 17.25 kg. It's an older Alienware M17x which still runs TS12 well for its age, but would probably work as a space heater if I were to run T:ANE on it.

I understand on the keyboard; I have one of those also, though my keyboard can light up. Does this keyboard light up?

The AMD A10 is not even close to an i7 other than for graphics performance, and this is for the older 2nd-generation i7 processors.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/521/AMD_A10-Series_A10-5800K_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-2600K.html

Intel has always used a lowercase "i" for this series probably because of that reason if someone used a sans-serif font, such as Arial, Helvetica, or one of the many others, this would be difficult to tell the difference. If I typed an uppercase, (I didn't look back) it's because my browser likes to spell-check and fix things and I may have put a space between the dash.

Even though you are getting a "better" deal" with laptop #2, I would still go with laptop #1. The specs are better even with the RAM, which you can upgrade anyway by spending a few bucks online to replace or add a DIMM.

John

 

[Red_Rattler]

Hi JCitron,

We've been in contact with HP about upgrading the RAM to 16, and here is their reply

"Pavilion are none customizable notebook"

"The only laptops we can customize in AU are our business laptops such HP ProBooks, HP EliteBooks and HPZBooks"

We find it very odd that you can't upgrade it - even cheaper laptops can be upgraded.

 

[JCitron]

Hi JCitron,

We've been in contact with HP about upgrading the RAM to 16, and here is their reply




We find it very odd that you can't upgrade it - even cheaper laptops can be upgraded.

Yup. I agree. My brother got a cheapo laptop as a controller for his laser. It came with 2GB of RAM and he easily popped the cover off and upgraded it to 8GB. There was also a warning about opening up the machine and touching the innards.

I will add that if you went with their AMD chip you would be frustrated with its performance because it's older technology.

This is typical of HP anyway. They always start of with nice spec, which are really good on that machine, but find away to chintz somewhere else.

Knowing this, I would look elsewhere. You know the old saying when something looks like a good deal it usually isn't.


John

 

[johnwhelan]

I brought the lowest low end Dell about six years ago with the minimum memory etc, the wife still uses it though these days it has its memory taken to the max, Win 10 and an SSD runs quite nicely for just general use. I also brought a low end HP the cheapest they had earlier this year with an AMD processor. The old Dell runs rings round it performance wise even though it has 4 gigs of memory.

Currently Dell Au have a Boxing day sale, http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15-5558-laptop/pd?oc=y510452au&model_id=inspiron-15-5558-laptop looks interesting at 40% off. There are some others around as well. The Dells I've brought over the years seem to be reliable and I have a soft spot for them.

There are a number of Dell laptops on sale mostly 15% off until Dec 31st and they take paypal.

I'm trying to think of the last time I brought something computer wise that wasn't over the Internet and I don't think I can remember.

Have fun.

Cheerio John

 

[Red_Rattler]

Laptop 3? (960M, but only 2GB graphics)?

We've found a third laptop, but compared to Laptop 1, that has 960M Graphics, but it's only 2GB instead of 4GB, and only has 1TB HDD.

Would 960M be better, even though it's half the GB graphics than laptop 1 as described?