Opinion between 2 laptops

[Faust]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ37M9296

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8H53DV8519

This is for a guy I've done some Solidworks work for over the years who I've been helping learn the basics of said software. He wants this for traveling so he can use his airport and flight time to work with it (Solidworks), hence the tiny screen size (even though I've said with my bad eyes trying to model parts on a screen that size would drive me nuts, he must have eagle eyes or something).

Anyways, the SSD on the HP is attractive but my past experience with entry level HP/Compaq has me leery. Plus, 180GB makes me think this is an oddball SSD. Graphics performance isn't really that important as I've seen his software version (2011) run on 8 year old laptops with Intel HD graphics and he's not going to be modeling highly complex parts and/or assemblies at this point. I haven't tried finding a hierarchal CPU chart yet.

Beyond that, any advice?



Thank you :)

[YeOldeStonecat]

I am a huge fan of Lenovo Thinkpad series. (typing from my trusty old T431S right now)
However...I'd bump up the model...if he wants a little X ultra portable, at least bump it up to a model with an Intel CPU, and at least 8 gigs of RAM. Skip that el cheapo one.

[Philip]

I use a Lenovo Yoga 3-11 ... It is with an Intel Core M processor: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/yoga-laptop-series/yoga-3-11/

8 GB RAM, 180GB SSD, very light, decent battery life. The screen is not that great compared to my old Sony Vaio, but I love the size/weight of the lappy, I can't see myself lugging a 14" laptop with those huge power supply bricks anymore. I like the fact it has no fan as well.

I agree w Brian you should opt for 8GB of RAM and maybe a bit more powerful processor.

[Easto]

My wife's son bought her an HP 17in laptop about 4 years ago. When she showed it to me I sort of cringed. I swapped out the HDD for a 7200rpm, bumped up the memory as much as I could and it turned out to be a nice little workhorse. I really couldn't say anything bad about that thing.

[Faust]

Thanks for the advice, guys! Only problem is I've already exceeded his budget by $100. This machine will pretty much just for his CAD tinkering while he travels, maybe email as well. He has an Asus lappy that is his workhorse (maybe 1 year old). I told him he may need to add more RAM if Solidworks is like a slideshow when panning/rotating. I'm leaning towards the Lenovo as the (physical) build is more robust, but application load times and overall performance would be faster on the HP (but to your point, Easto I can't shake the initial groan). My unknown being if the chip/sets are garbage for that price.

Maybe tell him to wait until after x-mas and see what's what? He already has an older 15" Thinkpad for this purpose but hates he can't use it on the plane. Could maybe nab an Intel at the same or lower price point?

[Philip]

I imagine there will be some deals to be had next Friday-Monday ? Black Friday and Cyber Monday have to still stand for something, hehe. I'd wait until then at least.


The first laptop you were looking at has an AMD A4-5000 CPU, seems it is a bit slower than Intel Core i3 --> http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A4-5000+APU&id=2005

The second one (HP) has an AMD A10 PRO-7350B CPU... The performance is more comparable to an Intel Core I5 --> http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A10+PRO-7350B+APU&id=2271 It would do the job CPU-wise, but I'd definitely swap the RAM to 8GB if supported. Just my 2c.

I still like Lenovo in general, just comparing those two particular models.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Thanks for the advice, guys! Only problem is I've already exceeded his budget by $100. This machine will pretty much just for his CAD tinkering while he travels

I get that often.,"budget".."price"..."too expensive"
Can pay now and be happy and productive with the product, or pay much more later in repairs...frustration, and end up with really bad "ROI".

If budget is such a driving force...I'd rather get a used Thinkpad versus just about any other laptop new. Lenovo has a factory outlet, plenty of reseller outlets for off-lease or returned Lenovo Thinkpad products.

Problem I have with the AMD based computers....while technically some of the AMD CPUs get sorta almost close to Intels in performance...the rest of the hardware is usually budget el cheapo crap. Motherboard chipset is lower quality, hard drives are slower, 1 year drives, wireless chipset is realsuck or atheros crap, overall it lowers the bar of quality for the whole rest of the laptop.

[Faust]

Much appreciated, guys. As luck would have it, today Newegg has a "Shell Shocker" sale for a HP 12.5 Elitebook (i5, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Win7 Pro) for $299. If I talk to him today I'll point it out to him, else I'll recommend he wait for something with the build quality we all agree upon.

Thanks again for the advice :)