£500 i3 Laptop

Epyon · 10 Oct 2010 at 17:01

Hey guys,

I've got a friend who wants a new university laptop with dedicated graphics for light gaming and media. She also wants an i3. Budget is 450 to 500 tops.

Any ideas?

themadhaggis · 11 Oct 2010 at 22:18

Lenovo ideapad Z560 can be had for under £450 and is a nice bit of kit.

Epyon · 12 Oct 2010 at 01:24

Thanks guys! She bought it, she's considering getting more RAM in future, as it's DDR3 do I opt for 3 GB or 6 GB or will 4GB be fine?

Epyon · 12 Oct 2010 at 17:19

Sorry guys, just need an answer to my last post.

bulb66 · 12 Oct 2010 at 18:11

Hi,

Well as it has a 64bit OS going for 3GB would be pointless so 4GB is the way i would go.

J

Epyon · 12 Oct 2010 at 18:23

Oh okay, I thought for DDR3 it needed to be multiples of 3 (read it somewhere ...)

olivier renault · 13 Oct 2010 at 00:34

na, it's just the technology. Usually, it's multiple of 2's for dual channel capabilities, or 3 for triple channel memory controllers (Intel i7).

BTW, the entertainment model with a 310M has no switchable graphics, so it will drain batteries.

Epyon · 13 Oct 2010 at 15:05

Sorry I didn't get your last point. Are all 310ms entertainment models? I didn't actually expect it to have switching but if it does it's a bonus.

olivier renault · 13 Oct 2010 at 15:21

Didn't make myself clear, but basically some Z560 don't have dedicated graphics cards (the i3-330M). The ones with dedicated graphics cards ('entertainment'

) will have poor battery life, if it matters or not.

jack.mitchell · 13 Oct 2010 at 15:51

Acer Aspire 5741, 15.6" LED LCD Notebook, 3GB, 320GB, Intel Core i3 processor 330M , Windows 7 Home Premium

This can be had for £420. Just bought one for a mate and it's a cracking bit of kit.

Epyon · 14 Oct 2010 at 12:25

olivier renault said:
Didn't make myself clear, but basically some Z560 don't have dedicated graphics cards (the i3-330M). The ones with dedicated graphics cards ('entertainment' ) will have poor battery life, if it matters or not.

From what I can tell it has a 310 so u hope that's the case.

Battery isn't going to be a major issue as such. As long as it can do 2 hours +.