Core i3 or i5 Laptop, with good build quality - Minecraft, light video editing, imagine editing... e

the cpu has turbo boost, it goes much higher than that don't worry

build quality is generally good on lenovo laptops, I've owned a couple and I can vouche for it. The speakers are not really outstanding although i have't owned that model so I don't know what they are like for sure. I would go for anti glare personally but vibrant view works -and has better colour reproduction - if you don't work in direct sunlight a lot

Workmanship is very high on Lenovo, as I've heard from many people, an Notebookcheck reviews confirm that, but that e525 has some pretty bad points.

I feel like I'm back at square one. lol Surprise?
 
Last edited:
This appears to be the best out of the L755D range, unless I am wrong?

The L755-12L. A6-3400m Llanos APU. Not as good as the A8-3500m integrated GPU but still miles better in the GPU department over the Core i5-2510m's Intel HD 3000 graphics. Right? Lower base clock speed, but not by much, an it has turbo.

The only games I will probably play is Minecraft, perhaps Sims 3.

For £449, do you think this is a decent laptop? Build Quality? Performance? Thoughts please.

Sorry for the million posts as well lol.
 
If you guys were in my position, would you pick the Lenovo Z570, with Core i5 2410m and Intel HD 3000, 4GB of RAM, good keyboard, good screen, looks great for £499 (about that)...

or

Toshiba Satellite L755-12L (seems like it's only sold at a popular Indian meal, or a world of personal computers lol). Which has, Onkyo speakers, Gloss screen with anti glare coating, horrible modena red colour, but AMD A6-3400 Quad Core 1.4Ghz APU (up to 2.3Ghz, on 2 cores), with 6GB of RAM, a better 1.3mp webcam as opposed to the 0.3 on the Lenovo, 3 USB ports, 1 of which is sleep and charge which is nice, VGA, HDMI, Bluetooth, eSata, etc, but naff keyboard and one of the main things putting me off, was the the fact Toshiba don't allow Catalyst updates, so their drivers have no performance optimisation. Costs £449 from land of rice and spicy sauce, an world of Personal Computers lol.

Other than those two, I think I'm beginning to run out of options. All I want is a Notebook which has the best build quality and power for a max of £500 (no more), because there are still over priced last gen laptops and/or bad quality for bad prices and I don't want to be caught out. I also want to pick a company with good reliability, build quality and support in case anything goes wrong. ASUS is too expensive for what you get, so it's down to Core i5's with Integrated graphics or a severely limited selection of AMD Llanos APU processors from either Lenovo, which strangely don't let you customise your Ideapad's on their website in the UK, which if they did, would have left me with a Laptop already, or Toshiba with decent variety of hardware, but bad visual design and driver support and a heavy reliability on their software.

The thinkpad somebody suggested got such a low rating for visual and audio quality, I had no choice but to ignore the sweet price, 6GB of RAM and A8-3500. Sorry but I do intend to listen to a fair bit of music.

My only intention is, music, light gaming, Minecraft 95% time, watching DVDs and online HD video, some video editing like Fraps recordings of Minecraft, being edited in Virtual Dub and compressed in Handbrake, and the rest is mostly chatting, e-mail, communication (hence a better webcam, mic, speakers, etc, an a lot of use.

This isn't necessarily a desktop replacement, but I will be using these things like 14 hours a day, for many years.

Sorry for so many posts, I just need to get this choice sorted ASAP, whilst getting the best build, support, performance and design for my money. I know there is a lot of dodgy crap out there not worthy of £450-£500.

Peace :(
 
I guess you could go for the Lenovo Ideapad Z570 with the i3 2310, 6 gigs of ram, 640gb hdd, and nvidia gt520m for £449.99 on this site I'm looking on that claims you can saveonlaptops [hic].
 
oohhhh tough choices....

Toshiba, sounds great in all departments apart from drivers, colour and keyboard.

Lenovo doesn't look like every model is exactly the same (Toshiba's more expensive laptops look the same as their low cost C660's), but really bad webcam.

Ooohhh. Choices choices.

A6-3400m vs Core i3 2310m

i3 wins, but HD 3000 loses.

Damn! ;\ lol

:D

What's better value, quality and performance? :) ty for helpin, to everyone btw :p
 
Last edited:
Looks like I'm getting the Toshiba Satellite L755-12L from place with a name similar to a world of PCs lol. Seems them and their partner company sell them.

Toshiba has the best features, and on expert reviews it got 5/5. They claimed it had a fantastic screen, an though glossy has an anti-glare coating. The only negative is no USB 3.0 and standard keyboard, with little travel in the keys but I guess it requires getting used to. Has AMD A6-3400, an whilst it's not as good as the i3's, the GPU will be decent. I also like the USB Sleep and Charge, an the 6GB of DDR3 at 1333mhz.

It's mostly for Minecraft and Web Surfing anyway, an I haven't the time to sit and read peoples objections or other suggestions, as grateful as I am. I'm going to run dban on this computer tonight, before getting rid of it.

I'll have to put up with the Modena Red, keyboard, weaker processor and Toshiba not allowing catalyst updates, but as many others have put it in other forums, if I went with a Core i5 and Intel HD 3000, I'd be in a similar situation, since they don't tend to create frequent driver releases, especially for optimisations for things such as OpenGL, which MC uses.

Hopefully it doesn't burn my legs.

Fingers crossed.

Thanks for everyone's help.
 
This is a very good call for the money.

The A6-3400 isn't a bad processor http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+A6-3400M+APU+with+Radeon+HD+Graphics

The integrated graphics card is also a lot better than the previous generation and is on par with the bog standard dedicated cards like the ati 6470. http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6520G.55734.0.html

It is much better than the intel integrated HD3000 card which also requires and i7 to get to its current position in the charts on notebook check.
 
So you agree with the Toshiba? I figured for the money, aside from the keyboard and driver thing (with Intel being similar in the OpenGL department, anyway), the keyboard and colour just require a getting used to.

Mind you, looking at the pictures, it doens't look that bad, the red is a pretty decent shade.

Yes I looked up the processor a few days back and I was pleased to see that it wasn't bottom end. Still a quad with a healthy dose of Turbo, an the graphics were just a notch down (80 pipelines off) from the top integrated graphics of the A8-3500. I think on Notebookcheck, there were 4 integrated GPU types associated with the Llanos APUs, an the A6 had the one 2nd from the top, which isn't bad at all.

I think it should play Minecraft well. I would hope it does. And it does indeed seem like a good multimedia machine. Webcam and 6GB of DDR3 at 1333mhz was nice to see as well, specially since the GPU shares memory. That's what I wasn't overly fond of with the 4GB on the Core i5 Lenovo Z570. Plus I save £50. Not ordering yet for another 1-2 weeks so fingers crossed it's still there otherwise I might be in a bit of trouble.

dbanning my computer at the moment with 7 passes. Going to flog it cheap on ebay, takes up far too much room.

:) - good times. Hopefully.

;)
 
So you agree with the Toshiba? I figured for the money, aside from the keyboard and driver thing (with Intel being similar in the OpenGL department, anyway), the keyboard and colour just require a getting used to.

Not ordering yet for another 1-2 weeks so fingers crossed it's still there otherwise I might be in a bit of trouble.
;)

Yes, get the toshiba

Just do a reserve and collect every day for 2 weeks to keep it held lol.
 
Too lazy for it, lol I'll take my chances.

I think it'll be there for some time since it's one of very few laptops - in contrast to Intel anyhow - that contain the new Llanos APU. A week or two shouldn't hurt.

Exciting times.

I'll have to let you folks know how it is - as well as it's performance on Minecraft, for those of you crazy foos who haven't played it lol - when I get it.

Thanks again.

Peace
 
Too lazy for it, lol I'll take my chances.

I think it'll be there for some time since it's one of very few laptops - in contrast to Intel anyhow - that contain the new Llanos APU. A week or two shouldn't hurt.

Exciting times.

I'll have to let you folks know how it is - as well as it's performance on Minecraft, for those of you crazy foos who haven't played it lol - when I get it.

Thanks again.

Peace

Have you actually checked to see if any stores have it in stock as you can't get it delivered and I can't find any in the south or London for reference?
 
Well the PC is unpacked and it's downstairs ready to be sold on Ebay. Did DoD 7 pass secure file deletion (1 round) on entire HDD. Took 16 n half hours but got it done. Regardless, I am still going to ebay it, an get rid of it as soon as I can. Once that is done, I'll be looking for that laptop.

If I cannot find it, I'll have to go for an i3 with 6GB of RAM, and 520m, or Intel 3000. With these integrated graphics I'd rather not waste it on a Core i5, which jacks the price up ridiculous amounts only to have 2 of the 4GB swallowed up on a weak graphics chip, which is barely capable of HD video. Rather get the weaker AMD APU with the beefier graphics and the 6GB of RAM.

That's sort of dampened my mood a bit hearing that news. The moneys in the bank, I'll just have to pick something else in 1-2 weeks or whatever.

Shame on world of pcs and Indian meals lol. Stupid companies, as ever being completely amateurish. I never did like those two.

Peace
 
Had a look about, an yes, Reserve and Collect from the two most amateurish, anti-PC, scum bag floor salesmen type, kiddy run stores on the planet, is the only option available. Why is it, these companies always insist on hardly ever delivery a thing to people?

I won't be getting that Laptop then, an you may think I'm mad but I'd rather not reserve a product which is most likely not there, (this has happened several times with those stores) only to arrive and hear them say "Oh sorry, Sir, but unfortunately that item isn't here" - he/she then thinks to themselves, *"Now we've coaxed him out, into our store and wasted petrol money and plenty of their time, they can browse for other products and hopefully spend some money in our store which for some surprising reason isn't already in administration"*.

Back at square one indeed, but part of me doesn't care. I really do despise those companies and every person who works in it.

Just need to look for some other reliable companies, with reliable, sturdy built hardware. I still can't believe why Toshiba UK, has teamed up with those two, an those alone for that particular model. That seriously limits the AMD platform for me, an Intel are miles over priced.

Might go as far as to pick previous gen i5's, with dedicated graphics. But that's one super super last resort and everything else in the Laptop must be superb, like screen, chiclet keyboard, audio, etc.

If anyone still fancies helping me on my crusade, I need the following:

Good Company with Helpful Support (telephone, hardware faults, etc)
Reliable assembly, hardware, etc
Build quality, sturdy
Good perfordmance
Good features,
Good keyboard
Good Screen
Good Audio
Good battery. 1-3 hours is laughable by todays standard.
Good selection of ports and layout
64bit OS.

I know this is possible for £450-500, but it's looking and comparing which is key. In these days, I want the best for my money, an there is a few laptops out there which ticks most of those boxes. I don't want old overpriced stuff.

Again, all I really intend on doing is playing Minecraft, maybe a bit of Sims 3, Sim City 4, Morrowind, listening to plenty of music, watching videos, chatting, sending e-mail, light video-editing, compression. Doesn't have to be a powerhouse no, but I want the most for my money, because there is a lot of old style Laptops out there with last gen stuff, bad build quality and poor features and terrible support, still in the £500 region. To those I say, I hope their company goes bust.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm glad I was made aware of their lack of simply delivery products ordered online. ;)

Peace :(
 
If anyone still fancies helping me on my crusade, I need the following:

Good Company with Helpful Support (telephone, hardware faults, etc)
Reliable assembly, hardware, etc
Build quality, sturdy
Good perfordmance
Good features,
Good keyboard
Good Screen
Good Audio
Good battery. 1-3 hours is laughable by todays standard.
Good selection of ports and layout
64bit OS.

I know this is possible for £450-500, but it's looking and comparing which is key. In these days, I want the best for my money, an there is a few laptops out there which ticks most of those boxes. I don't want old overpriced stuff.

Again, all I really intend on doing is playing Minecraft, maybe a bit of Sims 3, Sim City 4, Morrowind, listening to plenty of music, watching videos, chatting, sending e-mail, light video-editing, compression. Doesn't have to be a powerhouse no, but I want the most for my money, because there is a lot of old style Laptops out there with last gen stuff, bad build quality and poor features and terrible support, still in the £500 region. To those I say, I hope their company goes bust.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm glad I was made aware of their lack of simply delivery products ordered online. ;)

Peace :(

Want a bargain, you can get an HP ProBook 4530s i3 with HD3000 graphics for £150 after the trade ins and Cashback at the moment.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=20235139&postcount=2

HP business / corporate notebooks are a far cry from their home systems including dealing with business support. You can also pick up the extended warranties really cheap if you feel the need and I got the 3 year one for my 13” ProBook for £13

Otherwise, think Lenovo ThinkPads
 
Trade ins? Errr.. :\ rather not, an I don't like HP. Well... I do like HPs laptops but I don't like HP as a company. I do like how they're not like every other company under the sun which decides to cram in a rather pointless numeric keypad, which leaves room round the edges and more space in general. I would have got the DV6, but their support now days on the phone in regards to warranty/hardware failures is apparently terrible and is the ONLY reason why I don't pick them. Oh, an trading in my PC and paying £150, is actually more of a rip off in my opinion. At least with selling the PC off, I get some money back to cover the cost of a new Laptop. Thanks though.

When it comes to support, it has to be paramount. Companies like Lenovo, Toshiba and ASUS, are top dawg there (or so I've heard), an no chance in hell can I afford a very over priced Apple Mac - R.I.P Steve, but damn too pricey for weak hardware. Reliability is a must too, so when things do go wrong, you have peace of mind that a company with good support is going to take care of it (I intend on getting a warranty extension, after 30-50 days). I think HP take their sweet time with repairs too, if you finally convince them it wasn't your doing and that you are in fact within the warranty period.

Why business? I'm not one? Surely they know loads of regular non-business folk buy their laptops, right? I don't see why they don't just improve their overall support for home users instead.

I did think about Lenovo Thinkpads but guess what. It sucks. On Notebookcheck, the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge e525 got such a bad rating, the only decent thing was workmanship, which is understandable. The computer was powerful yes, it had a A8-3500, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, etc, but the speakers are those dreadful generic cheap-o ones, an the screen apparently is atrocious... we're talking both personal and professional reviews here, an the 30/100 on notebookcheck as well. That's no good if I intend to listen to music, watch films and play a few games. Overall, I think most of the ratings on that laptop (in all categories), apart from worksmanship, were below 60%. You might want to go check it out on the website.

I cleaned my PC out, bundled everything together downstairs and I plan to get rid of it. Ended up super dark downstairs and my camera phone sucks so I intend to ebay it tomorrow after I take some better, clearer pictures.

Such a shame the Lenovo Ideapad Z570, didn't have a decent webcam, and 6GB of RAM, otherwise I'd of had it. Even though Notebookcheck said their screen was good, (in fact a lot of the ratings were green) some people claim that the screen isn't very good. My main concern though is the webcam and memory.

I'm still amazed there is no good all rounders apart from that particular Toshiba, which was killed off by the idea of giving money to the worst company ever, who probably haven't got it anyway. Toshiba, wow... limiting their business, I guess those guys really aren't very smart for limiting Llanos APU builds to just two store chains.

Might just go on the big rainforest website soon and randomly pick the first laptop I see, even if it has a Celeron, just because I'm getting so wound up, I might stab myself in the thigh with a screwdriver.

Bad times.

I'll check back later, thanks for helping. :mad:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom