Think Before you Buy... How to choose a laptop.

 

Hey.. r u going to buy a laptop ?... Have u decided what to buy ? How did you choose ?

I recently went to a Computer (IT) Exhibition. There were so many booths offering very good value for laptops. My friends were interested to buy one and asked my suggestion. I told them few models and said these are good.

The pricing were very attractive and we were able to get Core 2 Duo based laptop with 1 GB RAM and other etc etc for a price of SGD 1700 (Singapore Dollars). There were other models which included AMD TURION X2 processors which were aT a price lower compared to CORE 2 DUO processors.

There is a common perception that if the price of a product is less then the product is of inferior quality. This I found with my friends said that AMD Laptops will not be good and thus they are offering at a low price. I tried to explain to them but still they are not convinced. They argued with me "then why other Intel laptops are out selling even though AMD price is less..." and so on.

Here is the reality.

Intel core2 duo processors definitely have higher performance when compared to AMD Turion X2 processors. This is true. While going through many sites which offers benchmark details over Intel Core2 Duo and AMD Turion X2, I find the performance difference is not much. Also When you are buying a higher end Core 2 Duo Processors the difference is more obvious than a lower end Core 2 Duo Processors. Thus when it comes to buying a laptop for normal use (other than Extreme Gaming/ Extreme Encoding / Heavy Multitasking) many of us will choose a entry level laptop, also to take price advantage.

Here is a Architecture brief of AMD Turion X2

It is will very deep to go and explain into the architectural benefits.  See the Tom's Hardware guide for in depth review. The conclusion however says AMD Turion X2 is a second choice. Definitely I too have to agree on that because once AMD has lost the performance crown back to Intel it has become a second choice.

However there is no one point you got to consider while choosing a notebook (laptop). There is one more Tag associated with it, the Price. Undoubtedly AMD has always been offering best PRICE / PERFORMANCE.

For instance one of my friend bought a laptop around $1200 which is a AMD based system (Compaq Presario Series) (not Turion X2/Turion), where as I bought a system (Compaq V2000 Series) for $2550 (All prices in Singapore Dollars) which is a Intel Centrino system (Dothan). I went for Intel because I will be doing DivX encoding, Photoshop, Visual Studio Development etc., sometimes simultaneously and thus i needed a bit a high performance stuff. Though I aimed doing all these stuffs in my laptop, i do not definitely comfortable in doing these stuffs in my laptop, rather i do it on my desktop which is a faster and better system. Mostly i use my laptop for backup (emergency), or during roaming. So i had spent around twice the money but i did not utilize any thing on that. Now after Turion X2, the performance difference is only in heavy multitasking (Refer to Tom's Hardware Benchmark) and that also is not easily identified by the user as the system normally responds to keyboard inputs and does not perform slowly. But Turion X2 laptops are giving good price bargains when compared to Intel Core 2 Duo Processors.

When you use your Laptop for Normal purposes such as Word/Excel/PowerPoint or for Movie watching or Chatting/Web/Email you are not utilizing any power of dual core (or n cores which may come tomorrow).

Here is a new Deal. In January 2007 windows Vista is about to be launched. Windows Vista hardware requirement is quiet high. Most of the laptop sold today are Vista Capable. There is a hinch, Vista Capable means it can load Windows Vista and Run Windows Vista, but may or may not support all features. If you need a best performance out of windows vista you must have a dedicated graphics adapter which supports pixel shader 2.0 and directX 9 Capable.

So if you are buying a new laptop, it is better to have a dedicated graphics adapter, if you consider upgrading to windows Vista.

There are few points we have to remember.

• Intel Lost its crown in Processor Technology to AMD when it introduced Athlon 64 and AMD was the technology leader and worlds fastest desktop crown holder for past 2 years.
• Intel took back the crown by beating AMD after introduction of its core Architecture.
• AMD Architecture is still scalable and Athlon Still Remains while Pentium is Dead or About to Die.
• Intel has superior industry support and manufacturing technology is already on 65nm process where as AMD has less support in industry and is getting better support these days (but still not as good as Intel)
• There is a market BUZZ that Intel is always the BEST. (Which is not always true)
• Turion  and Turion X2 are 64 bit processors,Core 2 Duo is 64 Bit and earlier are 32 Bit.

So finally the deciding factor...

If you are a power user and if you expect heavy performance out of your laptop and cost not issue and need pure performance then the ultimate choice is Intel Core 2 Duo.

If you are a normal user and if you use normal, normal heavy applications and concerned of cost and saving money, then choose AMD Turion X2 laptops.

Today's fastest processor is going to become slowest processor in few days/months. It is matter of seconds that bothers you or the Money.. you got to choose...

The ball is in your court..

thanks for reading..

References: www.amd.com, www.Intel.com, www.anandtech.com, www.tomshardware.com, www.notebookreview.com