Which laptop is the better purchase?

[jut703]

C4U is a long term owner where slightly higher hardware spec will let her have a laptop that can still considered usable four or five years from now. Giving her specs that will only be sufficient for the "now" will lead to her feeling it being slow sooner than later. Also the hardware spec of the laptop I recommended leaves little need for any immediate upgrades after purchase. For only a few thousand over her set budget, it might be a worthwhile spending on it now than needing a new laptop (upgrade) after a only couple of years.

Depends on your perspective. I usually adopt a cash-strapped-buyer perspective, looking for the most bang-for-the-buck, since I view the extra few thousand pesos spent as an opportunity cost for something else with greater marginal utility. Of course, if C4U doesn't mind shelling out more, then by all means, get the most expensive one that makes her happy.

From my experience, with one of our i5 laptops, I turned of Turbo Boost for about a month. It didn't feel any different at all, even though my quantitative tests show a ~10% improvement in CPU intensive tasks such as video transcoding. This was with an Arrandale i5 though, definitely the Ivy Bridge i5s, with their higher boost rates, will have greater benefits when going from an i3 to an i5. That said, I still think that the difference is not big enough to reach the point wherein you'd be replacing your i3-powered laptop earlier than an i5-powered one, especially for someone who isn't a power user. But again, if budget is not an issue, then going for the faster one makes sense.

GH, why do you recommend the G480 more than the Z470?

The G480 is already running on a newer CPU architecture than the Z470 (Ivy Bridge vs. Sandy Bridge). Ivy Bridge CPUs are faster given the same clock speed than their Sandy Bridge counterparts. A 2.5 GHz Ivy will run 10% faster than a 2.5 GHz Sandy, ceteris paribus. Power draw is also slightly reduced, leading to marginally better battery life.

Aside from that, the only other major differences are the hard drive size (500 GB vs 750 GB), aesthetics, and the OS (Win8 vs Win7). Personally, I don't like using Windows 8 on a laptop that doesn't have a touch screen. It just feels so unintuitive. This is the reason why I'm still sticking to Windows 7 even though I have several Windows 8 licenses lying around.

It won't necessarily be worse to buy the Z470 than the G480 if 1) you prefer Windows 7, 2) if you need the extra 250 GB, or 3) it looks better. Just keep in mind that the tradeoff is a slightly inferior CPU.

[_Qwerty_]

check mo din dito.. they offer up to 20% discount on some of their laptops..

Laptops

The Lenovo G480 is only Php29,999.00 there.

Lenovo Ideapad G480 MS DOS 14 Laptop (Brown) | Lazada

[_Cathy_]

check mo din dito.. they offer up to 20% discount on some of their laptops..

Laptops

The Lenovo G480 is only Php29,999.00 there.

Lenovo Ideapad G480 MS DOS 14 Laptop (Brown) | Lazada

Thanks is this an online selling only site?

[_Qwerty_]

yes.. you can pay over the counter sa local banks.. and COD..

[ghosthunter]

check mo din dito.. they offer up to 20% discount on some of their laptops..

Laptops

The Lenovo G480 is only Php29,999.00 there.

Lenovo Ideapad G480 MS DOS 14 Laptop (Brown) | Lazada

Wow... good deal!

[_Cathy_]

*jut703 Can I just say WOW on your explanation

What do you recommend that I purchase given my requirements (minimum 14 inch monitor, budget 30k range, lenovo or toshiba, available at Villman)

OT: Is that an Altis V on your avatar?