Which of these laptops is best?

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

I'm looking at 2 laptops which are the same price but as I'm unsure which is better, I'm hoping someone here can help me decide or at least help me know what further information I need to get?
I got the details over the phone so apologies if anything is unclear.

The first one has an Intel i7 740QM processor, 1.73Ghz speed, 5400 rpm, Hard drive is 320GB. Windows 7 professional, 4GB ram that's upgradeable to 8GB, 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM Graphics: Nvidia GForce 425 1GB dedicated card.

The 2nd one has an Intel i5 241OM 230Ghz with turbo boost 2.0 up to 2.9. Hard Drive is 500GB, 7200 rpm. Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Memory is 4GB Dual channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333Mhz. The graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce 525M 1GB.

Thanks

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Also, I should have said that if anyone has seen an alternative laptop deal then I'd be happy to consider it too!

closed

What price?

What are you planning to use it for? Gaming?

Budget?

nearlyrich

The second one has the latest generation of processor but without knowing the make and what you want to use it for it's not possible to say which is best.

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

I'll be using it for a bit of everything. Office stuff as well as downloading music & films & linking it to the TV, also i-player, twitter, facebook, u-tube etc. Also OH will be using it for skype and games. We'll also have photo editing and other software programs on it, some of which use a lot of processing power as they really slow down our current laptop.
The first is a Sony while the other is a Dell. I've heard that Vaio's are good, however I'm not sure about their aftersales service, whereas a few friends have said Dell have a good aftersales service.

closed

latest games aside, most of those are trivial tasks for any machine to do, even an old one, so an I7 may be OTT, your existing machines could probably be speeded up if you post a hijackthis log and specs (ram, commit charge)

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Well my reasoning for getting one of those machines was that the higher spec from a good company should hopefully cope with everything thrown at it for the next few years, including games.
I'm not sure about posting an hijack-this log - is it safe or do I need to look for & delete particular information in case usernames/log-ins/passwords etc are included. I've seen one or 2 in threads before but the actions needed are confusing to me. Did I mention that I'm not very technical?

closed

passwords etc aren't included, sometimes if the user account is setup to be your name, it may appear, but you can edit it out before posting if that is the case

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Thanks, I'll try to do the log over the next few days.
I still need advice on our potential new laptop spec in the OP though, as even with the old one working better, we will still need a new one.
Another thing came to mind, although they are both Windows 7, one is Professional while the other is Home. Will this make a difference to me as I'll just be using it with normal software bought for home use and not connecting it to any work networks etc. Also neither have Blue-Ray just DVD. Just trying to be future proof but it's unlikely we'll watch Blue-ray films on a laptop. Maybe there'a another reason to have Blue-ray though?

closed

You haven't said your budget, or what model these machines are, and what price.

Dell XPS15 £599 N00X5M03 ?

trying to future proof is expensive, it will be out of date in a couple of years, but assuming no hardware problems, will probably do everything you need to do speedily. The awkward use is gaming, so it depends what type of games you play, and the specs of games (in particular graphics cards) released in the future.

I7 is ott imo
I5 or I3 should be fine.

bluray - no point paying extra if you are unlikely to use it
home is fine.

It's far cheaper to buy something good enough to run what you want to run now, and put the money in the bank until you need something more powerful 5-10 years down the line

beanys

go for the i7 version