Laptops - choice of 2, which is best to keep?

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

Very luckily, I have been offered a choice of being given one of two laptops to replace a very ancient one! Would be very grateful if anyone could advise which would be the best one to accept.

Choice is between a "Toshiba C660" or a "HP G72 Notebook".

We don't have any really big requirements - would just be using it for PC (Word/Excel) and surfing the net, watching BBC iPlayer etc, storing and playing music (but we have a separate large capacity portable drive too)

I've drawn up a table giving all the specs for each laptop. They look pretty similar to me but wondered which any "techies" out there would recommend would be the best/most reliable one to keep?

The Toshiba one feels a little plasticky to me and the screen appears to be clearer on the HP but that's all that I've noticed.

Here is the table:

Toshiba C660/C6660 D Satellite Pro
Hewlett Packard HP G72 Notebook PC
Dual Core+ AMD Radeon Graphics

Drives:
C: 298GB
297 GB (“data”)
Q: Microsoft Office Click to Run 2010 (protected)
E: DVD RW Drive
Drives:
C: 282GB
15.2 GB (“Recovery”)
DVD RW Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Windows is activated –

Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows is activated –

Processor: AMD E-450 APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.65GHz
Processor: Intel® Premium ® CPU P6100 @ 2.00 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00GB (3.60 usable)
Installed Memory (RAM): 3.00GB (2.43 usable)
64 bit operating system
64 bit operating system
Toshiba MK6475GSX SATA disc drive

DVD/CD Drive: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT30N SATA CD ROM
HP DVD/CD ROM – HP DVD RW AD-7701H
Toshiba Web Cam
HP Web Cam 101
Network Adapters:
Atheros AR9002WB ING Wireless Network Adapter
Realtek PCUIE Family Controller
Network Adapters:
Broadcom Network Adapter 4313 802.11 b/g/n
Realtek PCUIE Family Controller

Many thanks for any advice on this.

waterwatereverywhere

Sorry, it hasn't copied the table in properly in columns but has jumbled everything, so I've retyped the info below.

TOshiba C660 Spec:

Dual Core+ AMD Radeon Graphics
Drives:
C: 298GB
297 GB (“data”)
Q: Microsoft Office Click to Run 2010 (protected)
E: DVD RW Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Windows is activated –

Processor: AMD E-450 APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.65GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00GB (3.60 usable)
64 bit operating system
Toshiba MK6475GSX SATA disc drive
DVD/CD Drive: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT30N SATA CD ROM
Toshiba Web Cam
Network Adapters:
Atheros AR9002WB ING Wireless Network Adapter
Realtek PCUIE Family Controller
Ports/sockets:
USB x 2
Headphone
Speaker
1 x parallel (?) type port
1 x broadband phone line cable? (looks like)
CD/DVD drive

HP G72 Notebook spec:

Drives:
C: 282GB
15.2 GB (“Recovery”)
DVD RW Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows is activated –


Processor: Intel® Premium ® CPU P6100 @ 2.00 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 3.00GB (2.43 usable)
64 bit operating system

HP DVD/CD ROM – HP DVD RW AD-7701H
HP Web Cam 101
Network Adapters:
Broadcom Network Adapter 4313 802.11 b/g/n
Realtek PCUIE Family Controller
Ports/sockets:
USB x ??
Headphone
Speaker
Others??
CD/DVD drive

Thx again!

phona

Well what a nice problem to have!

I would say they're both perfectly capable of running iPlayer, various internet and office software so, in a way, just whichever you like better.
The HP has the faster processor so, in principle, would be faster and provide smoother video playback. However the Tosh has more memory and that can make a big difference too (it might be possible to take the memory out of the Tosh and put it in the HP though).

You said the HP has USB x ??
Do you not know how many it has or does it not have any at all? I would expect it to have at least one, since it doesn't appear to be older than a few years. If it doesn't have any, best think about how you're going to attach your portable drive!

Personally, I'd go for the HP just because of the faster processor - subject to there being a USB port or two.

Edit: If you're wondering, I'm a final year computing student and former school IT technician. It's up to you if you think I'm qualified for my opinion to count!

jasocke2

I'd go as above as well. HP are generally a better named Laptop too.

Cisco001

jasocke2 wrote: »

I'd go as above as well. HP are generally a better named Laptop too.

Toshiba is better than HP in term of reliability...

Cisco001

jasocke2 wrote: »

I'd go as above as well. HP are generally a better named Laptop too.

Toshiba is better than HP in term of reliability...

AlecEiffel

In my experience Toshiba has better overall build quality. But that's in my experience!