Laptop fast processor?

Terrysdelight

Hi

I'm looking to buy my husband a laptop for Christmas and my budget is £400.

How do I tell if the laptop has a decent speed - hubby surfs the internet quite a bit, so I don't want a slow one.

Grateful for any ideas.

Also, should I buy now or wait till beginning/mid of December.

Many thanks
Terrysdelight

forgotmyname

A 10 year old laptop will surf the net as fast as a £3000 one.

Your home broadband connection will make a bigger impact.

Faster processors are required for decoding video and playing games etc.

Cisco001

intel i5 at £400 - 450.
Look for intel i5-3xxx or i5-4xxx

If you don't know which one is faster, check here
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

50Twuncle

Cisco001 wrote: »

intel i5 at £400 - 450.
Look for intel i5-3xxx or i5-4xxx

If you don't know which one is faster, check here
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Memory makes a fair difference too - make sure that you get at least 4Gb RAM

newuser78

For that kind of budget, Acer makes a decent laptop. Definitely avoid any Celeron processors.

I have no experience of AMD processors but these normally come with 6Gb RAM for around £400 or less. Maybe worth considering?

AlecEiffel

You'll get a 3rd gen i3 or i5 processor for your budget. Earlier this yr I got a dell 3rd gen i5, 6 gig RAM, and a 1 terabyte hdd for under £400. If you like the look of dell look online for voucher codes as you'll usually find one that will knock a bit off (was a 7% off last week) plus they include next day home visit if you have a problem (better than sending it off for repair in my opinion).

As above, steer clear of celeron and even pentium chips, the i3 processors are barely any more money and much more capable.

50Twuncle

and avoid any that mention Windows 3.1 or DOS !!

Terrysdelight

Thanks very much everyone. I feel much more confident in my search now.

GlasgowTech

For only web browsing i would recommend 'Samsung Series 3 Chromebook' at a average price of - £230

For more of an 'all-rounder', on your budget i would go for the Lenovo G505 - £380

Dale.

50Twuncle

GlasgowTech wrote: »

For only web browsing i would recommend 'Samsung Series 3 Chromebook' at a average price of - £230

For more of an 'all-rounder', on your budget i would go for the Lenovo G505 - £380

Dale.

Would your husband prefer Windows or Chrome Operating System ?
If, he is used to Windows - I would recommend that you stick to Windows.
If Windows (8 ?) - you will need a higher spec than Chrome - which tends to mean - more £'s....

Terrysdelight

I'm totally confused.

Went to Currys/pcworld tonight. Found two laptops I liked - one was an Acer i5 for £379. I also found another Acer which was reduced to £399 (prev £479) - it is an i3 but it had a Nvadia GT720 graphic card.

I sort of talked myself in getting the dearer one but it's only an i3. I'm supposed to go and pay for it tomorrow after they have restored it to the factory setting. I thought it would be better if my husband played the odd game on it. But now I'm not sure.

I've tried finding the machine on line but oddly, it isn't even mentioned on the currys/pcworld website.

Anyone got any ideas. Should I really go for the cheaper i5?

Many thanks
Terrysdelight