AMD A4-5000 "Quad Core" vs Intel Core i3-4005U Dual Core

[gozoboy99]

Hi guys. I've been looking at 2 laptops, they are basically identical but one has an Intel Core i3-4005U mobile processor and 4GB of RAM, and the other one has an AMD A4-5000 mobile processor and 6GB RAM. The guy at the store and a couple other people I know told me that the Core i3 is better than the A4 as the AMD "Quad Core" processors aren't very good, so even though the Intel i3 is only dual core it will be better than the quad core AMD. The other question is the RAM. Is 6GB that much better than 4GB or will 4GB be fine for basic use. (That's all this laptop is for. Basic use and touch apps since it will be touchscreen)

The AMD laptop is this one: Buy the HP Pavilion Notebook - AMD A4, 6GB, 15.6 at TigerDirect.ca
And the Intel here: Buy the HP TouchSmart 15.6 Notebook PC - F5W37UA#ABL at TigerDirect.ca

Last question, what the hell is DDR3L? All the new laptops have it nowadays... Is it backward compatible with normal DDR3 laptop RAM? Meaning can I take a normal laptop DDR3 4GB stick out of my dads laptop and put it into the 4GB (i3) laptop if thats the one i'm gonna get? Or does the DDR3 "L" part cause issues?
Thanks

Edit: Sorry i'm not sure if this is the right place for this thread. If it isn't mods could you please move it? Thanks

 

[MilesAhead]

Hmm, I guess you should read some reviews. But just from the specs the AMD has 6 GB ram instead of 4. Has a DVD burner where the Intel shows no optical drive. It only has W8 8.0 where the Intel has 8.1. But some people may prefer 8.0.

Read reviews. See how each performs. If you don't wish to use it to burn DVD then the optical drive, or lack thereof may not matter to you.

Edit: Oh, and the AMD is about $80 cheaper.

 

[whs]

I would go for the i3. The 'U' processors use little power and your battery will probably last longer. Plus it has the 4400 graphics chip which is very good. The 2GBs of RAM that it has less will probably not matter in real life. I have a laptop with 6GB of RAM where more than half ot the RAM is empty most of the time. A lot of RAM is only really useful if you run virtual machines.

 

[gozoboy99]

Hmm, I guess you should read some reviews. But just from the specs the AMD has 6 GB ram instead of 4. Has a DVD burner where the Intel shows no optical drive. It only has W8 8.0 where the Intel has 8.1. But some people may prefer 8.0.

Read reviews. See how each performs. If you don't wish to use it to burn DVD then the optical drive, or lack thereof may not matter to you.

Edit: Oh, and the AMD is about $80 cheaper.

The i3 also has disk drive according to specs on other sites, just not listed on TD apparently.
Yeah i'll get on the reviews...

I would go for the i3. The 'U' processors use little power and your battery will probably last longer. Plus it has the 4400 graphics chip which is very good. The 2GBs of RAM that it has less will probably not matter in real life. I have a laptop with 6GB of RAM where more than half ot the RAM is empty most of the time. A lot of RAM is only really useful if you run virtual machines.

Yeah I was leaning towards it too given what I was told... I have one VM for tinkering but its on my main quad core gaming pc so thats ok there
Thanks for the help.

 

[Sisrace]

When looking at budget laptops AMD laptops are very strong in cpu power and Gpu power. My cheap laptop for 350£ Plays very many games at low to medium and even high in some cases. Also the cpu is very powerful. I have an quad core 2.4ghz A8 though but still..
Intel cpu's are NOT know for having great graphics.. They are mostly the opposite. I would recommend the Amd laptop for personal knowledge. Almost every laptop in the house is Intel and my sister has a similar i3 cpu in her laptop but mine just blows that out of the water and they are pretty similar in prize so yeah..

 

[Sisrace]

Hmm, I guess you should read some reviews. But just from the specs the AMD has 6 GB ram instead of 4. Has a DVD burner where the Intel shows no optical drive. It only has W8 8.0 where the Intel has 8.1. But some people may prefer 8.0.

Read reviews. See how each performs. If you don't wish to use it to burn DVD then the optical drive, or lack thereof may not matter to you.

Edit: Oh, and the AMD is about $80 cheaper.

Microsoft is giving FREE 8.1 updates. Its just to download and be happy. Windows 8 vs 8.1 is a big difference and its worth it to update.

 

[Sisrace]

I found a Really REALLY good computer for you. Its on sale now on newegg but the stock price is 599 us dollars but it now costs 549$
Newegg.com - Lenovo G505s (59373010) Notebook AMD A-Series A10-5750M (2.50GHz) 6GB Memory 1TB HDD AMD Radeon HD 8650G 15.6" Windows 8

1Tb storage.
A VERY powerful Amd A10 cpu
6Gb RAM

Though this is not a touchscreen laptop.. The ones with touchscreen is the same prize but the hardware is usally very bad for the price

 

[Sisrace]

Hi guys. I've been looking at 2 laptops, they are basically identical but one has an Intel Core i3-4005U mobile processor and 4GB of RAM, and the other one has an AMD A4-5000 mobile processor and 6GB RAM. The guy at the store and a couple other people I know told me that the Core i3 is better than the A4 as the AMD "Quad Core" processors aren't very good, so even though the Intel i3 is only dual core it will be better than the quad core AMD. The other question is the RAM. Is 6GB that much better than 4GB or will 4GB be fine for basic use. (That's all this laptop is for. Basic use and touch apps since it will be touchscreen)


The AMD laptop is this one: Buy the HP Pavilion Notebook - AMD A4, 6GB, 15.6 at TigerDirect.ca
And the Intel here: Buy the HP TouchSmart 15.6 Notebook PC - F5W37UA#ABL at TigerDirect.ca

Last question, what the hell is DDR3L? All the new laptops have it nowadays... Is it backward compatible with normal DDR3 laptop RAM? Meaning can I take a normal laptop DDR3 4GB stick out of my dads laptop and put it into the 4GB (i3) laptop if thats the one i'm gonna get? Or does the DDR3 "L" part cause issues?
Thanks

Edit: Sorry i'm not sure if this is the right place for this thread. If it isn't mods could you please move it? Thanks

Btw. Are this a traveling notebook or what becouse your system specs says you got a very solid laptop thats better in any way possibel compared to the laptops you showed

 

[my2cents]

A couple other people I know told me that the Core i3 is better than the A4 as the AMD "Quad Core" processors aren't very good, so even though the Intel i3 is only dual core it will be better than the quad core AMD.

Personally, I wouldn't buy either unit because of the processors. I know how slow the AMD 1.x GHz quad-core processors can be (when doing single-threaded operations) because I just worked on a very similar unit. However, I have no experience with the Intel 1.x GHz CPUs. At this point, I think you might be better served to look around for a laptop with a better CPU at a similar price. Maybe someone else can make a specific recommendation. Good luck with your final decision.

 

[pparks1]

Ddr3L is simply low voltage RAM. it runs at 1.35 volts nstead of 1.5 volts.

personally I wouldn't worry about dual core vs quad core here. neither of these will be powerful workhorse machines. you will not be gaming or doing intense graphics work on either of these. these processors are suitable for basic tasks and as such they don't require lots of grunt.

 

[MilesAhead]

Microsoft is giving FREE 8.1 updates. Its just to download and be happy. Windows 8 vs 8.1 is a big difference and its worth it to update.

I understand. But like Service Packs, hassle free install doesn't happen for everyone.

 

[whs]

I found a Really REALLY good computer for you. Its on sale now on newegg but the stock price is 599 us dollars but it now costs 549$
Newegg.com - Lenovo G505s (59373010) Notebook AMD A-Series A10-5750M (2.50GHz) 6GB Memory 1TB HDD AMD Radeon HD 8650G 15.6" Windows 8

1Tb storage.
A VERY powerful Amd A10 cpu
6Gb RAM

Though this is not a touchscreen laptop.. The ones with touchscreen is the same prize but the hardware is usally very bad for the price

That's an OK laptop. But for that money you can get a better i5 system. Examples:

$ 579 with Coupon Code: D2BLENOVO3
Lenovo Z710 Laptop | 17.3" Multimedia Notebook PC | Lenovo (US)

Asus S400CA UH51T Touch Screen Ultrabook Core i5 14" 4GB 500GB 24GB SSD Win 8 886227374090 | eBay

 

[gozoboy99]

Thanks for the suggestions, but as I said, I am buying this system specifically for the touchscreen, so going without won't be an option. I'd just stick with my current one... (which I will be doing-i'll use my current i7 laptop for more demanding tasks and the touch one for just surfing and playing around)

 

[gozoboy99]

Btw. Are this a traveling notebook or what becouse your system specs says you got a very solid laptop thats better in any way possibel compared to the laptops you showed

Yeah its for travel/playing around. Not for demanding tasks. I just want a touch laptop to play with really

A couple other people I know told me that the Core i3 is better than the A4 as the AMD "Quad Core" processors aren't very good, so even though the Intel i3 is only dual core it will be better than the quad core AMD.

Personally, I wouldn't buy either unit because of the processors. I know how slow the AMD 1.x GHz quad-core processors can be (when doing single-threaded operations) because I just worked on a very similar unit. However, I have no experience with the Intel 1.x GHz CPUs. At this point, I think you might be better served to look around for a laptop with a better CPU at a similar price. Maybe someone else can make a specific recommendation. Good luck with your final decision.

Thanks... I'll probably go for the i3 model as long as it stays in stock...

 

[Devlin1888]

I use an older version of that processor, AMD 3420M Quad core 1.5ghz( Now oc'd to 2.3ghz) it runs for me greatly, temps are fine, Runs most games as of 2013, i have dual graphics which are decent to an extent, picked it up for £300 so i couldnt complain, it has served me well this past year

 

[whs]

For travle I bough this one. Together with a 64GB MocroSD card it works really very well - and it is a PC and a tablet at the same time. Weighs only 2 pounds.

 

[gozoboy99]

I use an older version of that processor, AMD 3420M Quad core 1.5ghz( Now oc'd to 2.3ghz) it runs for me greatly, temps are fine, Runs most games as of 2013, i have dual graphics which are decent to an extent, picked it up for £300 so i couldnt complain, it has served me well this past year

Awesome! Thanks

For travle I bough this one. Together with a 64GB MocroSD card it works really very well - and it is a PC and a tablet at the same time. Weighs only 2 pounds.

Interesting i'll keep that in mind... Does it run desktop apps though? I'm not much of a "Metro app" person so if I can't install programs definetly a no go.

 

[whs]

Interesting i'll keep that in mind... Does it run desktop apps though? I'm not much of a "Metro app" person so if I can't install programs definetly a no go.

Exactly the same as any other Win 8.1 laptop. It even comes with Office included. And I installed a couple dozen of other programs -all the usual stuff I also have on my Win 7 systems. The thing is amazingly fast - boots in 25 seconds (event 100 in Event Viewer). That little quad core does a good job in combination with the SSD. And I still have 12.5GB free space on the little SSD. My user data and my images are on the MicroSD card.

You have to get used to the keyboard if you are a power typist. But at my speed it makes no difference. I got a $20 HP Bluetooth mouse with it. That is great. And the touchscreen is always there if you want to quickly tap something or if you disconnect the tablet part (which I hardly ever do - only when I want to show pictures around the table).

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
My gut feel would be to go for the INTEL --AMD is going through a bit of a rough patch and invariably the built in graphics for laptops using the AMD processor are either NVIDIA or ATI.

INTEL processor driven laptops have the INTEL graphics HD system -- much better.

It's no big deal whether the laptop has W8 or W8.1 --you can upgrade 8 to 8.1 for free. The Nvidia graphics on the AMD processor causes far more problems than the INTEL system - especially if you ever want to try out things like LINUX on the laptop.

BTW memory is relatively cheap --put at least 8GB in the laptop.

(For TOUCH - INTEL again . I don't think AMD is much longer for this world !!).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[pparks1]

Actually, AMD usually has the better performing onboard graphics. I find it weird that they make budget chips, but try to market their onboard graphics to gamers. No gamer is going to use integrated graphics, so why would they NOT go for the better performing Intel chip.