Processor for Laptop

If you don't need power (CAD, gaming etc) I'd say go for the cheapest thing you can get. The netbook I'm using for this has an Atom N455 processor at 1.66GHz. It was a bit short of RAM, so I doubled it (to 2Gb!), and it has plenty of oomph for "home stuff", including streaming video. Cost about £200.

With 12Gb RAM, pretty much anything on the market should suit (I'm not suggesting a netbook, but any laptop with plenty of RAM & storage, and a decent sized screen).

I used top do the same.

and then in a few years, thinking that I could have twice the processing speed and half the cost. Yet I still do it.

But if the processing speed is not critical has stated, get one to satisfy his needs

Agree to an extent, but this netbook is now 5 years old (puchased July 2009), is used every day, and is still plenty adequate for all the up-to-date "home" stuff.

I agree completely.....

For exactly those reasons I bought a Toshiba (good support) i7 Cpu with 4 cores, turbo 3.5GHZ and 16 GB memory and Win7.....as I bought it 6 months old, I paid only about a third of the new price, even though it was still in production. Fast and furious!! But very cool running!!!

New was €1,300, I paid €381 on ebay....

Still got a few months of the 2 year warranty to run....

My previous Toshiba Laptop broke after over 7 years of intensive use, too old to bother to repair, even though 2 cores...and fast for its day!! $2,000 new....

Interestingly, Windows seven became redundant, and Windows eight was launched exactly 2 years ago tomorrow. It was released for inclusion in new items manufactured from August 2012 and support for it, other than security updates, will cease as of next January.

Yours must have been of the very last of the Windows 7 Toshiba builds, and it must have sat around for a bit before being sold for there to be a few months warranty left.

Although I have Windows 8 on my unit, I do prefer the win7 desktop, so I use Classic shell to get that effect.

Double Post, sorry!

There was a free Win8 update included that I have never tried to use......

Once Win7 becomes untenable, I will be switching to Ubuntu, already tested last year, runs perfectly. I used it for several weeks and almost did not re-install Win7.....but I have a great software investment.....

This may not be what your looking for, But I have an iPad,(won it at a raffle on the company Christmas party three years ago.) And since then, My laptop has been pretty idle.

Took a little getting used to the operating system.

I purchased some apps for project management, I have some CAD apps on it but rarely use it. I am looking to upgrade to iPad air2, just due that recently I drop it and it cracked the screen. I dropped it quite a bit, it still works fine.

Just something for you to think about.

Guys, you're all providing good info, and I'm grateful for your interest. But what about the processor? I'm no techie, I don't know which ones to avoid. It's hard to find unbiased reviews on the web.

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor. I use various CAD programs, along with a couple of other power hungry ones, often running in concert, and it handles them all with ease. Although I don't use and 3D stuff, the i7 is reputed to handle that well also.

I gave up desktops long ago, and now use either the laptop or an android.

The only other suggestion that I would offer if using a laptop for general use is to invest in a separate full keyboard and a wireless mouse as the ones on the laptop can be a PITA if relied on for more than a few minutes..

I have a Satellite i7 also. It's adequate for handling parametric solid modelers like SolidWorks and Inventor but more importantly on the laptops is the amount of memory and the graphics adapter.

My problem with laptops is the screen size for CAD. Life is a lot more pleasant with my dual HDMI 24" monitors on my desktop.

Hooker

I agree that screen size can be a drawback, I went for the 17" screen on the Satellite, and it's not bad once you get used to it. The Zoom feature certainly gets used.

Yeah, but it's tough when you have dual monitor setups at work and at home. It was painful what few times I took my laptop on the road and had to do design work.

Hooker

Don't sweat the processors. They all must run the same instruction set 32 andor 64 bit.

It's the RAM and UEFI garbage that is important. And then USB 3. You want to be able to fill it with RAM to the gills and be able to disable UEFI booting. UEFI is a Windoze bootup virus junk that they forced on everybody. Many manufacturers have it as an option that you can disable for other OSs like OSX and Linux.

"It's hard to find unbiased reviews on the web".

Wait! wait! wait!................You're looking for UNBIASED opinions HERE!!!!!!..........NOT!!LMAO

Not sure what 'usual home computing stuff' is for you. But if a netbook or pad will accomplish your needs, I'd probably go that way. Mostly because of cooling. If you buy a device with a cooling fan, eventually (not too long) the heat sink will need cleaning. Laptop heat sinks are much smaller than those in desktop PCs, so cleanliness is more important (and we tend to use them in dusty places). I found out on my wife's HP and my Compaq that you have to completely disassemble them to clean the heatsink (takes a couple of hours if you don't lose or break any of the small pieces). On my sister-in-law's Lenovo, there is a small bottom panel that gives easy access, making this a 5 - 10 minute job. These are all 6 to 8 year old devices, so I don't know about what's on the market now.

Word processing, spreadsheets, presentation stuff. Interesting point you made re: cleaning the heatsink; I never considered that.

I had to replace the graphics chip in the old HP (if I recall) due to overheating. That made me more aware of the issue.

Intel and AMD both make good processors. You pay more for Intel, because it's THE brand name, but I have used AMD for many years in homebrew PCs to get about the same processing power for 50%-70% the cost. Reliability is as good.

Get the most processor power you can afford. These days it's not as much about clock speed as it used to be, but speed does help. Also more cores, because they run more things in parallel. 4 to 6 cores is not at all unusual now.

RAM and graphics are more your limiting factors, so get the most/best you can. That's where the future will restrict the functionality. If you can get a solid-state hard drive, do it, but they are more expensive for less capacity than standard, spinning drives.

Best to look at some of the comparisons of reliability, customer service, etc., of the various brands of laptops (like c|net or PC magazine reviews) for info. That will help you steer away from brands that will have iffy quality and poor support.

Will our Windows based apps transfer ok to a new o/s?

There are probably compatible apps available. No worse than transitioning from Microsoft Office ~2000 to 2010 and later! Others are more qualified to respond than I am.

Apache OpenOffice is free, and versions are available for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/2000 and Android (I use it on my Samsung mobile phone (Android) to access and update MS Office files shared with my netbook/laptops/desktop using Dropbox). It's compatible with MS Office 2000/2003/2007/2010/2013.

Usual disclaimers.

I bought a laptop about four years ago. It has an i7. In comparing the Intel to the AMD you have to know what series to make a comparison. The laptop I bought has a i7-2600K. Bought it on sale less the $500 US. It did need more RAM(6GB) and a hard drive(640GB 5400rpm) up grade. I try not to store files and data on the hard drive so size is not an issue. Replaced it with 250GB hybrid with 7200rpm. Use the replaced 640GB as external drive.

Performance wize don't see many of the AMD's that match the 2600k and it's an old i7 series.

Can't help you with the processor question. But if your going to get anything with Windoze on it, wait. What you will get is Windows 8.1 and it's a POS. If past history is any indication, Windows 10 (Threshold...) should be much better. It's in testing phase right now, but will probably be available in 3-6 months.

Good Luck!

Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2468798,00.asp

No CAD, no gaming, no rendering (static or animated), go with an i5, cheapest (which usually means slowest).

Hooker

You're looking for an Apple 17" laptop. It will run both Windows and Yosemite (OS X 10.10). I switched about eight years ago. Windows won't run OS X, but OS X will run Windows. You can set it up so your wife, like mine, runs the Chrome browser, or just stick with Safari as I do. You will then have power, reliability, and it will just work. It's really true, and I shill for nobody!

Do as the others have said and add to that USB 3. You will want that in the future and it is hard to add such things to a laptop.

I have an HP probook 4530s that I purchased at a pawn shop to load Ubuntu on....problem is that without Admin password or a special setup file (available only if you can speak to the right person at HP) you are locked out as there is hard coded info that prevents reformatting and reloading of an operating system. HP people I have spoken to so far say I need to order new motherboard. I would recommend avoiding an brand that uses this antitheft feature as it is similar to being held hostage by pirate software. The Toshiba I bought this spring has W8.1 and is aggravating by virtue of Toshiba "apps" that are forced on the operating system.

If you do not have an important amount of Windoze software to re-use, you should try the latest version of Ubuntu on ANY PC or Laptop as Linux generally needs less "power" to still run really fast.

That may mean a cheaper/slower alternative can be easily bought/used....

Also, there is a well thought out application on Ubuntu that puts you in touch with a shed load of free/cheap Linux software that you can download, without even going online and looking for it (the program goes online transparently for you!). Far easier than Windows!!!

I tested a load of free applications and was very happy with most of them.

I have to admit that last year I only tested Ubuntu 12.x & 13.x, but not 14.x which is now available, but I would guess that the differences make it an even more positive experience.....

12.x was great as was 13.x.....

There are other Linux variants other than Ubuntu that may even be better for you personally, but I have only tried the Ubuntu versions myself.....

Effectively, Linux can save you money on both hard- and soft-ware.

As a long term Windows user myself (since 3.0), I found that I was still able to use Ubuntu immediately with very few problems.....it came over as being quite "normal"!!

I hope this helps you further.

You can get pretty good deals at BEST BUY if you look for the last years models that they are clearing out for newer models. What was $600 last year might be between $200 and $300 this year. Especially if you're trying to stay within a budget. If you go this route, you can stretch out the cost of one top of the line laptop, into three laptops, when it does come time to needing an upgrade.

Getting the fastest today, means that you'll not need to upgrade for awhile, however, you don't need the fastest if your software demands don't require it. If the processor speed of your PC was enough, then get a laptop that is a little faster, so you do get the benefit of an upgrade. I have an HP DV7 i3. It has three 2GB processors, and I game on it, it was used when I got it a couple years ago, it had Solidworks 2008 already on it, along with a lot of other programs and the guy I got it from was one of the PLC technicians where I work, he said it's fast enough to handle everything you need it for. It is my first laptop and I haven't had any need to upgrade. It is nice because you get rid of all those wires, that are involved with a PC. That mouse pad is kind of a hassle, so I got a wireless trackball that works just fine and wireless headphones. Headphones rechargeable with same cord I use to recharge my cellphone.

That's just my opinion. Everyone else's suggestions are all good too.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Another question, can a laptop be custom built like a pc can?

I think most manufactures offer an ala carte menu of choices, but that isn't exactly custom built.

Not as far as I am aware, but I bet someone has done it somewhere.

Several of the lower priced Laptops support several different Intel processors for example.

So you can buy the "lower grade" laptop relatively cheaply, say secondhand on ebay and change out the processor. No other changes needed.....there is even a few YouTube videos showing it being done.

See here for example:-

Laptop Processor Upgrade

This is also due to the fact that Intel makes some processors which are compatible to the same laptop for example, in each of the main streams and I3 an I5 and an I7 of the compatible type can be put into certain I3 (or I5) laptops for example. But you do need to do some good research first!!!

You won't get the highest performance that you would had with say an I7 built for top performance, but you will only give out only around 25% of the money and get probably 60-70% of the performance.

I would go with one with full YouTube instructions.

But research, research and research!!!

Do take FULL antistatic precautions, if you don't know how, then leave this upgrade totally alone!!!

Best of luck.

http://www.xicomputer.com/products/welcome.asp?Content=Intel&gclid=CLmKmZ-dzcECFRJp7Aod6xgAwg

Click on Notebook Workstation.

Choose the model.

Click on Configure Now for a gazillion options.

Beware, premium prices, but I've bought them for business on the road CAD work.

Hooker

XI have been around for a while, I had purchased a XI for work back in the 90's. I didn't realize they were still around.

Another issue for laptops is the power requirement. Do you want to be able to use this device for several hours without external power? Many of the lower end laptops have only 1 to 2 hour battery capacity. This is one area where iPads and tablets have an advantage - their battery life is generally longer. Just something to think about.