HP Laptop query

[Haly]

This will sound spectacularly lazy as I'm sure I could probably google it all but that's how far behind I am with my PC hardware knowledge!

I'm being sent a laptop to try out for a couple of weeks and just wondered what kind of range spec it works out. :)

I'm hoping later in the year to be able to get a new laptop so this is kind of research for the future and partially purely being lucky enough to get to try this one :p

Anyway, it's a HP Pavilion. Processor is an AMD Quad-Core A6-3430MX 1.7ghz and graphics card is an AMD Radeon HD 6520G+7670M Dual GPU.

It's been long enough that none of that makes sense to me like it used to :(

Some kind of translation would be lovely in terms of how it compares to Intel i5s and i7s etc.

Thank you in advance :D

[Psymonkee]

From what I understand it's not that lovely in comparison to i5's and i7's. It's still a quick chip but nothing amazing.

Mobile graphics I simply don't understand :p

[Mark]

Isn't going to be spectacularly fast given that it's 1.7GHz and that AMD are still behind Intel, clock-for-clock, but it'll be plenty fast enough for most bar recent gaming (I use a 1.3GHz dual-core laptop, and it's fine for web/email/word and the odd flash game, and that's all I use it for).

As for the Mobile graphics. Well, it's not Intel, so that's a good start. Can't say much more than that though.

[Haly]

Thanks both :)

For a bit of context, I'm used to a Core2duo 2.2ghz so I'm hoping I'll notice a difference.

Just wanted to know what to expect really!

Doesn't really matter I guess but nice to have a fun new toy for a little bit :)

[LeperousDust]

AMD can't compete with the Core i series really, especially when you take in to account any type of power consumption or heat output like for like (a laptops main territory). I don't know enough about specific graphics in laptops, apart from they're never good enough for long enough!

//Edit: Haha typed this about an hour ago, and then never pressed post! :oops:

[Haly]

I've been using a laptop as my main PC for the past 4 years now so being a step or two behind on the graphics path doesn't bother me as it's never really stopped me playing what I've wanted to play :)

Long gone are my days of being a graphics snob I think :o

[leowyatt]

I had a HP elitebook for work and it was terrible! Battery started falling out after 2-3 months. The latch broke so the screen would not close. Avoid HP Elitebooks.

[Haly]

It's a Pavillion and not like I'll have it any length of time anyhow :) If it fails in that brief time, I'll happily blog my disdain :p

But I'll remember that for the future laptop hunt!

[Kitten]

I've had 2 HP Pavillions in my time and they were fine. Nowt special, but not awful either. Did the job.

[Haly]

Had some time with it and quite impressed :)

Build quality is good, decent screen and the speakers are the best I've heard on a laptop (although that's probably not saying much!). The extra RAM seems to be making the most difference speed wise I've noticed (it's got 8gb RAM while my laptop has 4gb).

Rather fortunately though, it's made me realise that there's nowt wrong with the current laptop so I'm happy to stick with it for a while longer :D

Will still enjoy messing about with this HP for a couple more weeks though ;)

[Mark]

Build quality of the HP laptops I saw in stores seemed pretty good, so I recommended one to my Dad. Only a one-up-from-Netbook AMD Fusion job, but it'll do everything he wants, which his current PC won't, so there we are.