Ideas on new laptop

[ICIT2LOL]

I bought a HP G3 with i5 @ 1.6GHz a while ago but find it rather slow to run and it needs almost a complete tear down to replace the hard drive and RAM for a SSD and 4GB upgrade.

So I am currently looking at a Toshiba Satellite R50 Laptop 15.6" i5-5200U 750GB or a Lenovo B50-70 Laptop 15.6" i5-4200U 4GB 500GB.

Now both are around $600 and I intend to swap out the harddrive for an SSD and more RAM but the Toshiba is a bit more difficult to do that than the Lenovo, in that the whole bottom plate has to come off on the Toshiba whereas the Lenovo has small plates that come off - much easier to do.

But my conundrum is that the Toshiba has a faster base speed CPU and better turbo speed than the Lenovo has. The machine is intended to be my travel laptop and for emails and general net work.

So any ideas on which machine anyone else would buy??

 

[unrealRage]

Those two processors has almost the same turbo speeds,difference is like 100 MHz (5200U 2.7GHz>4200U 2.6 GHz) while their base clocks are very different (5200U 2.2GHz > 4200U 1.6 GHz).
If you ask me I would go on with Toshiba.Yeah, adding more RAM and SSD may be harder but it's much more satisfying.I don't think their graphics chips are different so much in terms of real time performance and significant performance boost.

If you intend doing only basic stuff get some lightweight linux distro (am I allowed to say this here?right? ) and voila.
Also if you ask me,Toshiba laptops are pretty reliable.

And I heard that Lenovo is shipping with some bloatware you can't uninstall,it's in firmware.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks unrealRage well I suppose you are right the Toshiba is the better machine and I do like the better base speed of the CPU.

The Lenovo core I think is quoted at 1.6Ghz base speed and I know the turbo would crank it up but I reckon it would need really pushing to get the turbo to cut in eh?

Like you say the extra removal stuff on the Toshiba is a nuisance but the end result justifies it eh?

 

[unrealRage]

I'm glad I could help.
Choice is on you.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

No probs mate the Toshiba it will be then - unless the spinner works reasonably fast that is but will eventually up to a SSD.
The other plus with both machines is they come with a 7 Pro downgrade

 

[Alejandro85]

Also if you ask me,Toshiba laptops are pretty reliable.

And I heard that Lenovo is shipping with some bloatware you can't uninstall,it's in firmware.

They're very good, I'm on one right now and has proven good so far.
But I must say, Toshiba also bundles BIOS-based spyware on some its computers, as well as other vendors do.
I found that nasty thing after it inexplicably comes back on every reboot, and even after a clear install. A very difficult beast to tame.

 

[unrealRage]

Also if you ask me,Toshiba laptops are pretty reliable.

And I heard that Lenovo is shipping with some bloatware you can't uninstall,it's in firmware.

They're very good, I'm on one right now and has proven good so far.
But I must say, Toshiba also bundles BIOS-based spyware on some its computers, as well as other vendors do.
I found that nasty thing after it inexplicably comes back on every reboot, and even after a clear install. A very difficult beast to tame.

Oh I did not know about this! Thanks for the information!

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Toshiba also bundles BIOS-based spyware on some its computers

Oh great that would explain why after many clean installs on my Toshiba's it still gets updates and some of the featured bloat from Toshiba.

Actually what I intend to do is find the activation code of the new machine and install from an ISO I have onto the SSD. But that will come later.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

There has been a slight stop on buying the Toshiba right now as the seller tells me the Lenovo comes with a switchable full HD or the lower res graphics. That is it is possible to get the 1920x1080 res in addition to the 1370x736 res.

Any thoughts on that although I might still go with the Toshiba I am just wondering of that would sway anyone away from the Toshiba.

Edit I shoud have said my Asus ROG 17" laptop has native 1920x1080 and it is good and why I ask.

 

[ThrashZone]

After the ASUS I would of thought you would be ready for Alienware
Or a sweet little MSI which I was also stalking

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well Mike I would have gone for another Asus ROG but this lappy is mainly for travelling and given the weight and bulk of the Asus I need something just a bit more compact.

It was just that the Lenovo had the graphics I now find better but it lags the Toshiba in CPU speed, and being a bit of a procrastinator I just cannot make up my mind

 

[bigmck]

Well Mike I would have gone for another Asus ROG but this lappy is mainly for travelling and given the weight and bulk of the Asus I need something just a bit more compact.

It was just that the Lenovo had the graphics I now find better but it lags the Toshiba in CPU speed, and being a bit of a procrastinator I just cannot make up my mind

I purchased a Lenovo V570 a couple years ago. It was a Refurbished one, which cut the price a lot. It has never given me a problem. The Refurbished PC might be a way to stretch your dollar.