Hey guys, I'm wondering if any tech-savvy people out there could help me choose which laptop I'm gonna be buying. I'm choosing between a second-hand Toshiba Sattelite (although according to the seller he only had it for 4 months) or a brand-spanking new Asus K52JR for slightly more(around 60$) with some extra freebies. Normally it would be the Asus, but what's been throwing me off is the Windows Index rating of the two units...the Toshiba unit actually has a higher rating than the Asus one. I'm not sure how that happened...isn't the Asus the more up-to-date model? How can it have a windows exp. index lower than the Toshiba when it looks like it has better specs all around? Also which is better for gaming? Are these units already capable of running mass effect 2, or are too weak for it? TOSHIBA SATELLITE A300-23R PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™2 Duo T6400 2.0GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 cache CHIPSET: Intel® PM45 Express Chipset MEMORY: 3GB DDR2 800MHz (upgradeable up to 8GB) HARD DISK: 320GB SATA OPTICAL DRIVE: DVD Super Multi (Double Layer) Drive DISPLAY: 15.4" Toshiba TruBrite® WXGA+ widescreen display (1400x900) GRAPHICS: 512MB Dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650 supporting HyperMemory™ technology Windows Index: 5.1 Model: ASUS K52JR PROCESSOR:Intel® Core™ i3 Processor 350M *Core 2 QUAD 2.27~2.3ghz* MEMORY:4GIG DDR3 RAM 1066Mhz HARD DISK:500Gig HDD DISPLAY:15.6" HD LED LCD (glossy) 1366 x 768 GRAPHICS: ATI Mobility™ Radeon® HD 5470 1G DDR3 VRAM WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX: 4.8
The Asus has better specs...and it'll be a lot more reliable. Don't know why you would even consider a second hand Toshiba. There's a reason why he's trying to get rid of it after owning it for four months.
Afaik, the Windows Experience Index is the sum of several other ratings, so you should check which component is dragging down the ASUS' score. I wouldn't be so concerned about it, though. The ASUS is better in every component, except, maybe, the monitor - it's a lower resolution in comparison to the Toshiba, but it is in 16:9, so it's up to your fancy. I think the most probable cause of the lower WEI score for the ASUS is the video card. The RADEON 5470 may be two generations ahead of the Toshiba's 3650, but the second digit in the naming scheme of video cards tells at what segment of the market a card is targeted for. Afaik, the *4** series is a low-mid performance card, whereas the *6** series is a true budget performance card. Anyway, best to consult a chart with an actual comparison.
Wow thanks a lot for the explanation. Hmm I suppose it really would be idiotic of me to go with the Toshiba choice. Thanks guys :grin:
at this point with laptops, Toshiba and ASUS have been pretty even in terms of the products they've put out recently. So I'd throw out the brand names in considering these (because a lot of times you attach reliability and performance to certain brand names).. and when you do that, ASUS wins by a mile based purely on new vs. used....and then it wins again on the specs.
Processor The Toshiba's T6400 is a previous-generation processor, but still a very good processor. The i5-350 is not a quad-core processor as you've stated, though. It's a dual core processor. The i5-350 is not even in the Core 2 family. The upside is the i5-350 is a more recent processor, but the downside is that it is on the lower end of the i5 family and doesn't have some of the advantages of the other i5 members like the 5xx series and up. Advantage : Asus Memory For your needs, the clock/speed of the memory probably isn't as important, but having 4 GB may be better than having 3 GB (depending on the OS you run), so ... Advantage : Asus Hard Drive The more space, the merrier, right? Well, to some, the energy use and rotational speed of the drives matter, too. I don't know if these drives are 7200 or 5400 RPM drives, so I'll go with Advantage : Asus Display The Toshiba is 1400x900 while the Asus is 1366x768. Based upon this alone, the Toshiba is a better resolution. Text and graphics should look better on it. Asus has also had a bad reputation on some of their more recent laptops for having poor screens. One of the reasons laptops with really good specs for their processors, video cards, etc. can be priced lower is those manufacturers may use lower specs (like 1366x768 screens). They all do this. It's the reason I've been looking for a laptop since November. lol. That being said, many people are perfectly fine viewing their stuff on a native 1366x768 screen. Knowing nothing else, and without doing the most important thing : actually viewing the screens in person, Advantage : Toshiba Graphics Card This is where it gets goofy. The 5470 is among the latest mobile video cards, but if you look at strict performance, it won't beat the 3650 by much, and in some cases may actually have slower benchmarks. The one advantage the 5470 has is that it supports DirectX 11 if you plan on running Windows on the box. The 3650 doesn't and won't. That being said, not many software out there supports DirectX 11 yet, but at least you know there is a bit of future-proofing in the 5470. The additional 512 MB of memory doesn't hurt, either. Advantage : Asus You may also want to check the warranties. Asus comes with a 2-year warranty on most (?) of their laptops now, I think. I don't know what kind of warranty the Toshiba you'll get will have, plus whatever it is, 4 months of it will be gone. Overall, I'd take the Asus even with the price difference.
