general use laptop- i3 or i5? (Selected)

[spdfreak]

Time to replace my Dell Vostro 1000 Athlon X2. As far as I can tell, both the i3 and i5 are dual core hyper-threaded. Will I see any significant differences using the laptop for general use stuff like office, internet, running some business apps like Quickbooks, etc?
I have an SSD to put in the i3 and probably more memory. The Acer already has a SSD and 8GB.
These are the prime candidates...

i5 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_sp=Homepage_BS-_-P1_34-315-779-_-04292017

i3 - at Microcenter and I can't get their website to come up but it is a Lenovo 7th gen i3, 4GB ram, 500GB HDD, and the price is 250.00. Seems like a really good deal.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Can you go somewhere to try them in person? The i3 is probably fine speed-wise, but for either of them you might not like the display or the keyboard.

Also, is there a Microsoft Store near you? They offer laptops without a bunch of extra bloatware that you need to uninstall.

 

[spdfreak]

Can you go somewhere to try them in person? The i3 is probably fine speed-wise, but for either of them you might not like the display or the keyboard.

Also, is there a Microsoft Store near you? They offer laptops without a bunch of extra bloatware that you need to uninstall.

I can go and try the Lenovo at MC... the Acer at NE is listed as a NE exclusive. MC site is back up. Here is the Lenovo- http://www.microcenter.com/product/476554/Ideapad_V110-15ISK_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

The Acer has a 1080 display and the Lenovo is the standard 1366x768. I might not like the smaller text and icons on the Acer since it is only 15.6 and my eyes are not what they used to be! I just don't want a shiny screen.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It looks like the display is pretty cheap on the Lenovo, but that's not surprising at half the cost of the Acer: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-310-15ISK-Notebook-Review.173924.0.html

 

[JeffMD]

As far as processors, an i3 would be fine (I find my cubi with an i3 ULV to be quite snappy on SSD). But if this is your main computer, you may want a great looking screen so you should shop for that instead of worrying about cpu details, you will most likely find a good cpu in what ever has a good panel.

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

The i5 one has ssd, i3 does not so its a no brainer. I would sooner get i5 with ssd than even the highest end i7 with hdd.
And I would rather get a quad core ryzen apu laptop than any intel ULV

 

[Blue_Max]

I can go and try the Lenovo at MC... the Acer at NE is listed as a NE exclusive. MC site is back up. Here is the Lenovo- http://www.microcenter.com/product/476554/Ideapad_V110-15ISK_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

The Acer has a 1080 display and the Lenovo is the standard 1366x768. I might not like the smaller text and icons on the Acer since it is only 15.6 and my eyes are not what they used to be! I just don't want a shiny screen.

I can't agree more! Some people like glossy, but anything less than perfect lighting becomes a mirror instead of a computer. No thanks! Gimme' a business-class matte screen any day!

google Notebookcheck [dot] net plus the model you're considering and you might find a review with all the specs and rundown of screen quality, heat, noise, battery - you name it.

Screen quality and quiet running are my must-haves. No exceptions.

 

[Valantar]

The i5 one has ssd, i3 does not so its a no brainer. I would sooner get i5 with ssd than even the highest end i7 with hdd.
And I would rather get a quad core ryzen apu laptop than any intel ULV

The OP has an SSD to put in the i3, so that point is pretty much moot.

Also, Ryzen APUs won't be here until fall, so unless the OP has a lot of time to wait, that's a no-go.

I can go and try the Lenovo at MC... the Acer at NE is listed as a NE exclusive. MC site is back up. Here is the Lenovo- http://www.microcenter.com/product/476554/Ideapad_V110-15ISK_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

The Acer has a 1080 display and the Lenovo is the standard 1366x768. I might not like the smaller text and icons on the Acer since it is only 15.6 and my eyes are not what they used to be! I just don't want a shiny screen.

A matter panel is a must, I agree. Remember that you can set display scaling to compensate for small text (Windows 10 scaling is reasonably good these days), and a sharper display is actually easier to read with poor vision most of the time. Also, don't underestimate the difference in workspace size between a 1366*768 and a 1920*1080 display. You can get a lot more done with the latter, even with it scaled down. Lastly, unless you love fiddling with the screen to see it properly, finding something with a non-TN panel for better viewing angles (IPS, VA, whatever) is a big boon for usability.

 

[spdfreak]

I stopped at Best Buy and looked at what they offer in the under 500.00 category and they all have shiny screens... I need to go look at the core i3 laptop at Microcenter and see if the screen is matte and high enough quality. It will be connected to another 24in monitor at my office most of the time, so I'll keep email open on the laptop screen and web/apps on the monitor. I can't wait for Ryzen since this old Athlon II makes any kind of work tedious!

 

[spdfreak]

So, I just wanted to update this thread on my decision. NE has a great deal on what are called "refurbished" Acer 7th gen core i3's with 1080 matte displays and backlit KB for 323.00. The 3 reviews pretty much state that they are new laptops- maybe excess inventory or something but only 90 day warranty. I bought another 4GB ram to go in it and I have a 240GB SSD to put in as well. I'll probably put the 1TB drive in the optical drive bay. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315815
It comes with win10 home but I have a win 10 pro disc/lic I haven't used so I will install that. Is there any way to save the win10 home lic for use on another system or is it locked to the laptop?

 

[Valantar]

It comes with win10 home but I have a win 10 pro disc/lic I haven't used so I will install that. Is there any way to save the win10 home lic for use on another system or is it locked to the laptop?

It'll be an OEM license, so it should be locked to the hardware it was first sold on. Might not, though. I just activated a fresh W10 install on a new mb+cpu with my W7 Ultimate OEM key from way back when (I bought that separately, though, not bundled with hardware).YMMV. These days, though, they tend to write the key to the BIOS or UEFI (so that new installs are activated without you needing to enter a key). I don't know how this affect upgrading to another version of the OS, nor how it affects using the key for another PC.

 

[spdfreak]

Got the laptop and put in the 240GB SSD, 4 more GB of memory, loaded windows off a USB drive and it activated automatically as win 10 home. Must be stored in the bios. I'll have to do the upgrade to pro with the lic key I have.
But, this is a really nice budget laptop. the 1080 screen is an order of magnitude better than all the other cheap laptops I looked at. Back-lit KB is really nice too.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It'll be an OEM license, so it should be locked to the hardware it was first sold on. Might not, though. I just activated a fresh W10 install on a new mb+cpu with my W7 Ultimate OEM key from way back when (I bought that separately, though, not bundled with hardware).YMMV. These days, though, they tend to write the key to the BIOS or UEFI (so that new installs are activated without you needing to enter a key). I don't know how this affect upgrading to another version of the OS, nor how it affects using the key for another PC.

I don't think the Windows Activation process for Windows 10 writes / flashes the Windows Product Activation Key to the BIOS / UEFI (wouldn't it just get erased the next time you update your UEFI? What about boards with dualBIOS?).

Pretty certain, that MS just keeps track of the mobo (serial number string, hash of BIOS/UEFI) on their servers, along with the HDD serial number(s) and your ethernet MAC address(es), and that when you perform a clean install on the same or substantially-similar hardware, it will automagically re-activate for you, based on the info on their servers.

 

[ch33zw1z]

It depends:

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht103102

The license can be "built in". I don't know if Acer does that though.