Need an honest opinion

ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
4
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Well let's keep it short, I wanted to buy a cheap, very cheap Notebook, just for downloading purpose, and I ended up buying a Samsung NP355E5X, last week. Now I don't like it's performance, I am not talking about gaming or stuffs, just browsing some heavy sites, this thing just stutters like hell! I have loaded Win 7 x86 on to this, the boot up time, opening some apps and all are decent, but the web browsing expereince can't be any poorer imo (tried all the browsers, so leave it), and then comes watching 720p video on YouTube, without that Steady video crap of AMP it's totally un-watchable, with it, it's still disgusting. And I don't expect any earth shattering quality, but this is literally the worst display I have ever seen on anything!
So I have decided to sale this thing, and buy a little more snappier one, more faster you see, now, I have targeted two models,

a- Lenovo G500, with that i3 3110M CPU (http://www.snapdeal.com/product/lenovo-essential-g500-59380860-laptop/1425499724) or

b- Asus X55C-SX026D (http://www.flipkart.com/asus-x55c-s...=b_2&ref=8ad5e6b4-8428-4c3c-96a8-a641faa3aded).

The problem is some people have been pointed out that those two i3 modesl will perform same as this one, cause CPU is not the culprit here, RAM is, and advised me to add another 2 GB kit with that Samsung Notebook. So here's my question, is that true? Is RAM causing the bottleneck here, or the CPU? If I buy either the Lenovo or the Asus will they output same lagging behaviour like this Sammy model? AMD Dual core APU will perform same as an i3 3rd gen CPU? I just need to make sure of that.

Will appreciate some opinions, thanks in advance.
 
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HOSED

Senior member
Dec 30, 2013
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I too had a recent poor experience with a Samsung (long story but it is back on BEst Buy's shelf at this moment). It appears that the Samsung comes stock with 2 GB RAM which is not enough for Win 7 iMO. One other test you can do hook up to your router via a cable and use an Ubuntu live CD or USB stick (32 bit) to see how good browsing speeds are. Just going by this http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-2100-vs-AMD-E1-1200 I would agree that any of the 3 choices running 2 GB ram will be slow due to the use of the swap file.
Also check the Samsung via resource monitor to see RAM / Swap file usage
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
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That is a *very* weak cpu in that Samsung you purchased originally. It is basically a netbook processor stuffed into a full size laptop. That said, I would not buy a laptop with only 2 gb of ram. In fact I didnt even know you could purchase an i3 with 2gb of ram.

Are you buying from the US? 4gb of ram is pretty much standard. Recently I purchased a HP laptop for my wife with 4gb of ram and an i3 for around 350.00, which works quite well.

Best Buy, Office Depot, or any similar big box store routinely have specials on decent laptops in the 300 to 400 dollar range (with an i3 and 4gb of ram) that should handle 720p youtube videos easily. Do *not* go for anything with 2gb of ram though. That is pretty much low end tablet specs.
 

ninaholic37

Golden Member
Apr 13, 2012
1,883
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I don't think the RAM is the culprit. You can see for yourself by opening Task Manager and see if anything is eating all of it. The CPU might be the culprit (you can see when it hits 100% in Task Manager also), an i3 will probably be somewhat faster. The first thing I would do is get rid of the "junkware" that comes with the laptop though, look at the bottom task bar and get rid of what you don't need, especially the anti-virus, most of them slow everything down because they're monitoring everything you're doing in the background. Or just run YouTube videos at 360p instead of 720p. :p
 
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ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
4
81
Okay got it. I will check task manager to see what RAM/CPU usage is. I have not installed any anti virus, it is this slow already, I can not think how slow it might get with an anti virus!
I am not located in US, I live in Calcutta. You might get a i3 with 4 GB memory combo for 350 there, but there the story is different, at least add another 100 bucks if not more.
Anyway, I also see that 2 GB is pretty low, so I need something with 4 GB RAM at least. I will check task manager, but honestly, 2 GB RAM should have been enough for doing basic stuffs right. You see I hate all this Notebook/Laptop stuffs, I am a pure desktop guy, that's why I didn't bother to check review about this notebook and it's damn CPU. Anyway a bad decision has been made, and I need to rectify it.

Update: Good lord, it seems to be the CPU. I just opened Chrome and played a 360p video, along with two other tabs and the CPU usage continuously hit 100% and varied between 75-100%, while the physical memory never crossed 70%. Other than Chrome I only had uTorrent running. How weak a CPU is this, two apps and CPU is hitting 100%? God!
 
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fire400

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2005
5,204
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an i3 even with a 5400rpm would be snappy on windows 7 or 8

asus or lenovo.

i would do the lenovo. more OS option support from lenovo.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
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Do NOT buy a Lenovo unless it's a Thinkpad model. Otherwise they aren't made well and there are way too many bad stories about their support to rely on.

Run away from Lenovo, and fast. But I don't think that's a great Asus model either. What's your budget?
 

pw257008

Senior member
Jan 11, 2014
288
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I've got a Lenovo running very strong, two and a half years old now. It was a more expensive model, but not a ThinkPad. Though Asus is good as well. In the budget laptop area, I'd go with either Lenovo or Asus given the choice.
 

ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
4
81
Yeah sorry, I don't believe in sad Lenovo story. If there's one Laptop brand I can go for with my eyes closed, it'll be them, even over Dell, so thanks.
 

pw257008

Senior member
Jan 11, 2014
288
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In this case I'd get the Lenovo, since it's an Ivy Bridge clocked 200 mhz higher. As for the RAM, why not pick up a 2 or 4 GB stick along with the laptop and add it in? RAM's probably the easiest upgrade in most laptops.
 

ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
4
81
Yeah, I will upgrade the RAM to 4 GB. I won't stay with 2 GB. But for one day at least I will use 2 GB, just to confirm how much my current one sucks, CPU wise.