Upgrade from Lenovo B50 AMD A6

Capt.OBViOUS

Member
Jul 13, 2012
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Howdy ! Long Time !
Wanted a laptop just for MS word, So got this Lenovo B50 on 2015 Black Friday for $200
  • AMD A6-6310 Quad Core 1.8 GHz, Integrated AMD Radeon R4 Graphics
  • 4GB 1333MHz DDR3L SDRAM, 500GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
Now that I am using it for more intensive tasks than MS word .
such as Image processing / DSLR photography (might use Lightroom in future)
Even Youtube hiccups @ 60fps 720p is the saddest part :(
.
I have a good desktop at home, but want a laptop since I am travelling a lot.So dont want 'to spend more than $300-400, Willing to buy Black Friday deals.No Gaming intended.Will buy from Bestbuy since I can get $100 when I sell the old notebook.
, Can increse budget if needed !
Thank you !
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
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In your budget range I have sincere doubts that you'll find anything that delivers passable performance in Lightroom. My girfriend's Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro (i7-4500u, 8GB RAM, Samsung 850 Evo SSD) struggles quite a bit in Lightroom when browsing the library (filled with RAW files from her Sony A7sII, so not the biggest files) and the like - to such a degree that the mouse pointer lags significantly at times. It's mostly good, but at times quite bad. Now, a Kaby Lake i7 (and most likely even i5) will be noticeably faster than it is even at 15W. But it won't be fast or really suited for that kind of work.

In that price range, you could probably find some cheapo Acer 15" laptop with an i7, but not with a passable SSD. I doubt anyone will have any real recommendations for you as laptops in that price range are generally not very exciting. You might have some luck looking at Dell Outlet and the like.

This Inspiron from Dell Outlet looks decent for $429. The i5-6200u is decent, especially as it's running in cTDP up-mode (i.e. the power limit is set at 25W rather than 15, allowing it to run faster for longer amounts of time). 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD alongside a 1080p display is probably as good as you're going to find in that kind of price range.
 

Capt.OBViOUS

Member
Jul 13, 2012
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In your budget range I have sincere doubts that you'll find anything that delivers passable performance in Lightroom. My girfriend's Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro (i7-4500u, 8GB RAM, Samsung 850 Evo SSD) struggles quite a bit in Lightroom when browsing the library (filled with RAW files from her Sony A7sII, so not the biggest files) and the like - to such a degree that the mouse pointer lags significantly at times. It's mostly good, but at times quite bad. Now, a Kaby Lake i7 (and most likely even i5) will be noticeably faster than it is even at 15W. But it won't be fast or really suited for that kind of work.

In that price range, you could probably find some cheapo Acer 15" laptop with an i7, but not with a passable SSD. I doubt anyone will have any real recommendations for you as laptops in that price range are generally not very exciting. You might have some luck looking at Dell Outlet and the like.

This Inspiron from Dell Outlet looks decent for $429. The i5-6200u is decent, especially as it's running in cTDP up-mode (i.e. the power limit is set at 25W rather than 15, allowing it to run faster for longer amounts of time). 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD alongside a 1080p display is probably as good as you're going to find in that kind of price range.
Thanks, was not looking for the best, but do not want to stutter on 60 fps/720p youtube videos.I hope the new laptops can handle this very well.
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
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Thanks, was not looking for the best, but do not want to stutter on 60 fps/720p youtube videos.I hope the new laptops can handle this very well.
That shouldn't be a problem. Anything Skylake or newer can at the very least handle 1080p60 with hardware decoding. Skylake also does "hybrid" (hardware+software) decoding of 4k30, while Kaby Lake does it entirely in hardware (for compatible formats).
 
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Capt.OBViOUS

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Jul 13, 2012
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That shouldn't be a problem. Anything Skylake or newer can at the very least handle 1080p60 with hardware decoding. Skylake also does "hybrid" (hardware+software) decoding of 4k30, while Kaby Lake does it entirely in hardware (for compatible formats).
What generation is skylake ? cos I see Intel core i5 5th generation, 6 th generation etc in cpus
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
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What generation is skylake ? cos I see Intel core i5 5th generation, 6 th generation etc in cpus
Skylake is 6th, Kaby Lake is 7th. 5th is Broadwell, which doesn't do hardware decoding of HEVC, H.265 or VP9 - the most modern formats used for anything from YouTube to Netflix to torrents of movies. It might still play it smoothly, at least at moderate resolutions and framerates, but it will stress the CPU quite a bit doing so.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
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Hmm, I never noticed any stutter with YouTube videos. I own what I believe is the same laptop, a Lenovo B50-45, that I picked up some BF some year a couple of years back, for $200 on ebay. Bought two of them. Mine has performed admirably, although I put in a 240GB MLC SATA SSD soon after I got it. (It was basically the first thing that I did.)

Have you considered an SSD for the existing laptop?
 

Capt.OBViOUS

Member
Jul 13, 2012
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Hmm, I never noticed any stutter with YouTube videos. I own what I believe is the same laptop, a Lenovo B50-45, that I picked up some BF some year a couple of years back, for $200 on ebay. Bought two of them. Mine has performed admirably, although I put in a 240GB MLC SATA SSD soon after I got it. (It was basically the first thing that I did.)

Have you considered an SSD for the existing laptop?
Hi, When It started stuttering I reinstalled Win 10, but still stuttering.Are you sure that you have the AMD A6 cpu.I also got it for 200 BF deal.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
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Yes, I'm sure. It's the A6-6310 APU, running Windows 7. I had to revert the AMD video drivers. (Uninstall them) I had updated them, but then I had an issue with a black screen occasionally. Not sure what that's about.