Which CPU: AMD Fusion E-450 vs i3 ULV

[SoulBrother]

The cheaper one. Both will do your job fine.

Thank you for the straight forward answer!

 

[exar333]

Thank you for the straight forward answer!

I would be more focused around getting the features you need to get the pictures on your computer. Do you need USB 3.0? Meida slots? if so, how fast are the built-in ports, etc.

 

[gmaster456]

How many of you can say with a straight face that you do anything on an 11.6 inch netbook that would choke an e-450? Of course the i3 is faster in CPU bound tasks, but its also what? at least 40% more expensive right? You don't use a netbook when you need to get CPU intensive tasks done. Choose the right tool for the job.

 

[SoulBrother]

I would be more focused around getting the features you need to get the pictures on your computer. Do you need USB 3.0? Meida slots? if so, how fast are the built-in ports, etc.

I haven't seen a ultra portable or netbook with USB 3 yet and I imagine if one has it's a more expensive model. USB2 will do fine and take them straight from the camera. I think i'm good that way. It was a question of whether extra money for the "better" unit was going to net me any more function. Just bought the i3 HP dm1 for $525 + tax. 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, and external DVD burner. It seemed at this point it was <$100 more for the i3 versus E-450 and the savings wouldn't warrant a potential disappointment if I got it and wished I had gone with the better processor.

 

[sm625]

The only reason I'm looking at this netbook/laptop is that I'm a photographer and I'm going on a month long holiday. I plan on taking gigabytes worth of photos and I need some place to drop them. A netbook seemed like a smart solution

Why bother with one at all?

Why not just buy flash cards?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161396

They are less than $1 per GB.

Unless you are taking more than 80GB of photos I would say the most cost effective option is to buy 4 extra 16GB cards. We're talkin 10,000 photos at least...

 

[SoulBrother]

I'd require Compact Flash cards and it would get pricey and there would be no redundancy if those cards got damaged, lost, or stolen. I'm shooting with Canon 5DMkII and I shoot RAW files which are going to be ~21MB a photo. In a months time I'm surely going to fill more than a few GBs worth of storage. 16GB cards aren't nearly as inexpensive as SD cards (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006856%20600006181%20600006234&IsNodeId=1&name=16GB) and I'd need quite a few 16GB cards. 80GB looks to be around $150 and that's an off brand slower speed card. I also have the option of shooting video which I might try to take advantage of. So a bunch of 16GB cards or the cost of a 500GB hard drive and maybe an external drive to back those up on to just in case. Then when I get back this would be a nice unit to take on shoots with the ability to transfer the data or burn it off to give to a client. (it comes with a DVD burner).

 

[htwingnut]

See my comparison on E-450 vs i3 in the HP DM1 here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...9-amd-e-350-e-450-intel-i3-2367-compared.html

Hopefully help make your decisions. I plan on adding a little more detail over the coming days.

 

[Bellerophone]

Hi!

I'm in the same situation you are, and I would suggest that you get the i3 one.
I'm not a photographer, but I study education and spend a lot of my time "in the field" collecting data and doing observations. This means that I need to collect data from data loggers, record interviews and take lots of pictures and video.

A netbook is not suitable for photoshop, but it's really nice to be able to sift through your pics on a bigger screen than the one on your camera. I apply presets, and I do tagging, rating, deleting(!) etc. in lightroom at the end of each day. If you, like me, have thousands and thousands of pictures to go through, you will definitively want the i3 over the E450, especially since lightroom does not use gpu acceleration. It's a bit slow even on the intel but it'll save you hours, if not days in post. I'd even buy a 120 GB ssd and an external unpowered 1TB hard drive if you have the budget for it, or you could buy it later as nice add-ons.

How many of you can say with a straight face that you do anything on an 11.6 inch netbook that would choke an e-450? Of course the i3 is faster in CPU bound tasks, but its also what? at least 40% more expensive right? You don't use a netbook when you need to get CPU intensive tasks done. Choose the right tool for the job.

Ah, the timeless "you must be stupid if you want to do this with that" reply.
I actually do statistical analysis on huge datasets on my netbook in the field. How? by using it as a thin client I can ssh into my server back at uni and transfer the data. I can even work in photoshop by rdp'ing to my desktop back home. Sometimes, however, I don't have an internet connection and I need to do something, like encode a video for a presentation. It's nice to have that done in two hours instead of four, or four hours instead of eight etc.

 

[BiG K]

All I see here is i3 is faster at processing than the E450. Well of course it is. However, has anyone wondered that you don't need lots of processing power for surfing the web and general light usuage?

What does matter is the GPU. As multimedia is everywhere now, a decent GPU is required and this is what has been lacking.

I would go for the E450, as it will offer better battery life, better graphics for rendering websites and video.

 

[pyjujiop]

All I see here is i3 is faster at processing than the E450. Well of course it is. However, has anyone wondered that you don't need lots of processing power for surfing the web and general light usuage?

I've been making that point on other sites for a while now. I never use a laptop for anything more than "general light usage," and my main laptop is a Pentium M-based machine from 2006. I've never bothered to upgrade because I haven't needed to; the old 2 GHz Dothan handles anything I throw at it. Unless you do something CPU-intensive, it doesn't really matter what your CPU is.

As far as what the OP was asking, though, I'd bag both of those ideas and try to find something based on a Llano APU for not much more money.

 

[happysmiles]

e-450.