Understanding Processor Performance and your needs

rdow1988

Honorable
Feb 6, 2014
1
0
10,510
Hi All,

I need some advice that I can trust regarding which laptop is right for me. Ive been into the stores but all you get is sales talk and it really doesn’t give you an understanding of your own requirements.

I’m a budding photographer and use my Laptops for two things, 1) Photoshop Photography Editing and 2) HD Video Playback (Not editing in this case). I therefore need a laptop that can edit RAW photos without slowing down too much, and also play back HD Videos without jogging or lag.

What should I be looking for in a new laptop. I need to first understand, based on my requirements am I ok with Quad Core processors of around 1.6GHz or should I be looking for a dual core with a higher GHz?

I have been looking at some laptops but need advise on where I get the best value/performance for me:

£350 - Pavilion 15-n271sa – AMD Quad Core (1.5GHz, 2mb Cache), 750GB Hard Drive (which is fine for me), 4GB Ram (which is a little slow but possibly bearable), AMD Radeon HD 8330 Graphics Card

£500 - Pavilion 15-n083sa - AMD A10-4655M Processor (2 GHz, 4 MB cache), 1TB Hard Drive, 8GB Ram, AMD Radeon HD 7620/8670 (2GB Dedicated I believe)

£430 - Pavilion 15-n096ea - Intel® Core™ i5-4200U Processor (1.6 GHz, 3 MB cache), ), 1TB Hard Drive, 8GB Ram, Not sure on the Graphics Card

£450 - Pavilion 15-n090sa - AMD Quad-Core A8-4555M Processor (1.6 GHz, 4 MB cache), 1TB Hard Drive, 8GB Ram, AMD Radeon HD 7600G