choice between a couple of Asus laptops

tenorm

Honorable
Jun 2, 2012
2
0
10,510
Hi,

I am in the market for a new laptop which will mostly be used for school and light gaming. I'm looking for something that I can travel with and that can run a few old games like skyrim and minecraft.
After doing some research I like what Asus has to offer and am looking at two laptops from amazon.

First is ASUS K550CA http://www.amazon.ca/15-6-Inch-Notebook-Processor-Graphics-K550Lb-DS71-CA/dp/B00IHUAZ3W/ref=sr_1_119?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1398553776&sr=1-119

The second is ASUS S56CB http://www.amazon.ca/S56CB-DS71-CA-15-6-Inch-Notebook-Processor-Windows/dp/B00DJEZWCU/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1398495735&sr=1-3&keywords=asus+s56

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Asus laptops or these models. I realize both are similar with the same GPU (gt740m) and similar processors. Battery life is important to me as well. Any input or opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
 
Solution
I would choose the one that is cheaper, they are practically the same, the CPUs are very similar, i would play safe though and buy a Haswell Architecture one, by that i mean the 4500, first link :D

EDIT= i just noticed the difference in RAM, another good reason to choose the first one

Remixex

Estimable
Mar 18, 2014
46
0
4,610
I would choose the one that is cheaper, they are practically the same, the CPUs are very similar, i would play safe though and buy a Haswell Architecture one, by that i mean the 4500, first link :D

EDIT= i just noticed the difference in RAM, another good reason to choose the first one
 
Solution

tenorm

Honorable
Jun 2, 2012
2
0
10,510
Thanks for the reply. I think you are right about going with the slightly better 4500 haswell. Its a little more future proof and should draw less power. Further research into these models I've noticed battery complaints about the Asus 56cb lastiing only3.5 hrs and I think the K55CA should last a bit longer (says 5 hrs).

The tradeoff with the K550CA having the extra 2 gig of ram (8g total) is that it does not have the hybrid hard drive that the 56CB has. ( 1T +24gb) Honestly though I can see myself at sometime swapping out the drive for a full ssd