<p>Trying to find the best bang for the buck but am getting so overwhelmed with what my d will need. </p>
<p>The school want vista business. There seems to be some great deals out at the local stores, but my biggest hang up is I have alway used intel processors. </p>
<p>D also wants something light but not a tablet because she thinks they run too slow. </p>
<p>(The school received an HP grant for tablets.)</p>
<p>I believe a store tech told me AMD processes differently. </p>
<p>her schedule will eventually include Matlab. </p>
<p>I would like to try and get something that will last the 4 years. Don't know what else she will be using as Engineering Science -Electrical concentration.</p>
<p>Considering a Toshiba at Best Buy 13.3 with a AMD Turion X@ dual core Mobile 64 with Vista Ultimate - but a friend said he had two Toshiba's and they run hot. </p>
<ul>
<li>On the high end, Intel processors are generally better nowadays, but I'd be surprised if compute nodes aren't available for them to use for any computation that's particularly intensive. </li>
<li>Tablets don't run slower, it'll just cost more to get one with a fast processor, because the touch screen increases the prices.</li>
<li>Intel and AMD processors both conform to the same standards, so that store tech didn't know what he was talking about (not a big surprise there).</li>
<li>You can't categorize Toshiba's as a whole as running hot—it depends on the individual model. Just look online for comments on a particular model and try it out in the store if you can, even if you buy it online (where you can usually get coupon codes for huge savings).</li>
</ul>
<p>There's no "best processor speed". The more you pay, the more you get; it all depends on what you need. A 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo is probably enough. However, be aware that Intel is released the new Montevina processors 2 days ago, so you'll want to try to get a tablet with one of those.</p>
<p>AMD processors do run slightly differently...but they do things just as well as Intel. bottom line, it won't make a difference.</p>
<p>as for how fast, that doesn't matter much either. 1.8 Ghz is fine, 2.0 is fine, i don't think 2.4 is really necessary but that works too.</p>
<p>Toshibas, as far as i can tell, just run hot in general. AMD processors don't run hot by nature (or at least don't anymore), it had to do with them being paired with crappy heatsinks. that changed awhile ago.</p>
<p>intel by a landslide. AMD is more of a budget cpu.</p>
<p>intel has ALWAYS been faster than AMD. Get at least a t8300(2.4ghz) or you can jump the gun and get a computer with the brand new montevina platform, which will most likely be buggy.</p>
<p>toshiba satellites are horrible by the way.</p>
<p>
[quote]
intel has ALWAYS been faster than AMD.
[/quote]
About 4 years ago, AMD was doing much better than Intel. It's because they started putting pressure on Intel to improve that we got the Core processors.</p>
<p>Core was pretty close to a skunkworks project and Intel was lucky to have it. AMD did very well but then failed to execute after its success and ran on momentum for a while. Then Intel executed. And executed. And executed. Intel introduced the SSSE3 instruction set in 2006. AMD still doesn't support this instruction set. AMD put out an SSE5 standard. Intel announced AVX which means that AMD will have to scrap their SSE5 standard and follow Intel.</p>
<p>AMD just reported a $1.2 billion quarterly loss. And their CEO resigned. AMD is falling behind Intel. Intel has faster CPUs even without an integrated memory controller. And they're going to add the IMC in Nehalem.</p>
<p>Im an Engineering Major as well only second year though, I personally dont use any applications that stress my computer to 100% processing power to the point it becomes sluggish. Honestly you probably wont tell much of a difference between intel or amd when your using applications such as ( MATlab, Visual C++, Pspice, Multisim) maybe in CAD but im not an ME.</p>
<p>I would recommend the standard dual core processor generally the lesser the speed the more battery time you will have but I didn't find myself taking my laptop out of the dorm that much. The biggest factor with Windows Vista is RAM it's a RAM hog its designed to "efficiently" use all the ram that the computer has, id recommend getting at least above 3 gig's of RAM.</p>
<p>As for a brand, search online a bit I generally stray away from bring brand names (Toshiba, HP, Dell). Lenovo would be an excellent choice even though they're not the most physically appealing laptops out.</p>
<p>"Honestly you probably wont tell much of a difference between intel or amd when your using applications such as ( MATlab, Visual C++"</p>
<p>I routinely compile two million lines of code in Visual C++ and GCC and there is a significant difference in the amount of time that it takes. AMD's processors have gone bargain basement with 3.0 Ghz Brisbanes now under $100.</p>
<p>"I would recommend the standard dual core processor generally the lesser the speed the more battery time you will have"</p>
<p>Processors are pretty good at dynamically adjusting power consumption for CPU load. The model now is to get the work done quickly and then go to sleep. If you have an older processor without this feature, then you can always undervolt your processor for better battery life.</p>
<p>"The biggest factor with Windows Vista is RAM it's a RAM hog its designed to "efficiently" use all the ram that the computer has, id recommend getting at least above 3 gig's of RAM."</p>
<p>A good reason to go with Windows XP, Linux or Mac OSX.</p>