laptop Which cpu and when?

[Bannerboat]

Hi. 

As the most consumers that don't have a clue about computers and the jungle with so many option's to choose from.  How do I know what kind of specs I need? No gaming at all. 

 

Celeron

Pentium

I3,i5,i7

 

For what kind of usage is a celeron good enough? 

Where is the line where i should choose a pentium instead, and from pentium to i3   etc.  

 

When I visit the local stores i get alot of different recommendations. Some wants to sell me expensive 1000$ models, another shows me 350$ one. How do i know if the salesman is trying to sell me a pricier model just because he earns more there or is it something i actual need?  the other salesman maybe that shows me the 350$ , does he know jack shit? Or he just pointing on the closest laptop to him?  How important is antivirus?  Everyone says you need it.  Difference between free versions or paying 90$ /year. 

 

Let me know what you think

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

16 minutes ago, Bannerboat said:

How do I know what kind of specs I need? No gaming at all.

That's a bit like asking: How much horse power does my car need, no racing at all. It's not possible to base a recommendation on so little data. It depends on what you want to do with the system (not what you don't want to do).

 

Do you want to: Surf the web, Write emails, Watch 4K movies, Render 4K movies, Develop apps (what kind of apps), Run scientific simulations, …

 

The faster the components you buy (CPU/GPU/RAM), the more responsive the system will feel and the faster it can accomplish tasks. A fast computer can do anything a slow computer can (and vice versa). The main difference is how long the computer takes to do things.

 

Increased speed typically comes at the cost of being more expensive to buy and more expensive to run (requires more power).

 

So the question really comes down to: What do you want to do with the system, how fast is fast enough for you, how much patience do you have e.g. when rendering a movie. A slow PC may be unable to play 4K movies in a way that is enjoyable (choppy/stutters), but maybe 1080p is good enough for you, etc.

[Moonzy]

for normal web browsing, as long as u have an SSD, even the most basic of PC will feel good enough

for example, i have a core 2 quad system from 2007, i added an SSD to it and it feels good enough for me to consume youtube on it just fine (needs a modern GPU for video decoding but yea)

 

13 minutes ago, Bannerboat said:

How important is antivirus?  Everyone says you need it.

it depends on how aware you are imo

if you're the type that clicks links randomly, then you may consider it

 

i never really use AV since few years ago, because it only annoys me and makes my pc slower

[Pixelfie]

If you use it for just browsing a Celeron or Pentium would do, but only modern ones. Getting an i3 or i5 would last many more years, i7 would be overkill.

 

I have a laptop with a 2010 i5 which is still great for this use, while my Pentium from 2017 isn't unusable but definitely noticably slower. In 2017 they where equally as fast for these tasks.

 

More important would be to get a minimum of 8gb RAM and an SSD. Your OS would already use like 5gb, but with 4gb it would have to stop preloading stuff or put everything in the page file making everything slower. And HDD, just don't get it, unless it's a second drive.

 

You really don't need anti-virus. Defender is more than enough, those third party ones will only make your PC slower.

[FRD]

From my experience, I think most Celeron and Pentium processors are too weak. From the laptops I've used, those dual core CPUs are usually clogged to 100% or near, even when idle. Since they're usually budget laptops, they come with 4GB RAM which is also easily full. For me at least, a quad core Pentium or i3 is the minimum.

In most cases an i5 is the perfect sweet spot. You don't really need an i7, unless you need the speed or cores. On the older i5s and i7s, they both even have 4 cores, while the oldest i5s had 2 cores only.