Was the laptop worth it?

[Bogica]

Hey everyone,

I've been recently looking for an entry level laptop for college work, reports and some light software, maybe even some very light gaming (CS:GO and similar). I've thought about it and a Pentium dual-quad core and 4gb RAM with Intel HD graphics would have been good enough. I was planning on ordering the laptop and came across a sale from a store.

I was planning on getting a Asus laptop as I have lots of experience with Asus products and 99.9% of the time it is positive.

But the local store offered a deal on an HP 250 G3.

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4005U 1.7GHz (3MB cache, 2 cores, 4 threads)

RAM: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3L (2 slots, 1 free)

HDD: 500GB SATA 5400rpm

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 820M 1GB DDR3

Screen: 15.6 " LED HD 1366x768 (AntiGlare)

Communication: WiFi, BT 4.0, LAN

Ports: 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, RJ45, 3.5mm combined Audio, card reader

Web cam, Full keyboard with numerical and Li-ion 4-cell 41 WHr battery.

Warranty: 12 months

Now the weird part is, it was at a really good sale and a friends company managed to deduct tax from the purchase for me and I got it for 245e total.

 

Was it a good purchase?

I'm worried because of the i3s low clock, the Pentium in the Asus I was planning on buying was a quad core with Turbo Boost 2.16 to 2.56GHz, 4gb RAM (single slot) and same GPU but it cost 355e. Generally i3>Pentium in everything, but this Pentium is a true quad core and high clocked. I didn't feel like spending the 110e difference, I thought it would be better spent on a 4gb RAM stick and maybe a 256GB SSD.

 

Thanks and cheers LTT community!

 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

What is an e? €?

[Bogica]

What is an e? €?

 

Yes, euro.

[Aniallation]

Generally i3>Pentium in everything, but this Pentium is a true quad core and high clocked. 

The quad-core Pentiums in laptops are Bay Trail chips, they are much worse performance per clock then the i3 due to the more power-conscious architecture. Haswell i3 will still mop the floor with it.

[Maheshvara]

It has an i3, a dedicated GPU (that's better than integrated) and one RAM slot free, and all that fro 245e... Of course it's worth it

[Bogica]

The quad-core Pentiums in laptops are Bay Trail chips, they are much worse performance per clock then the i3 due to the more power-conscious architecture. Haswell i3 will still mop the floor with it.

Good to know. Thanks! So I should ignore the "low" clock. What about adding another 4GB RAM? I have a copy of Windows 8 Professional 64 bit and I plan on installing it on the laptop, I got it from my college for free so I don't really have a choice as it doesn't come loaded with an OS. Will it work ok with 4GB for a while?

 

It has an i3, a dedicated GPU (that's better than integrated) and one RAM slot free, and all that fro 245e... Of course it's worth it

 

I got it from a sale at a local store, Imagine that, a good deal in our monopolistic IT market!

[Aniallation]

Good to know. Thanks! So I should ignore the "low" clock. What about adding another 4GB RAM? I have a copy of Windows 8 Professional 64 bit and I plan on installing it on the laptop, I got it from my college for free so I don't really have a choice as it doesn't come loaded with an OS. Will it work ok with 4GB for a while?

Definitely. My current laptop has a Haswell i5, running 4GB with no problems.

[Maheshvara]

Good to know. Thanks! So I should ignore the "low" clock. What about adding another 4GB RAM? I have a copy of Windows 8 Professional 64 bit and I plan on installing it on the laptop, I got it from my college for free so I don't really have a choice as it doesn't come loaded with an OS. Will it work ok with 4GB for a while?

 

 

I got it from a sale at a local store, Imagine that, a good deal in our monopolistic IT market!

Yeah, that was a great deal You can almost never find them... It's usually a "Sale" when a laptop is 5.000~ RSD cheaper...

[Bogica]

Definitely. My current laptop has a Haswell i5, running 4GB with no problems.

Awesome. BTW, how is HP laptop build quality overall? I just saw that in your sig you own an HP too. I haven't owned a HP laptop since the Pavilion zd 8000 days (2005), I've recently seen tons of Asus (budget) laptops with decent quality, Acer kinda cuts on quality but has good prices.

[Aniallation]

Awesome. BTW, how is HP laptop build quality overall? I just saw that in your sig you own an HP too. I haven't owned a HP laptop since the Pavilion zd 8000 days (2005), I've recently seen tons of Asus (budget) laptops with decent quality, Acer kinda cuts on quality but has good prices.

Pavilions are only decent at best IMO, at least compared to EliteBooks, which have absolutely fantastic build quality. 

[Maheshvara]

Awesome. BTW, how is HP laptop build quality overall? I just saw that in your sig you own an HP too. I haven't owned a HP laptop since the Pavilion zd 8000 days (2005), I've recently seen tons of Asus (budget) laptops with decent quality, Acer kinda cuts on quality but has good prices.

Well, the only laptops i've owned are Lenovo, Toshiba and now Dell (i bought an i5 dell just this Sunday, it has fantastic build quality   ), but the stuff i heard about "cheaper" HP's is that their cooling sucks...

[Bogica]

Pavilions are only decent at best IMO, at least compared to EliteBooks, which have absolutely fantastic build quality. 

 

A friend of mine got a probook and it was killer, looked awesome too. This Pavilion was from 2005, it was kinda thick and bulky but so were most laptops back then, but the awesome part is that it worked fine until 5 months ago, it worked fine for almost 10 years of use!

Well, the only laptops i've owned are Lenovo, Toshiba and now Dell (i bought an i5 dell just this Sunday, it has fantastic build quality   ), but the stuff i heard about "cheaper" HP's is that their cooling sucks...

Damn, I'll do some tests when I get home, the laptop already arrived but I'm at college and I'm going back home tomorrow so I'll run some test and measure temps. I don't think this one was actually budget, the "original" price was 51 500 RSD and I paid 29 000 RSD, either way, if it heats up I bought some Arcitc MX-4 recently so I will replace the compound and see how it does.

[Maheshvara]

A friend of mine got a probook and it was killer, looked awesome too. This Pavilion was from 2005, it was kinda thick and bulky but so were most laptops back then, but the awesome part is that it worked fine until 5 months ago, it worked fine for almost 10 years of use!

Damn, I'll do some tests when I get home, the laptop already arrived but I'm at college and I'm going back home tomorrow so I'll run some test and measure temps. I don't think this one was actually budget, the "original" price was 51 500 RSD and I paid 29 000 RSD, either way, if it heats up I bought some Arcitc MX-4 recently so I will replace the compound and see how it does.

That's an awesome price drop! Congrats

 

Yeah, i tried to change the thermal paste on my Toshiba a500 13f... I know i was, kinda, pressed for time, but it came to the point that my brother/cousin, that was actually doing it (i didn't even know how to open it), and i wanted to find those engineers that designed this laptop and shoot them, one by one (we never changed it... We only cleaned the fan and that little exhaust(?))... 

 

My advice when doing it (even if you already did it, you can never have enough advice concerning it):

 

- Have a lot of "bowls" for putting the screws in (or magnets)

- Take a picture of every possible step!

- Take care of those little, thin cables... On my Toshiba there was a particular cable that was a pain to get it back into the place... It took 2 of us, and some tweezers and a flashlight app to get it back into it's slot...

[Bogica]

That's an awesome price drop! Congrats

 

Yeah, i tried to change the thermal paste on my Toshiba a500 13f... I know i was, kinda, pressed for time, but it came to the point that my brother/cousin, that was actually doing it (i didn't even know how to open it), and i wanted to find those engineers that designed this laptop and shoot them, one by one (we never changed it... We only cleaned the fan and that little exhaust(?))... 

 

My advice when doing it (even if you already did it, you can never have enough advice concerning it):

 

- Have a lot of "bowls" for putting the screws in (or magnets)

- Take a picture of every possible step!

- Take care of those little, thin cables... On my Toshiba there was a particular cable that was a pain to get it back into the place... It took 2 of us, and some tweezers and a flashlight app to get it back into it's slot...

Thanks, awesome tips, I'm good with opening sensitive electronics, kinda been doing it for years, I fixed several of my phones and also opened quite a few laptops, but the "Take a picture of every possible step!" is something everyone should do no matter of how good they are, unless it's some standard electronics. And those flat cables can be a real pain in the ass!