Laptop £500 FIGHT! Lenovo vs Dell

[TheUnknownGamer]

Hi, so I've been looking at different laptops at a 500 pound price point and ive come down to two laptops. I can't tell which one would be better for some light gaming, coding and animation. can someone help?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-510-15-6-laptop-black-10146352-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-17-5759-17-3-laptop-black-10146382-pdt.html

[NunoLava1998]

The Dell Inspiron 17 is the best laptop on that list of the 2 laptops, and it is actually quite good for what you're gonna doing. Buy that one.

[19_blackie_73]

9 minutes ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

Hi, so I've been looking at different laptops at a 500 pound price point and ive come down to two laptops. I can't tell which one would be better for some light gaming, coding and animation. can someone help?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-510-15-6-laptop-black-10146352-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-17-5759-17-3-laptop-black-10146382-pdt.html

the thing is: none of them is suited for gaming very well because they both have low powered chips.the GTX960M isn't that bad, but the i3 will probably hold it back pretty much. the i5 wouldn't be much better either because the biggest difference is the variable clock speed (known as turbo boost  ) but the 940MX isn't good at all at 1080p. Can you render over gpu? Then the one with the 960 would be better.

[TheUnknownGamer]

2 minutes ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

the thing is: none of them is suited for gaming very well because they both have low powered chips.the GTX960M isn't that bad, but the i3 will probably hold it back pretty much. the i5 wouldn't be much better either because the biggest difference is the variable clock speed (known as turbo boost  ) but the 940MX isn't good at all at 1080p. Can you render over gpu? Then the one with the 960 would be better.

I Wouldn't render with the laptop i would send that to the server to do. The only thing is that the dell only has a 1600 by 900 res where the Lenovo has a 1080p res would this make much of a difference as it would mean a lot lower pixel per inch. would i notice it?

[SnowyMus]

5 minutes ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

the thing is: none of them is suited for gaming very well because they both have low powered chips.the GTX960M isn't that bad, but the i3 will probably hold it back pretty much. the i5 wouldn't be much better either because the biggest difference is the variable clock speed (known as turbo boost  ) but the 940MX isn't good at all at 1080p. Can you render over gpu? Then the one with the 960 would be better.

The thing is, aside from turbo boost, the i3 and i5 are completely identical. I'm thinking that the i3 would be a bit better for gaming in terms of performance, as the 940MX will more likely be what holds back in gaming performance.

 

I'm not too fond of the 1600 x 900 resolution, though.

[TheUnknownGamer]

Just now, Kavawuvi said:

The thing is, aside from turbo boost, the i3 and i5 are completely identical. I'm thinking that the i3 would be a bit better for gaming in terms of performance, as the 940MX will more likely be what holds back in gaming performance.

 

I'm not too fond of the 1600 x 900 resolution, though.

yeah the 17 inch screen with the lower res is what i am worried about with the dell but i like the other specs.

[NunoLava1998]

1 minute ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

I Wouldn't render with the laptop i would send that to the server to do. The only thing is that the dell only has a 1600 by 900 res where the Lenovo has a 1080p res would this make much of a difference as it would mean a lot lower pixel per inch. would i notice it?

You probably will only notice the size. 900p and 1080p isn't much of a difference. 900p has 1.44 MP, and 1080p has 2.0736 MP, which is not that much.

[19_blackie_73]

1080p on 15inch is awsome.. so much screen space. Don't want to miss it

[SnowyMus]

3 minutes ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

yeah the 17 inch screen with the lower res is what i am worried about with the dell but i like the other specs.

Considering you're going to be productive with things like coding and animation, I would recommend a 1080p display over a 900p display. You may not get as much gaming performance with this laptop, but you'll have 44% more screen real estate to work with.

[TheUnknownGamer]

Just now, 19_blackie_73 said:

1080p on 15inch is awsome.. so much screen space. Don't want to miss it

yes but the dell has better specs

[ThinkWithPortals]

12 minutes ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

Hi, so I've been looking at different laptops at a 500 pound price point and ive come down to two laptops. I can't tell which one would be better for some light gaming, coding and animation. can someone help?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-510-15-6-laptop-black-10146352-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-17-5759-17-3-laptop-black-10146382-pdt.html

The Lenovo has a higher resolution screen with better colour and a stronger CPU.

The Dell has a bigger, lower resolution screen and a stronger GPU.

 

It's a tough decision. I think I'd get the Lenovo. If you animate and code that 1080p IPS screen is a LOT better than the Dell's 900p 17" LED piece of crap. It will be a fair bit worse at gaming, though.

[TheUnknownGamer]

Just now, Kavawuvi said:

Considering you're going to be productive with things like coding and animation, I would recommend a 1080p display over a 900p display. You may not get as much gaming performance with this laptop, but you'll have 44% more screen real estate to work with.

ok thanks i think i might go with the Lenovo then

[NunoLava1998]

1 minute ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

The Lenovo has a higher resolution screen with better colour and a stronger CPU.

The Dell has a bigger, lower resolution screen and a stronger GPU.

 

It's a tough decision. I think I'd get the Lenovo. If you animate and code that 1080p IPS screen is a LOT better than the Dell's 900p 17" LED piece of crap. It will be a fair bit worse at gaming, though.

It's not a fair bit. The 940M is equivalent to something like half the performance of a GTX 950, and the 960M is fairly close to the GTX 950/R7 370 (20% less performance).

[ThinkWithPortals]

Just now, NunoLava1998 said:

It's not a fair bit. The 940M is equivalent to something like half the performance of a GTX 950, and the 960M is fairly close to the GTX 950/R7 370 (20% less performance).

I know. It's not up to you to say what a fair bit is or is not, because it's not a defined unit of measurement. I expressed it as a fair bit, you might not, which is fine because it's subjective.

[NunoLava1998]

Just now, ThinkWithPortals said:

I know. It's not up to you to say what a fair bit is or is not, because it's not a defined unit of measurement. I expressed it as a fair bit, you might not, which is fine because it's subjective.

Okay, sorry then.

[ThinkWithPortals]

Just now, NunoLava1998 said:

Okay, sorry then.

No need to apologise. I'm not trying to attack you or anything, sorry if I came off that way

[don_svetlio]

33 minutes ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

Hi, so I've been looking at different laptops at a 500 pound price point and ive come down to two laptops. I can't tell which one would be better for some light gaming, coding and animation. can someone help?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-510-15-6-laptop-black-10146352-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-17-5759-17-3-laptop-black-10146382-pdt.html

 

9 minutes ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

ok thanks i think i might go with the Lenovo then

CPU horsepower goes to the Lenovo. ULV i3s are absolute shit so the 960M is useless and will get horribly bottlenecked by low-clocked crap. The IdeaPad also has a better screen and better keyboard. I'd take the 510

[don_svetlio]

8 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

It's not a fair bit. The 940M is equivalent to something like half the performance of a GTX 950, and the 960M is fairly close to the GTX 950/R7 370 (20% less performance).

That is NOT true at ALL.

960M = 750 Ti (30-40% less performance than a 950/370)

940MX (940MX is about 15% faster than a 940M) is not as fast as a 960M BUT the ULV i3 is such a huge piece of shit and such a big bottleneck that the 960M will perform pretty similar to a 940MX as in both cases the CPU is the limiting factor.

[SeanAngelo]

41 minutes ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

Hi, so I've been looking at different laptops at a 500 pound price point and ive come down to two laptops. I can't tell which one would be better for some light gaming, coding and animation. can someone help?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-510-15-6-laptop-black-10146352-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-17-5759-17-3-laptop-black-10146382-pdt.html

none of them is for gaming

[TheUnknownGamer]

1 hour ago, SeanAngelo said:

none of them is for gaming

Thats not the point of it as i have a gaming server/desktop thing that i use at home, this is for some lighter gaming and on the go coding and animation. i am a student and doing computer science and software engineering.

[don_svetlio]

15 minutes ago, TheUnknownGamer said:

Thats not the point of it as i have a gaming server/desktop thing that i use at home, this is for some lighter gaming and on the go coding and animation. i am a student and doing computer science and software engineering.

Get the IdeaPad. It's just better. 1080p IPS display vs 900p TN display. It's not even close. You also get a better keyboard (Dell don't really make good keyboards sadly)

[TheUnknownGamer]

29 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Get the IdeaPad. It's just better. 1080p IPS display vs 900p TN display. It's not even close. You also get a better keyboard (Dell don't really make good keyboards sadly)

Thanks i think i will now