Where can I get good advice on new laptop for media and occasional audio recording/editing?

[Koskam]

You could also look at getting a laptop that has a built in port to the memory and hard drive (one that literally has a screw or two undermeath that leads to just those two). Buy a separate ssd and memory stick and upgrade it manually. It's not too hard to migrate your hard drive and operating system to the ssd. (might take an hour or so to do all this plus inactive wait time to transfer files).
A memory stick and ssd would be 150 or so depending on size. Just make sure the computer can take an extra memory stick.

Ya it takes a bit of work, but it's not hard of you have an accessible port and you end up getting a nice external storage unit.

 

[LNuneek]

You could also look at getting a laptop that has a built in port to the memory and hard drive (one that literally has a screw or two undermeath that leads to just those two). Buy a separate ssd and memory stick and upgrade it manually. It's not too hard to migrate your hard drive and operating system to the ssd. (might take an hour or so to do all this plus inactive wait time to transfer files).
A memory stick and ssd would be 150 or so depending on size. Just make sure the computer can take an extra memory stick.

Ya it takes a bit of work, but it's not hard of you have an accessible port and you get a nice external storage unit.

Yes, I think I would like something I can upgrade easily. I've upgraded RAM on computers before, and I'm pretty sure if I wanted to change out hard drives I can figure that out.
 
This is another reason why I'd like to buy locally rather on the net, so I can actually check out the computer for myself, see how I like it, and look for things like this.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

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Originally Posted by LNuneek /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 

Also that AMD typically offers more cores.

 

That's because AMD is phasing out the lower end APUs, introducing the higher model APUs to supercede the prior top line processors, and then basically designating lower clocked or lower boost clock units the new A4 and A6 processors, or even positioning the A8 lower with the A9, A10, and A12 tiers coming out. Note that not all apps can utilize more than one CPU core which is why some benchmarks include single core performance, where Intel still excels. Really the only time AMDs really beat out same year model Intels is on GPU-intensive tasks/benchmarks where the Intel gets no help from a dedicated GPU. Intel's later iGPUs are still a lot better than anything before the HD5000, but of course not as good as the R7 GPU cores integrated into A10 APUs.
 

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by LNuneek /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 

I got to try out someone's Intel i3 Dell laptop with 4gb RAM today, and yeah I found it too sluggish and slow for my needs, so the advice here so far has been pretty good and much appreciated.

 

What generation Intel is that? 6th Gen i3-6100U typically comes with 6gb or 8gb RAM, and have a higher memory bandwidth as they work with DDR4. Some low end i3 I think still work with DDR3, or that's an older model.

​That or it's the first release of  the Core M​3, not the i3, as on some smaller ultraportables like Acer's R11, or Dell's 3000 11. Even the first release of Apple's MacBook 12 used the second version, although of course that not only has 8gb of RAM, but it also benefits from Apple's software optimizations (it might not feel sluggish in terms of response going from one window to the next, but if the boost doesn't kick in on top of the relatively weak iGPU, processing a RAW file can seem slow next to a 15.6in PC with an AMD A8).