AMD or Intel Laptop?

Hi everbody, Ive just registered on the forum, even though I have looked on here a good few times for PC help, so thanks for that!

I am looking at getting a new laptop, its been quite a while since I have bought one though, and im not sure what to go for. I am hoping to spend no more than £600, and am planning on getting a dell one atm (mainly due to the one year interest free credit).

The laptop will be primarily used for browsing the internet, and trading online in a web based java platform, which i dont think is a massive strain on a laptops resources. But I do want one which will be good enough for decent gaming, particurlarly civ 5 atm. I will also occasionaly be using it for 2d autoCAD drawing, when i cant make it into the office.

I am looking at 2 laptops on the dell website, both have:

4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM
Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
500GB (5400RPM) Serial ATA Hard Drive
15.6" High Definition (1366x768) WLED screen

The inspiron 15r has:
Intel® Core™ i3-370M (2.4Ghz, 4 Threads, 3M cache) and a
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 550v video card

And the Inspiron M501R has:
AMD Phenom II Triple-Core N850(2.2GHz,1.5MB,3.6GT/s) and a
1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 550v video.

What would run the fastest overall? Would the triple core AMD be better, or the intel, as it has a higher clock speed? Is the clock speed per core or an overall speed?

Also, am i right in thinking that an ATI grpahics card will run better with an AMD processor rather than an intel?

These are the two laptops anyway:
AMD Inspiron M501R

Intel Inspiron 15R

Sorry if any of this doesnt make sense, or sounds a bit stupid, but i would much appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Regards,
DT

 

At the moment I would recommend the i3:

1. It is the newer processor design and thus is likely to be more future-proofed
2. It has more Cache and a higher clock speed
3. I believe it has a fast BUS speed, although I am not sure.

Otherwise, if you have the option I would recommend upgrading to a 7200RPM hard drive, as you will get a noticeable performance gain from it in my opinion.

Graphics cards are compatible with any processor they are built to work with. AMD now owns ATI and is re-branding to AMD Graphics, but they will still work just as well with Intel Processors, for now.

Clock speeds are normally expressed per-core, so the i3 makes 2x2.4GHz, and the AMD is 3x2.2GHz. However, in the case of the i3 it supports hyper-threading, which basically converts each core into 2, making 4 cores. I don't believe that this changes the clock speed, though.

 

Thanks collins, thats just what I needed, cheers.

There is an option for a alaptop with a 7200rpm hard drive, and almost identical in eveything else. Although choosing this downgrades the processor to a core i3 350m 2.26ghz, rather than an i3 370m 2.4ghz. Anything better than these two is getting out of my price range really.

Would you say the upgrade in hard drive would more than make up for the slight downgrade in processor?

Thanks again,
DT