[Iblis]

Looks like my old Acer for work broke down (I know, Acer. Two years old. Not one of the better vintages) and so I'll need a replacement. Due to a lot of travel and odd hours, I also enjoy a bit of vintage gaming on the side (Neverwinter Nights, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, etc.)

Looking to upgrade, I was going through AMD's line-up since their APU's are pretty good for budget, low-mid resolution gaming. Unfortunately, due to different refreshes and an unclear naming scheme, I'm not sure what the best bang for the buck in - particularly when some reviews have A8 APU's being beaten by A4/A6 with lower denominations at the end. I'm familiar with the whole need for heavy RAM and etc. when it comes to things, I just want to know a good order of "power" for the Llano/Trinity/etc. lineup.

Also, if anyone can link recommened laptops within that 350-600 range, I'd be most appreciative. Despite scouring Frys, Newegg, and Amazon, the offers tend to bounce all over and many of the laptops being sold have difficulty mentioning specifics due to seller ignorance/laziness/whatever.

 

[ebduncan]

Well this might help you.

AX-3XXX is Llano.

AX-4XXX is trinity

AX-5XXX is richland

I personally had a A4-3300m which i overclocked using k10stat to 3ghz. It is amazingly fast for what it is. Plays most games at the native resolution of 1366x768 3dmark 11 score wasp608

I just bought a new laptop features the A10-5757m. It doubles the A4-3300m in graphic performance coming in at p1268 3dmark 11. Cinebench moved from 1.59 on the A4 dual core, to 2.14 on the a10 quadcore. Granted the a4 was stock 1.9ghz and was heavily overclocked and the a10 is at stock clocks.

If you want to do any sort of gaming, I would go no less than a A8.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314183 is the laptop i just grabed. If gaming is a concern don't go less than a A8 you will loose alot of radeon cores with the lesser models and thus gaming performance. If battery life is more your thing then the A4's are hard to beat, but its gonna be hard to play most games on them.

 

[ar3f]

HP has m6 1250dx with A10 plus discrete graphics at about $500; not sturdy, medium reolution but acceptable if you don't kick it too hard. Hit Best Buy and check around.