New Laptop - £500 - Photo Editing, Portability, Non-FPS Gaming

Is the 520M better? I lose my mind trying to work out Intel's naming system for these Nehalem processors! I wouldn't get the 17" but I was just blown away for what gave me a vastly superior GPU and a much bigger laptop with better sound options for only £80 more.

Turns out the corporate discount is limited to 3% on purchases under £499.99. Still makes a bit of a difference I suppose! The other options is a company which refurbs company models and offers them at around the £250-£300 mark. I'll see what they can come up with.

The 1558 remains a solid favourite.

well I suppose it's more nuanced than that, the 520m has a tad more aggressive turbo boost and the 460m apparently doesn't support:

-Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)
-Intel® Trusted Execution Technology
-AES New Instructions


but as the 460m is newer, according to some blogs, people say it may have better heat dissipation

the above was lifted from: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-upgrades/529137-core-i5-460m-vs-i5-520m.html
 
dell inspiron 15r?

in general, I find quality and reliable to in this ascending order:

Inspiron>Studio/XPS>Vostro

for the money, OP is better off with a Studio then an Inspiron IMHO
 
Well I've just had a cat thrown amongst the pigeons! The 1557 can be had for £30 more than the 1558, giving me an i7 720QM as opposed to a i5-520M with the other specs remaining the same.

I've read issues with the i7 chips overheating in the Studio laptops and also being unreliable and causing some issues though they appear to be fixed by BIOS and driver updates.

What would you do?
 
Well I've just had a cat thrown amongst the pigeons! The 1557 can be had for £30 more than the 1558, giving me an i7 720QM as opposed to a i5-520M with the other specs remaining the same.

I've read issues with the i7 chips overheating in the Studio laptops and also being unreliable and causing some issues though they appear to be fixed by BIOS and driver updates.

What would you do?

one 'problem' with the QM's was poor laptop design on the part of manufacturers hence some overheating issues so it should be fine. For me personally, I would get a 1558 as 15" is big enough for me and also still portable, that's if I was making this purchase.
 
one 'problem' with the QM's was poor laptop design on the part of manufacturers hence some overheating issues so it should be fine. For me personally, I would get a 1558 as 15" is big enough for me and also still portable, that's if I was making this purchase.
The 1557 and 1558 are the same size, aren't they? I was thinking the only difference was in CPU and GPU.
 
The 1557 and 1558 are the same size, aren't they? I was thinking the only difference was in CPU and GPU.

yes they are :facepalm:, I must have thought you were talking about a studio 17 and not the 1557 :thumbsup:

p.s. I would still get the 1558, as even though the QM is only £30 more, I personally wouldn't need an i7
 

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