Need opinion on AMD's "Fusion" (E) CPUs

[The Stig]

Sister's laptop is ready to give in. Her boyfriend linked me this which I originally brushed aside as crap:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pav...90967-pdt.html

AMD Dual-Core E-450
- 1.65 GHz
- 1 MB L2 cache
- 600 MHz FSB
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 32
4 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6310M
1366 x 768 @ 11.6"
Hard drive 320 GB SATA, 5400 rpm

She didn't like the 15.6 laptop I brought her previously which lasted 4 years, so it's time to go I guess.

I managed to find an amazon review on it, uanble to locate a techy review yet:

Well, this must be one of the best net-book released to date. The 4 gigs of ram and a 1.65 GHz dual-core processor really packs a punch.
Easily gives me 8 hours on a single charge provided it is used fairly. Light browsing, some music and you are good to go.
When using memory intensive applications like Microsoft office or visual studio. The battery drains fairly quickly, but still gives me 6 1/2 hours, which is still better than most of the net-books going around the market. Amazingly it can play 1080p videos without any hassle. Astonishingly it can handle modern warfare 3 on low settings, as well as skyrim.
Though not a gaming net-book by any means the fusion processor works like a charm. The HD 6320 graphic card with dx11 support really does the trick.

The only reason i have given this amazing product a 4 star rating is because the net-book comes pre-installed with a 32 bit operating system. Which means you have only 3.49 gb of ram available for usage. I mean surely HP could have done better with this. Amazingly the ram can be upgraded to 8 gigs which is really massive for a netbook. But even if you upgrade it, you will still have only 3.49 gigs of ram available for usage.

I don't have MW3 or Skyrim but if I'm correct those are quite demanding games even on a laptop with no gaming capability, even on low settings. But I also know the build in GPU massively kicks all of Intel's onboard GPUs (i.e. Intel HD 3000) in benchmarks.

Anyone got a fusion CPU that can tell me what day to day tasks are like with a virus scanner/spyware protection on top of day to day apps run like? What I need opinions are is the AMD CPU. I've heard great things on AMD's "fusion" CPUs which combines GPU/CPU together, I understand how it works.

I just do not have hands on experience day to day wise how this laptop will run.

The most intensive activity my sister would do = Photoshopping (lets assume 500-1gb photos, I know she has a big ass camera) and school work (1gb Publisher file a good benchmark for anyone?)

I'm paranoid about this going shit after a month but I do help maintain the laptop (startup wise, etc, services, keep it running smoothly).

I then weighed up the facts. This laptop is nearly 50% off in its original price, a big ass decent screen for 11.6inches (she wants small for portability), 4gb ram and a seemingly good review from an average Joe. Surely this ticks all the boxes?

I don't care for the 32bit system on 4gb RAM deal by the way. I'll put a 64bit Win7 on it.

Current laptop has some Core2Duo T5800. I looked up the benchmarks, where in a "drag race" this Fusion CPU falls behind by maybe 100 positions, but I suppose that's ultimately Application X trying to max out the CPU, whereas in a day to day situation there won't be much noticable difference.

[Tymon]

for netbooks, the Llano series is AWESOME.

Anything else, not so much.

[orinthia]

The fusion line e450 is meant to be a netbook processor. If you were looking at any netbook with an intel atom inside, a similar one with an amd fusion line processor would be much better. But do keep in mind that it's a netbook: it's not meant to be doing heavy tasks like higher end gaming. The integrated gpu isn't that far ahead of intel's.

Maybe look around on notebookreview.com for reviews/deals/suggestions/etc.

[The Stig]

Ya I had a look. This is purely for my sister who doesn't do anything like that, except toy with Photoshop photos and school work. I understand it's not for gaming, but old (pre 2008~) are fine.

I managed to play with one briefly (very locked down) in a store last night, and as it was on for the whole day, wasn't too warm at all (good thing), and with probably tons of processes/programs running, it didn't feel slow at all as I clicked around, but still unsure.

Regardless, I may wait til after the new year when the sales starts, just incase I can snag a 13inch laptop somewhere with an i3 CPU at least.

[Zansho]

For a Photoshop user, you will want a discrete GPU in the laptop. Photoshop itself doesn't take THAT much of a GPU to run (pretty much anything with 512-1GB Vid Card is fine), but what Photoshop IS and DOES use quite a bit, is RAM. I'm a photographer, and I have two laptops - a Sony Vaio with 512MB Nvidia card, and 8GB of ram, i-7 processor, and it runs Photoshop like a champ. I can do panoramas with ease, and run complicated actions in no time at all. The other laptop is a Macbook Pro, slightly lagging behind the Sony but not by much. By the way, most of the RAW files I work with in Photoshop are around 30-45MB, depending on what I shoot and how I shoot it. Trust me, if we got 1GB RAW files, we'd pass out from the sheer time it would take to import the files and work on them. If she was shooting video, I'd agree with you.

Most small laptops simply won't have the processing power to handle photoshop without some hiccups. You're going to have to ask your sister does she want a machine that can perform her photoshop work effortlessly, or a machine that looks pretty, cute, and small, but handles her photoshop work with some complaint? I swear, women nowadays expect the little cute things to be able to do everything they want.

[The Stig]

The 1gb file I mentioned of was a Microsoft Publisher file (I've not really used it for a while so I have no idea how big that is)

I'll check with her how big the photoshop files are.

The machine has 4gb RAM, 3.5 of which would be for the 32 bit system if I don't put 64bit on, and the other 500mb would go to the "onboard-discrete" GPU.

As it stands I think she'll go with a machine that will handle it with some complaint lol.

I have no doubt that a generic X 15.6 laptop with an i3 CPU will handle everything she'll throw at it (she's happy with a Core2Duo T5800, an i3 far exceeds that in raw benchmarks), but I can't find an i3 laptop with a 13inch or less screen that breaks reasonable price barriers lol

[Zansho]

Ugh, she want's THAT? Good luck, lol. 13 inch is going to be hard enough without spending $$$. 15 inch, you could probably get a nice one with i-5, 6GB Ram, and a 256 MB vid card.

I found one that's actually pretty nice from newegg - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230198 - or what about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834127585

I'm not sure what your budget is though.