Have any of you used any of the new APUs from AMD? I am considering an A4 or A6 for a new laptop purchase. I am on a budget and integrated graphics on sandy bridge laptops are incompatible with some programs I need to run. The specific computer I am looking at is this Series 3 laptop from Samsung: Series 3 Laptop Linky Anybody have any hands-on experience with a laptop equipped with one of the A6-3410MX APUs? Maybe its younger brother?
Specs look good for a general purpose laptop, maybe an i3 will be a faster for cpu processing and video encoding but the amd will be quicker for games unless the i3 laptop has a nvidia chip. also self bumpings going to get you into trouble
I've heard they are comprehensively beaten in terms of performance by the new i3s. However, they are cheaper; what's the GPU like in them?
Thanks for all of the replies everyone. I ended up purchasing a laptop at a local store. It is the Series 3, 11.6" with i3-2357m. When I first saw the laptop in the store I was practically sold but decided to do some research before committing. What I found out? Practically nothing, except that the i3-2357m is actually slower than the i3-2310m which was initially a deterrent for me but I have pretty much decided it would be a waste of my time to do any serious 3D rendering or modeling on my on-the-go machine when I have a perfectly good powerhouse sitting at home on my desk. The salesperson insists there is only one slot for RAM and that 4GB is its max the system can accept. I will just have to open it up and investigate. Crucial.com's system scanner rated a set of 2 x 4GB as compatible with this system. I am also hoping to put an SSD in here, so I will have to determine for sure that the hard drive is of standard size and somewhat accessible. I will probably go with a 128GB SSD. Overall it is a nice system. The keyboard is really great for a system of this size. I am not one of those people who insists on mechanical keyboards but I do type over 100wpm and do not feel as if this keyboard is slowing me down by much if at all. It is also incredibly lightweight and thin compared to the other SandyBridge laptops that I could afford. Though it is primarily composed of plastic, it is a rather nice build in my opinion. I will give it a few days and return the laptop if I find myself regretting the purchase but overall I think it is pretty great value for the money (599 after tax - 100 mail in rebate + free office suite) but if I cannot cram a ssd in this guy or another 4GB of RAM, I will probably send it packing.
