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What’s the performance of the Edge 11 AMD K345 like?

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UK-Steve
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What’s the performance of the Edge 11 AMD K345 like?

#1 Post by UK-Steve » Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:01 am

Do you have a Thinkpad Edge 11 with an AMD K345 processor? If you do, how do you find the performance? I ask because I intend to buy an Edge 11 and I’m torn between the Intel i3 model and the AMD K345 model. (I live in the UK).

From what information I have gathered to date, for CPU performance there’s little doubt I would be better off with the Intel i3 model. However, unlike the AMD model, the Intel machine doesn’t offer wireless wan and being a tidy person I like the idea of it all being built-in and not relying on dongles.

Both offer the option of 4-GB RAM and a 340-MB hard drive so there will be no difference there. And as for the usual concerns over short battery life and high temperature in AMD laptops, that doesn’t appear to apply to the Edge 11. Indeed, according to this review, the battery life is better on AMD Edge 11, and in terms of temperature there’s little difference between the two: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 613.0.html

It’s also important to note that the above review compares the Intel i3 model against the previous Edge 11 AMD K325 model, not the K345. In some benchmarking stats I’ve read online (unfortunately I’ve since lost the link) the K345 processor came out 25% faster than the K325. If the CPU performance stats in the above review and these benchmarking stats I read elsewhere are accurate then the Intel i3 model would still come out on top against the K345 model but the difference between the two would surely be significantly reduced – halved even?

Cost isn’t an issue either, as once I’ve added the cost of a Gobi 2000 wireless wan card to the AMD model and the cost of a dongle to the Intel model they amount to the same.

As for my application requirements, they are pretty basic: Email, Internet & Office, video streaming from Youtube and BBC iplayer. But what I also want is for the laptop to be reasonably snappy, the last thing I want to do is regret lumbering myself with a sluggish laptop that doesn’t meet even my basic requirements when I could of had the faster Intel model, albeit without built-in wireless wan.

So if you have any first-hand experience of the Edge with an i3 or K345 processor I’d really appreciate any comments you have.

UK-Steve
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:39 am
Location: Suffolk, England

Re: What’s the performance of the Edge 11 AMD K345 like?

#2 Post by UK-Steve » Sat Apr 23, 2011 4:01 am

According to this blogger http://blog.startpage.ie/gadgets/default.aspx?page=2 , he has been happily running Visual Studio 2010 on his new Dell M101z which has the same spec as the Edge 11 with an AMD K345 processor. Looks like I'm worrying over nothing. Any thoughts, anyone?

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Re: What’s the performance of the Edge 11 AMD K345 like?

#3 Post by ZaZ » Sat Apr 23, 2011 2:30 pm

UK-Steve wrote:According to this blogger http://blog.startpage.ie/gadgets/default.aspx?page=2 , he has been happily running Visual Studio 2010 on his new Dell M101z which has the same spec as the Edge 11 with an AMD K345 processor. Looks like I'm worrying over nothing. Any thoughts, anyone?
Yes, the reviews look good, but the devil's always in the details. I suppose you can always return it if it doesn't work.
ThinkPad L14 - 2.1GHz Ryzen 4650U | 16GB | 256GB | 14" FHD | Win11P
ProBook 470 G5 - 1.6GHz Core i5 | 16GB | 2.2TB | 17" FHD | Mint

UK-Steve
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Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:39 am
Location: Suffolk, England

Re: What’s the performance of the Edge 11 AMD K345 like?

#4 Post by UK-Steve » Mon Apr 25, 2011 2:07 pm

Ideally, Fred, I'd order both and return the one I didn't want.

UK-Steve
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:39 am
Location: Suffolk, England

Re: What’s the performance of the Edge 11 AMD K345 like?

#5 Post by UK-Steve » Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:02 am

More food for thought for anyone out there who, like me, is torn between an Edge 11 with an Intel i3 processor or an AMD K345 processor.

Interesting review by engadget in that, although the Edge 11 Core i3 outperformed the Dell Inspiron M101z with an AMD K325 processor in its benchmark tests, it would appear that the reviewer couldn’t really feel any difference between the two laptops: ”The Edge 11's 1.33GHz Core i3 U380 and 2GB of RAM performed just as you'd expect. We had no issues running multiple programs -- including TweetDeck, Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft Word 2010, GIMP -- and throwing a 720p clip into the mix didn't make it gasp for air. How does it compare to other 11.6-inch laptops we've reviewed lately with AMD's new Nile platform? We can't say we felt the difference between the Edge 11 and the dual-core AMD powered Inspiron M101z, though the benchmarks show that the Core i3-powered ThinkPad has a slight "edge."

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/28/leno ... 11-review/

This PCPro review of the Edge 11 suggests a greater difference between the AMD K325 and the Intel Core i3 processes: “(with a core i3) the Edge - with its 4GB of RAM - produced a fine 0.89 in our benchmarks”. “… the AMD equivalent that uses a 1.3GHz Athlon II Neo K325, integrated Mobility Radeon 4225 graphics and 4GB of RAM. It lasted a similar 6hrs 29mins of light use, but scored 0.67”

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/ ... z1Kjcy8Urw

http://www.notebookcheck.net ranks processors in order of processing power:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Pro ... superpi32m

Intel Core i3 380UM ranks 196th

AMD K345 ranks 257th

AMD K325 ranks 266th

If you have any thoughts on this matter I’d really like to hear them.

UK-Steve
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:39 am
Location: Suffolk, England

Re: What’s the performance of the Edge 11 AMD K345 like?

#6 Post by UK-Steve » Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:23 pm

Thought you might like to know that I've just placed an order for an Edge 11 with a Core i3 380UM processor. Reason: If I buy an Edge 11 with an AMD processor and am unhappy with the performance I know that I will be left wondering if I would have been happier with the i3, whereas, on the rare occasions that I need mobile broadband, I can live with a dongle.

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