laptop for Dad

[andwad]

Hi,
My Father's old laptop has finally given up completely and I'd like to buy him a new one for his 80th birthday.
He mainly uses it for photo editing, ms office stuff and the internet so it probably doesn't need to be very powerful but I've seen new laptops recently that friends have bought that seem sluggish from the start and they seem to always slow down over time so I wanted one that will maintain some responsiveness - he may also get in to video editing later on.
Below are a couple of specs I've been considering. They are at the top of my spending range so if I could lose a bit without much noticeable difference that would be preferable.
Main questions are
1a) there's quite a difference in price with the cpus towards the upper end - does it make much of a difference for the uses described above?
1b) could I knock down the cpu spec a bit without much of an impact on performance?
2) (and apologies if I've missed this info on the website elsewhere) what are the differences between Enigma III and Genisis III?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chassis & Display
Enigma III 540: 15.6" Glossy FHD LED (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-2450M (2.50GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
ENIGMA GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Enigma Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2010 (Incl Disc & 1 License for 3 devices) (£89)
Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2012 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£14)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £888.00 including VAT and delivery.

OR

Chassis & Display
Genesis III: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) (£35)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-2450M (2.50GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 630M - 1GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 (UMA) OR 2 x USB 3.0 & 1 x USB 2.0 PORTS (GT 630M)
Battery
Genesis Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (48.84WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2010 (Incl Disc & 1 License for 3 devices) (£89)
Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2012 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£14)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £858.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[tom_gr7]

I'd be more inclined to go for the second one, but if you can go for 8gig of ram, just for a future proof option, 4gig is enough, but 8gig would give you that bit more incase programs need more, also for photo editing 8gig of ram will be beneficial.

Also instead of getting just one ssd, i'd look at the seagate monentus drives, not as fast as a ssd, but its like a hybrid between a hard drive and ssd. It basically has a hard drive a ssd caching drive, (ssd caching drive will speed up the system) also this drive would give you more space, as opposed to a 120gb ssd. (unless ya father stores everything on external drives, in that case i'd get the ssd)

Just to let ya know, about the warranty, i notice ya whacked in two years cover, thats great, but what you could is, get one year for a fiver now and use the rest of the money to up specs, then in a few months give pcs a bell and upgrade the warranty, (i did this, but dont leave it till its close to running out of warranty)

 

[andwad]

Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated.