i5 or i7?

[Bagels]

I am about to order a new HP pavilion dv6tse for college. I am stuck on which processor to get. I don't really know anything about computers so I don't know which one will make my laptop perform better or how each will affect my battery life.

-Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-540M Dual Core processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz

or for $50 more, get this

-Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz

It will really cost me $125 more because I need to upgrade to a 1gb graphics card if I go with the i7, but that doesn't bother me.

 

[salvage-this]

I would go i5 for a general college laptop. Is there anything that you do on your computer that would need a quad core?

 

[Bagels]

I would go i5 for a general college laptop. Is there anything that you do on your computer that would need a quad core?

I'm really not sure. I plan on running solidworks and programs like that but I don't know if the i7 is suited better for that.

What are the pros and cons of each?

 

[salvage-this]

well that changes my mind. Solidworks/Cad/Pro E would perform better with a quad core in my opinion. The 1gb video card should give you a bit more performance as well. Go with the i7 and the 1gb gpu.

 

[Bagels]

Will the worst i7 processor perform better than their best i5 processor for most applications? I was worried that since the i7 is labeled to have a much lower GHz that it may not perform as well.

 

[bkribbs]

Generally, the i5 will not be as quick, but slightly better battery life. The i7 will be faster, as it has 4 cores instead of 2, but slightly less battery life. But like salvage-this said, with a CAD-type program, the i7 would be the better option.

 

[Bagels]

Thanks for the help. I'm going going to go with the i7.

One last question but it doesn't regard the CPU. Is 6gb RAM overkill? Should I save money and go with 4gb?

 

[jarlmaster47]

yeah, the i5 is a dual core with hyperthreading

 

[salvage-this]

Thanks for the help. I'm going going to go with the i7.

One last question but it doesn't regard the CPU. Is 6gb RAM overkill? Should I save money and go with 4gb?

That would depend on price and setup for the ram. 4gb is enough for gaming but I tend to recommend a bit more for design computers. If your laptop has 2 slots for ram I would get one 4gb stick for now. See how it performs then add another later if the performance is not there. That of course depends on what the ram configuration is for your laptop.

 

[87dtna]

Generally, the i5 will not be as quick, but slightly better battery life. The i7 will be faster, as it has 4 cores instead of 2, but slightly less battery life. But like salvage-this said, with a CAD-type program, the i7 would be the better option.

Thats wrong. The I7 is only faster in things that are more than 2 threaded, which is almost nothing you would do on a laptop. In daily tasks that you would do on a laptop, the I5 will cream that super low clocked I7.


The I5 is a MUCH better choice. Over 1ghz higher clockspeed with turbo is going to help you a hundred times better than having a quad. And also the I5 is 35w and the I7 is 45w.

 

[87dtna]

According to me I think the i5 uses dual channel memory while the i7 uses triple channel, at least the original ones did. And I think the i7 supports hyper-threading which makes each CPU look like two while the i5 does not.

All I5's have hyper threading.

And laptop I7's still use dual channel.

 

[Intel_man]

All I5's have hyper threading.

And laptop I7's still use dual channel.

The i5 7xx don't have hyper threading. Mainly because they're the non hyper threaded i7 8xx processors.

 

[87dtna]

The i5 7xx don't have hyper threading. Mainly because they're the non hyper threaded i7 8xx processors.

OMFG....for like the 10th time in this thread.....we are talking LAPTOP mobile processors here NOT desktop cpu's. ALL mobile I5's have hyper threading.