Re: Laptop recommendations?

On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 12:37 PM, Brad Wilson <[email protected]> wrote:

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> Battery life will be much better with an i5 than an i7. Unless you intend
> to do highly compute intensive tasks, I would choose the i5.
>
Interesting I've naively assumed for years that more is better. Perhaps its
time to recalibrate. Is there any site that provides at least adequate
comparisons of CPU performance? My current laptop has a Core 2 Duo T8300
2.40 GHz. I'm wondering roughly how much of jump I will get in performance
going to an i5 or an i7?


Google finds: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php as a rough way of
comparing CPU's. It seems ok expect it doesn't list the i5 that Dell is
using (560M 2.66 GHz).

Thanks
Mark

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> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 9:09 AM, Mark Levison <mark-r0EpITdELjZWk0Htik3J/[email protected]> wrote:
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>>
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>> Many years ago I used this group for its original purpose. Now I just
>> abuse it, sorry. The Canadian government has made it clear that I need to
>> upgrade my laptop by Jan 31 (its changed some taxation rules). So I'm
>> leaning on old friends for recommendations.
>>
>> My needs:
>>
>> 1. Budget <2000 Canadian
>>
>> 2. 15 inch screen
>>
>> 3. More battery life is better. Currently my XPS 1530 gets about 1:20
>> which I'm always looking for a plug. Ideally I would get 3 hrs when not
>> doing compute intensive tasks.
>>
>> 4. Weight no worse than XPS M1530 (6 lbs)
>>
>> 5 CPU Core I7 (at least this what I assume I want), 8 GB RAM. 500 GB 7200
>> RPM Harddrive
>>
>> 6. Use: Development and photo editing (Lightroom and Photoshop). More
>> Horsepower better in these cases, although I'm happy to work using an outlet
>> in that case.
>>
>> 7. USB 3.0 and other goodies are nice but not mission critical
>>
>>
>> Basically I spend a lot of time on the road and need a good machine that I
>> can carry and use every where. After digging for a few hours it appears that
>> the current Dell XPS's get bad reviews for: design and longevity, battery
>> life and lack of USB 3.0. The HP Envy takes a knock because the palm rest
>> becomes very hot even when browsing the web.
>>
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>     *Mark Levison* | Agile Pain Relief Consulting<http://agilepainrelief.com/>| Agile
>> Editor @ InfoQ <http://www.infoq.com/about.jsp>
>> Blog <http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/> | Twitter<http://twitter.com/mlevison>| Office: (613) 862-2538
>> Recent Entries: Self Inflicted Agile Injuries<http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2009/12/self-inflicted-agile-injuries.html>,
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>>
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