Re: Laptop recommendations?

C2D is a 5 year old architecture. Power management for C2D sucks compared to
all modern i-family CPUs, including the i7, IMO. There's no way I would buy
a C2D laptop today.

There are 3 basic families: i3, i5, i7. The i3 is most similar to the C2D:
fixed clock speed with no turbo boost. The i5 generally adds the ability to
turbo boost, which means it self-overclocks when it determines you're
running a single-threaded CPU-intensive task (like gaming typically is). The
i7 adds hyperthreading to the mix, so your n-core CPU looks like an 2n-core
CPU to Windows. This is better than the Pentium Pro days of hyperthreading
in that it's physically 2 hardware threads, but still set expectations
appropriately in that it's not a true doubling of computational capability
(but perhaps +40%, vs. the +10% from the PPro days).

Core i-family CPUs have desktop and mobile versions, and introduce new ultra
mobile versions with very low clock speeds. I have an Alienware 11" with the
ultramobile i7 640UM <http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47700>, and the
laptop feels extremely fast, owing more to good speed of disk and modern
architecture than the seemingly anemic CPU speed (1.2GHz). I chose i7 here
because I wanted the hyperthreading to compensate for the low clock speed.

I regularly get ~ 5-6 hours of battery life with it, and when I want, I can
play games at very high detail level (since it has an NVidia 335M). It's
heavy for an 11" laptop (~ 4.5 lbs), but it's built like a tank and is
really a tiny desktop machine at the end of the day, which is what I wanted
for travel (demos/Visual Studio + gaming).

--
Brad    http://bradwilson.typepad.com/


On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 10:48 AM, Mark Levison <mark-r0EpITdELjZWk0Htik3J/[email protected]> wrote:

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> 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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>>>
>>> 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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