Laptop processors

Shane_C

Hi guys, I'm buying a laptop and looking at processor specs.

Has anyone any experience with processors with 1MB vs 2MB cache?
Is it worth spending the extra E200 on a laptop with more cache memory?

It will be used as an all-rounder from soft core gaming to compiling and general office stuff.

I am mainly interested in getting something that will last as long as possible (obviously accepting that the gaming will be a short term thing).

Has anyone any opinions on this?

AlmightyCushion

We'd need the full spec of the laptops before making a decision. In general no, €200 for double the cache is pretty poor value.

Leman_Russ

Yeah, €200 is not worth it.

Solitaire

Moved to Laptops. Anyone on B&U that can add to the matter can follow the magic redirect

OT: Is there any difference in CPU type or speed or other differences in spec to merit that big €200 difference?

And what do you mean by "soft-core gaming"? You need to be very careful about the integrated GPU if you plan on playing anything in 3D...

bringitdown

Going to latch on here as its in the same vein.

I have a choice between two builds of a Dell Studio XPS 16

a:
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz/ 1066 FSB/ 3MB Cache)

b:
Intel® Core™ I7-720QM Mobile Processor (1.6GHz, turbo up to 2.8GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)

Both have a Radeon HD 4670.

I'll be using it to watch movies and for casual gaming and a little bit of work from home.

ergo. which CPU suits best, I know i7 is a Quad Core beasty but my Google says perhaps not the best for gaming? there is a fair few eurons in the price so I want to make the right decision.

Appreciate any input.

Voodu Child

bringitdown wrote: »

ergo. which CPU suits best, I know i7 is a Quad Core beasty but my Google says perhaps not the best for gaming? there is a fair few eurons in the price so I want to make the right decision.

Appreciate any input.

You don't need a Corei7 for gaming or watching movies. They're powerful processors, but you'd only notice the power if you were actually doing something that needed it.

If you're just watching movies and playing games, stick with the Core2Duo, it'd be fine for that.

Alanstrainor

What are the prices of those two machines? If the core i7 is a lot more expensive i wouldn't bother, but if there wasn't much in it i'd go for the i7.

bringitdown

C2D is MYR3999, the I7 is MYR4999.

(Am buying in Malaysia)

In Euro, its about EUR200 in the difference, albeit there are other slight diffs in spec: bigger HDD and a further gig of RAM.

Basically an Studio XPS 16 prev. gen vs. latest generation.

AlmightyCushion

The core i7s are great but given the price difference I'd stick with the P8700, I have the P8600 in my laptop (studio 1555) and it's great.

bringitdown

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

The core i7s are great but given the price difference I'd stick with the P8700, I have the P8600 in my laptop (studio 1555) and it's great.

Thanks all, decided on the C2D, can add a BD-ROM and 4Gb of RAM and still come in under the base i7 spec.

Looking forward to my new lappie ... ! Appreciated!

monkeypants

Quad core is great, but there's nothing out there software-wise that can take advantage of it. For now, I'd go with clock speed, which means that the Core 2 Duo gets it.

My current processor is a T9300 and it's more than able to cope with everything. My next one is probably going to be a T9800. I'll let everyone know how it works when I get it. Go with the P8700.

Alanstrainor

monkeypants wrote: »

Quad core is great, but there's nothing out there software-wise that can take advantage of it. For now, I'd go with clock speed, which means that the Core 2 Duo gets it.

Well the core i7 is clocked at up to 2.8Ghz, but for battery life is underclocked to 1.6. So i presume there's an overclock button, or function key.

Voodu Child

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Well the core i7 is clocked at up to 2.8Ghz, but for battery life is underclocked to 1.6. So i presume there's an overclock button, or function key.

The 1.6GHz is the base clockspeed for the 720QM - thats the max clockspeed that's allowed when all four cores are running flat out.

But if all four cores arent being fully used, it can shut one or more down, and overclock the rest. So the 2.8GHz is with just a single core running.

Thats the beauty of i7 - if you are running something that is not optimized for multi-cores, the chip won't be held back by clockspeed the way previous quads were.

For now, I'd go with clock speed, which means that the Core 2 Duo gets it.

Its a different architecture, so you can't really compare them clock-for-clock. The i7 should be faster no matter what you're doing, they are pretty powerful as far as mobile processors go.

monkeypants

Voodu Child wrote: »

But if all four cores arent being fully used, it can shut one or more down, and overclock the rest. So the 2.8GHz is with just a single core running.

That sounds fantastic! Does it happen automatically or is it something that you have to set up/trigger?

Voodu Child

monkeypants wrote: »

That sounds fantastic! Does it happen automatically or is it something that you have to set up/trigger?

Its automatic. They call it the turbo boost.

With the i7-720QM, I think you are looking at:
1.6GHz 4 cores/1.73GHz 3 cores/2.4GHz 2 cores/2.8GHz 1 core. And its just dynamically changing them as efficiently as possible.

But anyway, as I said before, they are great processors but you certainly don't need one for web browsing etc. So in this case the OP doesnt really need one. He spent the extra money on a Blu-Ray drive, which im sure he'll get more use and enjoyment out of.