i3 or i5

-Corkie-

Hi.

I was thinking of buying another laptop for home. Are the i3`s fairly good or should I wait for the i5 prices to come down. Is there much of a difference in them.

-Corkie-

Also if you were buying now which of these is the best?

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Samsung_R730_1041049.html


http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_G72-b10SA_1085494.html

Fluffy88

Picking between those two laptops I would go with the Samsung hands down.
Speaking is a very, very broad sense faster processor = faster computer. Obviously there is alot more to consider but processor is a big part of system performance.

I don't know if it's worth waiting for the i5 to come down, it really depends on what you need and when. If you already have a good computer/laptop that you can keep using then why not wait, if you need a new machine now, then buy now.

marco_polo

-Corkie- wrote: »

Hi.

I was thinking of buying another laptop for home. Are the i3`s fairly good or should I wait for the i5 prices to come down. Is there much of a difference in them.

If it is for fairly normal laptop usage there is really no difference as a fast dual core like the i3 will easily cope with a normal workload (browsing, streaming, office etc.), unless you know you will be running fairly CPU intensive applications that would make good use of the i5s four cores (stuff like gaming, video encoding etc), I would stick to the i3. A dual core will also have the bonus of lower power consumption.

-Corkie-

marco_polo wrote: »

If it is for fairly normal laptop usage there is really no difference as a fast dual core like the i3 will easily cope with a normal workload (browsing, streaming, office etc.), unless you know you will be running fairly CPU intensive applications that would make good use of the i5s four cores (stuff like gaming, video encoding etc), I would stick to the i3. A dual core will also have the bonus of lower power consumption.

I will be using it to play HD videos onto a HDTV. I am not really in a panic to buy so I might wait. Computers seem to have gone very cheap latley. Would 6GB of ram be better than 4??

-Corkie-

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Picking between those two laptops I would go with the Samsung hands down.
Speaking is a very, very broad sense faster processor = faster computer. Obviously there is alot more to consider but processor is a big part of system performance.

I don't know if it's worth waiting for the i5 to come down, it really depends on what you need and when. If you already have a good computer/laptop that you can keep using then why not wait, if you need a new machine now, then buy now.

Hmmmm. When you say faster one is a 380 and the HP is 350. Would there be that much of a differ because the HP has 6GB of ram and the Samsung has 4GB.. I know fek all about them..

jay93

The laptop with 6GB of RAM would be nice to have
Altough there is less hard drive space on the HP with the 6GB of RAM.
If you require the 600GB of hard drive space id say go with the samsung as 4GB RAM should be enough.

Then again i've never used a laptop with 6GB of RAM so im not sure how much performance it would have over the 4GB laptop.

Since they are the same price tough i would go for the HP with the 6GB of RAM this would be a very fast system and with windows 7 on it it should fly along no problem my netbook only has 1GB of RAM with windows 7 and its fairly fast even seems to outperform some desktops with Vista installed .:cool:

marco_polo

-Corkie- wrote: »

I will be using it to play HD videos onto a HDTV. I am not really in a panic to buy so I might wait. Computers seem to have gone very cheap latley. Would 6GB of ram be better than 4??

For HD playback the Graphic card does most of the work so i3 vs i5 really doesn't matter all that much.

Much like dual vs quad core, 6GB of ram would only ever be useful if you had applications that need huge amounts of RAM (Power users who are maybe video editing large files, 3D modelling etc), 2-3 GB is more adequate for average users, 4 GB is absolutely loads even for gaming laptops.

I mean you get 6GB for the same price as 4Gb then great, but other than that I wouldn't bother.

You are dead right about computers getting cheaper though, good times

-Corkie-

marco_polo wrote: »

For HD playback the Graphic card does most of the work so i3 vs i5 really doesn't matter all that much.

Much like dual vs quad core, 6GB of ram would only ever be useful if you had applications that need huge amounts of RAM (Power users who are maybe video editing large files, 3D modelling etc), 2-3 GB is more adequate for average users, 4 GB is absolutely loads even for gaming laptops.

I mean you get 6GB for the same price as 4Gb then great, but other than that I wouldn't bother.

You are dead right about computers getting cheaper though, good times

I might wait a while and get a i5 maybe. Whats the difference with i7 then??

Fluffy88

You can't really ask what's the difference in an i5 and an i7, there is some many different models it would be impossible to tell.

And your questions about the 4Gb or 6Gb, it won't make a difference, like I said the processor will make a bigger difference. I have 4Gb of RAM in my laptop and I have never seen it been used up fully, it usually sits around 1-1.5Gb and with alot of programs running up around the 2 mark.

-Corkie-

Fluffy88 wrote: »

You can't really ask what's the difference in an i5 and an i7, there is some many different models it would be impossible to tell.

And your questions about the 4Gb or 6Gb, it won't make a difference, like I said the processor will make a bigger difference. I have 4Gb of RAM in my laptop and I have never seen it been used up fully, it usually sits around 1-1.5Gb and with alot of programs running up around the 2 mark.

I just seen this for £369:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_G62-b32SA_1083654.html

Processor Intel® Core™ i5-460M Dual Core (2.53GHz, 3MB Cache, with Intel Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz)
Screen 15.6" (HP BrightView, LED Backlit, 1366 x 768 HD 16:9 Screen)
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
RAM 3GB (DDR3 800MHZ)
Hard Drive 320GB
Optical Drive DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics Integrated (Intel® HD Graphics with up to 1274MB Shared Memory)
Wireless LAN Wireless (802.11b/g/n Wireless)
Network Card 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Integrated Webcam Integrated Webcam with Microphone
Card Reader 5-in-1 card reader (SD//MS/MS-Pro/MMC/xD-Picture card™)
USB Ports 3x USB 2.0 ports
Speakers Intergrated Altec Lansing Stereo Speakers
VGA Port 1 External VGA Port
Kensington Lock Kensington lock slot
Charge Time 2.5 Hours
HDMI 1x HDMI Port
Warranty HP Pavilion 12 Month Warranty (Also use for Consumer Compaq's)
Battery Life 2-3 Hours (up to 3 hours with power management)
Weight 2-3 Kg (This Model 2.2 Kg)

desaparecidos

jay93 wrote: »

The laptop with 6GB of RAM would be nice to have

And utterly pointless. No benefit over 4GB, or even 2GB in most scenarios.

Fluffy88

Now, this is where my knowledge will show it's inadequacy.
I would actually lean more towards the Samsung you posted still. Even though the HP has the i5 literally the only difference is the Turbo boost, which is a nice feature, but I'm not sure if it's enough to out do all the other differences.
The Samsung has 4Gb of 1066Mhz RAM whereas the HP only has 3Gb 800Mhz RAM. The 3 & 4 gigs isn't the big issue, its the frequencies, personally I like to have the faster RAM but I don't know will it actually have a noticeable real world benefit. And the Samsungs HDD is twice the size, which might be good, depending on what your going to use this for.

One thing going for the Samsung is the screen, it's got a very high resolution compared with that HP, which is a nice feature to have.

I guess the best way to decide on which to get, is based on what you will use it for. The HP will be slightly better for games and when running very CPU intensive tasks because of the Turbo boost, but there is good things with the Samsung too, plus the Samsung looks nicer :P *cough* not that that makes any difference *cough*

marco_polo

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Now, this is where my knowledge will show it's inadequacy.
I would actually lean more towards the Samsung you posted still. Even though the HP has the i5 literally the only difference is the Turbo boost, which is a nice feature, but I'm not sure if it's enough to out do all the other differences.
The Samsung has 4Gb of 1066Mhz RAM whereas the HP only has 3Gb 800Mhz RAM. The 3 & 4 gigs isn't the big issue, its the frequencies, personally I like to have the faster RAM but I don't know will it actually have a noticeable real world benefit. And the Samsungs HDD is twice the size, which might be good, depending on what your going to use this for.

One thing going for the Samsung is the screen, it's got a very high resolution compared with that HP, which is a nice feature to have.

I guess the best way to decide on which to get, is based on what you will use it for. The HP will be slightly better for games and when running very CPU intensive tasks because of the Turbo boost, but there is good things with the Samsung too, plus the Samsung looks nicer :P *cough* not that that makes any difference *cough*

The slightly RAM frequencies would have pretty well no noticible day to day performance benefits for most users, as CPU<->RAM communication definately not the choke point of a modern computer for most normal usage patterns (Hello mechanical HDD drive).

I pretty well agree with everything else, unless the laptop is for gaming or other heavily multithreaded CPU intensive applications the i3 is the way to go IMO.

-Corkie-

marco_polo wrote: »

The slightly RAM frequencies would have pretty well no noticible day to day performance benefits for most users, as CPU<->RAM communication definately not the choke point of a modern computer for most normal usage patterns (Hello mechanical HDD drive).

I pretty well agree with everything else, unless the laptop is for gaming or other heavily multithreaded CPU intensive applications the i3 is the way to go IMO.

Cheers for that.

How much is my own laptop worth?. I posted it on the thread on top of the page but no body will reply. The screen backlight wont work as I changed the screen and must have upset something.

Fluffy88

I have the same laptop as you Corkie 160Gb HDD and 4Gb of RAM, I don't think I could sell it for €250, the fact your Wifi is gone I think is a big loss in value, I wouldn't pay more than €150 for it personally. Considering you can get new machines as powerful for around €300.

Now I don't know the value of second hand laptops and what they normally go for so that's just my opinion.

-Corkie-

Fluffy88 wrote: »

I have the same laptop as you Corkie 160Gb HDD and 4Gb of RAM, I don't think I could sell it for €250, the fact your Wifi is gone I think is a big loss in value, I wouldn't pay more than €150 for it personally. Considering you can get new machines as powerful for around €300.

Now I don't know the value of second hand laptops and what they normally go for so that's just my opinion.

The wifi is only a broken wire but I would be happy to leave it off for that or even less. I should stick to the day job and left someone proffesional look after it..:mad: