Help needed! New laptop for quite specific daily usage patterns..

[Anthony Filmer]

Could people tell me if this is any good, and what improvements I should maybe be considering. It's for daily use involving, simultaneously: word-editing, multi-tab browsing, downloading, music, Skype etc. And a game in the background..

The only game I'd really use it for is Football Manager though, which is processor (and RAM) hungry, and doesn't really take much direct advantage of multi-threading. This is partly why I'm thinking of not going with the i7-4702mq (and also because the clock speed seems to be much lower than the i5-4330m, albeit the turbo boost looks good). The other option was the i7-4600m, but beyond a 1mb increase in cache over the i5-4330m, and a gain of 100 Mhz, I don't really see any other benefit to spending quite a bit more. Could anyone enlighten me as to why I would; is there anything intrinsically better about an i7 (as in: the i7-4600m over the i5-4330m) or a quad core (given that I definitely won't be doing any video editing or rendering or anything remotely like that)?

And the quad core has a much bigger (6mb) cache - is that something I'm likely to feel in an appreciable, everyday sense, and in gaming too? I'm happy to be convinced upwards, but I wouldn't feel right about spending more for the sake of spending more, not if the gains aren't really ever going to be felt. Is the quad core option worth the hit in processing power (in terms of Mhz) for future-proofing maybe? Thing is, in my head I keep coming back to the processor-greed of Football Manager, which makes me think of the raw clock speed of the i5-4330m or i7-4600m.

I'll be fine with the absence of a dedicated graphics card, because Football Manager and any other games I'd play won't be graphically demanding, and the Haswell's HD 4600 seems to be good enough. Furthermore, the gains in weight and battery life and money make it more or less a no-brainer.

And also, does anyone have any idea on the overall weight and battery life of this build?

Thank you so much! Any feedback much appreciated..


Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4330M (2.80GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS MEDIA ACCELERATOR 4600
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 335 SERIES SSD,SATA 6Gb/s(upto 500MB/sR|450MB/sW) SPECIAL
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
UltraNote Series: 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N WI-FI CARD
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
UltraNote Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH) (Up to 7 Hours)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
ULTRANOTE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

 

[mantadog]

The i7's boast hyper threading which the i5's do not, that effectively gives you the same number of extra virtual cores as you have physical cores. So a dual core would have 2 physical and 2 virtual for a total of 4 and a quad core would have 4 physical and 4 virtual for a total of 8. That really only helps in thing like video editing which you say you have no interest in.

The i7 4700MQ is light years ahead of the i5 4330m in terms of raw performance and only costs £1 more.

Simply put you want the i7 4700MQ because while it has a slightly slower single threaded performance than the i5 you selected it absolutely monsters it when the application can take advantage of multiple threads. The very small single threaded performance handicap is more than worth the multi threaded performance gain. The amount cache a processor has is not something you are realistically going to notice so is not worth worrying about, best to just use the raw performance figures.

Even though the dual core would be more than sufficient for your needs I would suggest that the quad core offers you more for your money, and with turbo boost on a single thread it can go as high as 3.4Ghz so no problems in single threaded applications. If you are sure you are not going for a dedicated GPU the it cuts out some of the possible future need for a quad core in gaming but I think I would still plump for the quad core if it was me because it gives you a bit more flexibility in the future should you ever come across any more demanding tasks.

I have no idea on weight and battery life, sorry.

 

[Anthony Filmer]

Thanks for the reply.

On the Intel site it says that the i5-4330m has hyper-threading technology, so won't that have 4 (2 non-physical cores) as well? Or is it still different to the i7 in some way - is its hyper-threading technology different in some way?

 

[mantadog]

Sorry was in desktop mode, the i5 for laptops does have hyperthreading.

The rest of my points still stand, the 4330m has a score of 4804 over at cpubenchmark.net, the 4700mq has a score of 7948. That's like 70% faster for £1. The dual core i7 is pretty much identical to the dual core i5 in terms of performance, so yes you are correct that the i5 and i7 dual cores are almost the same thing.

Single threaded performance is not really impacted because if you are only using 1 thread then the CPU will turbo up to maximum frequency anyway. Seems silly not to go for the quad core because more physical threads always win over a virtual ones the 15 would bring to the table.

 

[Anthony Filmer]

It's the 4702MQ, rather than the 4700MQ - does that make a difference?

And also, if this is the case then why does the 4330m exist? If it would pretty much always make sense to go for the 4702MQ then why bother stocking the other. Regardless of the cpubenchmark score will the 4330m not even be better for single-threaded applications then?

Thankd!

 

[mantadog]

The 4702mq is virtually identical to the 4700mq apart from its .2Mhz slower in both standard clock and turbo.

The 4330m exists because intel say it exists, the i5 range of laptop processors are fairly pointless in my view. If you want a dual core gen a cheaper i3, if you need multiple threads get an i7. I cant think of many people who should be getting an i5 in a laptop.

and yes, if you pitched an i5 vs an i7 with a slower clock speed in a single threaded task the i5 would win. However I think you are getting carried away with single threaded performance, nothing but the oldest games and software use 1 thread anymore. its all about multiple threads.

So to sum up. the 4072mq is going to be slightly slower in single threaded applications than the 4330m but for football manager I still think you would be better off with a quad core. I cant find many fm 2012 benchmarks online but from what I can see they do appreciate more than a single thread.

Look at this link, I know its old but look at the i5 2500k at 4400MHz now compare that to the i7 2600k at 4430MHz, its 1 minute faster. They have the same number of physical processors but the i7 has hyperthreading and that makes it about 1 minute faster. As far as I can tell the total RAM isn't important so long as you have enough.

My recommendation stands at the 4700MQ or 4702 if that's the only processor on offer.