i7-4712MQ or i5-4310M?

[Joey]

Hi there.

I've ordered an ultranoteII with PCspecialist. I ordered it with an i5-4310M. Reason being it is the first i5 in the list with VT-x and VT-d (and it's just within budget). I'll be installing win7 in a virtual machine to be able to work from home if needed (my boss chose a toolset that requires ms). Mostly though, I'll be running linux.

My order has been delayed, and while waiting I've been conteplating stretching my budget and changing it to the i7 instead. It does however not do VT-d, and some other things are different (see http://ark.intel.com/compare/78933,80373).

So I wonder, is it worth the extra 60 odd euro to switch to the i7 in stead? I have more cores, but at what piont is adding more cores not making sense and is VT-d and Transactional Synchronization Extensions more impacting? Or is the larger chache impacting?

I don't have enough experience with hardware specs to make an educated guess: is the i7 better on the whole or not and if so, is it worth the +60 EUR? Is it the difference between a Lada and a Mercedes or is it the difference between a Mercedes with or without electric windows? I just don't know.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Regards,

Joey
Amsterdam

 

[Joey]

Adddendum: I'll be using the system for

• photo editing
• film editing (is something I'd like to pick up if possible)
• running a 5M+ record mysql database for dev/test/tweaking
• developing/testing/finetuning a website i'm running that uses above database
• virtual machine running farily light apps in win7

Other things related to the cpu:

Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4310M (2.70GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS MEDIA ACCELERATOR 4600
1st Hard Disk
OCZ-VERTEX2 (this is my own)

Joe

 

[mantadog]

I don't have enough experience with hardware specs to make an educated guess: is the i7 better on the whole or not and if so, is it worth the +60 EUR? Is it the difference between a Lada and a Mercedes or is it the difference between a Mercedes with or without electric windows? I just don't know.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Regards,

Joey
Amsterdam

In terms of your analogy I would liken a i7 to a front running race car, with an i5 to a back marker and an i3 being in a different category all together. Over a single lap the i7 might be only 4 or 5 seconds quicker but over a race distance its lapped the backmarker 5 times. Adding more cores is the best way to get performance, the 'advanced' tech like VT-d is much more like electric windows on a merc. More cores = more betterer (mostly).

I don't think you need to drill down too far into the advanced tech section of the spec sheet, the bigger cache and more cores of an i7 will dominate an i5. Especially if you want to pick up video editing, in that case an i7 is almost essential. not to say than an i5 couldn't do it, it certainly could. You would just be looking at much longer doing the same job. Unless you have some specific info on needing that kind of tech?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Like mantadog says, i7 will improve overall performance significantly due to more cores. I think especially for virtualisatuon, it's a very worthwhile upgrade.

 

[evvo123]

Like others here, I'd upgrade to the i7.

 

[Joey]

Unless you have some specific info on needing that kind of tech?

Not particularly. My current laptop has VT-x which works good for me, I just wonder if VT-d is going to give me a noticeable improvement. I have the feeling that since it's all running from an SDD and I'm not planning to do intensive tasks in a virual environment, it won't matter much.

Thans for the feedback all, I'm upgrading

Joe