New Dell Vostro lineup

Since the 3300 vostro's only have a 4 cell batery I need to know which cpu&gpu-combination will use less energy. My guess is the corei3 cpu + the intel gma chip will use less energy than a corei5 cpu + intel gma or the nvidia gt310m (I know you get another adapter when you select the seperate gpu but the battery is just the same I think).

 

If you are concerned about battery life, the most important thing to do is to get an integrated vid card. I do not think the core i3 and i5 processors make much of a difference. i5 processor can do turboboost but in 95% of your normal tasks, your computer never does turboboost unless you are gaming, video encoding, etc

 

All the likely CPU options (those listed here with rPGA packaging) all have 35W TDP. There are some BGA (ie soldered mounting) CPUs with lower TDPs. Don't forget that this TDP includes the memory controller and graphics that are mounted in the CPU packaging so the CPU power consumption is similar to the P versions of the Core 2 CPUs.

Scrutiny of Intel's datasheets does not reveal any differentiation between the power consumption of the 35W CPUs. Table 21 in volume 1 is interesting because it shows the idle power dropping to 3.6W in the C6 state.

John

 

So this means I can safely chose a corei5 cpu without having to worry that I will lose an hour of battery life or more?

About the gpu, I find it weird that the vostro doesn't have switchable graphics so you can use the intel chip instead of the nvidia gpu when you need longer batter life, or is the difference irelevant?

 

This graph might help you to decide:



From this review: http://www.notebookcheck.biz/Test-d...-i3-i5-i7-architecture-Arrandale.25657.0.html

 

That's a useful graph. The idle power consumptions don't vary significantly between the different CPU models (and I suspect that it will be a matter of good / bad luck).

I suspect that Dell is worried about how easy switchable graphics will be to implement in reality. At the moment you have to make your choice at the purchasing stage.

John

 

Lets hope they have a new bios feature, or some type of software addon that can take advantage of the switchable graphics. I don't mind running the 310 all the time, but if I can save some power, then so be it...

 

Thx 00940, i'd rep you if I hadn't repped to much during these 24 hours ^^

I see that the difference in power consumption between corei3 and corei5 is very small, which is good to know since now I won't have to worry about sacrificing battery life for having a stronger cpu.

Do you guys have any speculations about the battery life yet? I'm not only reffering about the length of the battery life which can be achieved with the current 4 cell batery, but I'd also lik to know if they will offer stronger batteries in the future (6 cells for example), without the battery sticking out underneath your laptop.

 

The new Vostros look very nice indeed. I'm planning on getting the 3500, but I wish Dell would include the GT 330M card as well instead of just the 310M, it'd be an instant-buy. The 3700 has it, but 17" is a tad too big for me.

Does anybody know if the 3500 will get the 330M some time later, or is it a 3700-only deal?

 

Any idea or indication how cool this will run? I'm looking for a new laptop and the 3400 looks excellent. My biggest concerns (like many others) are the battery duration, keyboard and how cool/hot the laptop will run with an i5 + nvidia 310m config.

My last laptop was far too hot for my liking.