worth i5 for ?150?

So, I've been dealing with a dilemma for a week by now. In Italy, the Acer 3820TG Core i3 costs €600, while the 3820TG Core i5 is €750. Do you guys think it is worth purchasing the core i5 for €150 more?

I mean, are dedicated graphics + core i5 worth a 25% increase in price?


Thank you all.

 

If all other components are the same, I would say no. But if you get more RAM, HDD space and a better graphics card, yes.

 

No question but that the I5 is worth the extra price. The I3 is limited by its max temp of 90C while the I5 can run up to 105C. The I3 has been observed throttling under stress.

Bronsky

 

Where do you have that info from, if I may ask?
Because all I can find on that subject from intel is this sheet:
http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/322812.pdf
which doesn't make any difference between the Arrandale CPUs (page 55 for Tjmax chart) apart from their voltage status (standard/low/ultra low).

 

Oh wow, didn't know there is such a big difference between the 2 processors. But still, wouldn't it be better to get an I3 and upgrade the HD to an SSD?

Besides, consider the fact that in Sept. I'm going to college (business major) and the main applications I'll be running are Office, surfing the web (a video on youtube now and then) and some very light gaming (Pacman FTW ).

A 25% increase is definitely not a negligible aspect, at least for my budget. However, I would definitely buy the I5 if you say it's worth it.

 

for the applications you just mentioned an i3 will do more than fine + if like you said you can use the extra bucks to get a SSD that will make a noticeable diff. in performance "once again in the applications you mentioned" better than an i5

 

If you have a faster desktop PC or plan to buy one, then no.

If this is your only PC, then i5 is worth it, especially since IIRC i5 version comes with bigger HDD. I don't regret buying i3 350M in my 4820TG but that is because I also have i5 750 running @ 3.78 GHz at home to do all the heavy lifting.

However I'd also like to point out that adding a faster HDD will make it more noticeable as the poster above said. The 5400rpm HDD that came with my 4820TG is a dog, and even the 7200 rpm drive feels mucho slow compared to my Momentus XT. Now if $ was no object I'd put 256 GB SSD in there but I just can't live with any space less than that - I've already filled up 300 GB of my 500 GB Momentus XT.

 

Yes, the applications are mainly those I've listed in my post.

My budget is currently €750. Now, my plan was the following: perhaps purchase the I5 and wait 4-6 months so that SSD prices will go down a little bit more. Or, I could go with the I3, buy an SSD and live with the least powerful of the Core ix family.

As far as the space in the HD, I basically haven't filled even 70GB of my current laptop (which holds 200GB), because I don't need games. Only a DivX every now and then, but nothing special (I don't know how I could fill a 1/2TB HD ).

Now, another aspect that came to my mind is the battery issue. Is it a big difference in terms of battery life between the 2 cores? I ask this because if we talk about 20-30 mins, then I can go with the I5, otherwise the reasoning is simple.


Thank you all for your kind answers


EDIT: I have just seen that a 250GB Momentus XT is sold for €100 (roughly $130). Do you recommend it in terms of cost/performance?

 

There are a lot of users of the Momentus XT here and they seem to like it. I don't really understand how it works so I just stick with an SSD.

 

There is an entire discussion of it in the 4820TG thread. Start here. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6502641-post184.html You can see the throttling from the chart. Then look at the Heaven+Prime 95 date (look at the link on the bottom of the page) and the benchmarks from borderlands and L4D2. You can see the discrete valleys showing the throttling. When we saw this data, we looked up the temp information and I came across the GPU bridge limitation at 85C and others found the 90C Max temps. So, in a way, the data was developed by NGAR with his I3-350M.

Bronsky

 

Not sure in which thread to post this in, but since it started here and the discussion is about i3 vs i5, I'll stick with this one.
Bronsky, the thread you linked to showed some empirical data concerning throttling of the i3 at lower temperatures than the i5 version. I don't know what you mean by "GPU bridge limitation" and didn't find anything corresponding to that in the thread. Zeem's claim of a Tjmax of 86°C is unfortunately just a claim, as he didn't post any source for it.
At the moment, it looks to me like one unit with an i3 throttled at 8x°C while one unit with an i5 didn't throttle at 86°C. It might be a faulty BIOS implementation from Acer or another component being at fault as well.

 

Interesting.

Anyway, does someone know how much the battery life decreases when used an i5 compared to an i3?

Right now, I'm leaning towards an i3 + 250GB Momentus XT

 

the non low voltage i5 has a TDP of 35 watt which is the same for i3 so I think there won't be much diff. in battery life with close voltages

 

The maximum "thermal junction" temp of the integrated GPU is 85C. SLBPK (Intel Core i3 Mobile I3-350M) The I3 max temp is 90C. Intel Core i3 Mobile I3-350M CP80617004161AC So it is fairly clear that 2 things are going on in the throttling range. One is that the core is getting close to max temp and the CPU shuts down to cool and the other is that the thermal bridge heats up to its max temp. and it also causes the CPU to shut down. The thermal bridge is probably more variable as the core can probably hit higher temps before the junction maxes.

All the information was easily retrevable from the threads. I don't know why you had a problem finding it. It's clearly not a bios issue and more realted to the design of the CPU itself.

Bronsky

 

Thanks for the links Bronsky, much appreciated!

As for me being blind, maybe it was the late hour or temporary blindness. Sorry. Sucks that that kind of information is rather hard to retrieve. :/ It should be mandatory to have every store and online store offer this type of information.

 

I was just havin fun with you. Couldn't pass it up. Actually, the information is spread out over a bunch of threads. I was discussing it a lot with the Envy 14 crowd when they were debating the I3-370 and the I5-430. The issue was not obvious to anybody as most people were just comparing the clock speeds. It's not until NGAW started noticing his I3 throttling that we started to put it together.

Bronsky