i7 2720QM or i7 2820QM

Does the 2720 really have that much better battery life then the 2820?

 

i dont know but for the price i went with the 2720.... best performance per $$

i see you bought a vertex 3.... are you sure the Alienware m14x is sata 3 or 6?


NVM confirmed has p67 chipset so were good

 

i prefer to have it at 2630qm. the performance increase to 2720qm isnt worth the price increase of USD240 for me.

 

2630qm is the best processor...the 555M won't be able to take advantage of the faster proc in games. There is minimal benefit. The main thing you want are cores...and all M14x processors are 4 core with HT so they're about equal game-wise.

 

QFT. 2630qm with gt555m wont have any bottlenecking cases so no worries.
2630qm is strong enough. If any upgrades was to be done, upgrade the GPU and resolution.

 

Money is not an option.

Keep in mind, battery life is important.

 

Huh? Your 2nd thread on this topic?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/572139-i7-2720qm-i7-2820qm.html

If money isn't an object - buy the M14x, get the best proc, and dip that @#$% in gold, baby. Live it up! No need for debate.

 

If battery life is important, just get the 2630. You won't notice the difference in games.

 

Which of the three processors have the best battery life? Is it a noticeable increase?

 

Will I notice that much of an increase? Should I go with the 2720? In-between both of them?

 

no you wont. plus you can OC the procs anyway...

 

I don't know - no-one here knows - odds are you won't notice much of a difference with any of them, because most of the time they won't be under load, which is what counts.

Get the 2630, anything else is overkill for the other components in the machine.

Why you needed two threads for this however I don't quite understand...

 

Let me re-phrase this.

Will I notice that much of a battery gain with the lower-choice processor vs the middle and higher choice?

 

how much of a gain do you want or need?

but if battery life is the end goal, then go with the lower proc. i would say that the difference would be negligable unless your a power user and if you are you would be plugged in anyway...

 

Well, maybe 30 minutes more battery life when using the 2630QM vs 2820QM?

Is this realistic?

 

You can keep asking, but the fact is we don't know!

Unless you can find two laptops with exactly the same spec, barr the processors, that both have exactly the same battery life tests done to them, you won't know. This assumes of course that you're doing the same things day-to-day that are being done in the battery tests, which is probably not the case, making the statistics pretty much irrelevent.


Edit: You know what? Yes. Yes, you will get 30 minutes extra with the 2630 vs. the 2820. Answered? Good, go order and be happy!

 

Should I choose to get all of the pre-installed games? Wouldn't that make sense?:
Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed
World of Warcraft Preinstall Edition
Eve Online, Factory Installed

Is it worth it to add to my configuration?

Also, should I have Windows Update set to critical updates only or just "on".

 

Wow. I would class all of those things as a non issue.

All can be done whenever you want!

 

Does the M14x support Intel XMP?

Which should I go for?:

Newegg.ca - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model KHX1600C9S3K2/8G
Newegg.ca - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model KHX1600C9S3K2/8GX

 

There is no harm in getting them pre-installed or not. Just that when you get steam installed, I think Portal you get for free. (Portal 1 ofcourse)

Updates is also to your own liking, I would recommend just critical updates but you can do whatever u want. None of these are any issues at all

enjoy your m14x if you get one!

 

dude....how many threads you gonna start? try compiling your questions to one thread...

 

They are separate questions and allows users who have similar questions to index this sub-forum.

This is how a forum is composed, of many different threads with different questions. Just because they're coming from one user doesn't mean he/she is doing anything wrong tyvm.

 

Actually the i7 2720QM is a decent amount above the Desktop Intel Core i7 950 @ 3.07GHz in benchmarking where the i7 2630QM is below it.. You also need the i7 2720QM to be able to run the ram at 1600Mhz. So the difference between the i7 2720QM and the i7 2630QM is greater than you think.

 

Keep tellin' yourself that.

 

they all have a 45W TDP correct?

i assume that in every day tasks that there would be little difference n battery life. nobody can report exact numbers for this model though, but i'm guessing mere minutes of difference

also, all the sandy bridge procs are going to be great for a normal user/ gaming. no worries there

as for the ability to use 1600mhz ram.. most likely you'll never even notice the difference between 1600 and 1333. the quantity yeilds better performance than the mhz difference. up to a point i suppose. dont get more ram than you need

 

PassMark - Intel Core i7-2720QM @ 2.20GHz - Price performance comparison

 

What does that prove? It's faster? We all know that. This is about what's worth buying. For gaming - you will see almost zero benefit. I have a 2720QM in my MacBook Pro and I dual boot Mac OS X and Windows 7. It's all GPU-dependent when you're in the i7 Quad class.

 

Yes it does. It's called spamming, even if it is legitimate.

It doesn't matter, you can easily download Steam on your own, and the other games can be bought from Steam (Or Amazon, in the case of SC2).

 

Performance to price seems the i7 2720QM is a good deal. I thought it was zombie here on NBR that said you need at least the i7 2720QM to run the XMP for 1600Mhz ram other wise it doesnt run that high with the lower CPU. I have heard it elsewhere so mabye someone can confirm.

 

Again with the pile of threads!

Go for the XMP RAM. If the 14 doesn't support XMP it takes all of six seconds to change the timings in the BIOS.

 

STOP opening all these new threads! Click on some threads already started, These questions have been answered or are currently being discussed!!!


AND you even started this thread that its being discussed in.... jeez
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/572139-i7-2720qm-i7-2820qm-2.html

 

Yeah the 2630QM runs at 1333. The 2720QM is definitely a great processor...but if you're just gaming I'm just saying your money is spent better elsewhere (larger screen, better Wi-Fi, etc.). If you are going to encode all kinds of stuff and do PhotoShop, etc. - then sure...go for it.

 

In another thread I talked about GPU threshholds. The 2630 will easily keep the 555mGT busy and it will NOT hold it back. When thinking about gaming, the 555 will hit max utilization well before the 2630. (Numbers will vary based on games. RTS of course will benefit from more cpu)

 

To answer the OP, it wont matter.

The i7 2820qm should be more battery friendly due to the higher bin.

 

How do you figure?

 

All quad processors are the from the same yield. higher bins are going to be the higher end models.

This is done by every manufacturer. For example you remember the arradale line and how it got from a i5 450m> 460m> 480m > 490m, they got higher clocks as the yields became of higher quality, due to improvements in the manufacturing process

 

I'm missing the connection on how higher clocks translate to better battery life. Without technical knowledge, my first assumption would be two identical quad-cores with different clock speeds would see the slower quad core have higher battery life since it doesn't consume as much power during maximum load.

 

you have also to remember that both have the same TDP, so the energy consumption should be equal or better for the higher yield one.

 

I still don't understand how higher yields with the same TDP rating mean better battery life for the higher-clocked processor. By that reasoning it would seem that the high-end quad cores consume less power than the most powerful SB dual-core, which seems counter-intuitive.

 

How does that translate to lower power consumption? The higher end processors are undervolted more when underclocked?

TDP is talking about maximum, and obviously the higher clocked one is going to use a lot more power at maximum speed.

 

They dissipate the same amount of heat, all things are the same, the number of transistors, the size of them, all is equal.

 

So basically what you guys are saying is that the 2630QM will be more than enough with regard to the GT555M in gaming since the GT555M isn't powerful enough to make use of the 2720/2820QM anyways? But does the 2630QM support only 1333? It won't make use of the 1600MHz memory?

So bottom line is, if you are a regular gamer/user, get the base model? lol

 

I still fail to see the connection between identical heat dissipation, higher yields and the argument that higher-clocked quad cores are more battery efficient than their less speedy peers, all things considered I'm not able to get an explanation on this thread since I'm too "ignorant" for technical information.

 

No, not everything is the same, or else they wouldnt be 2 different CPU models... Obviously the FREQUENCY is different. Power consumption / thermal dissipation increase linearly with increasing frequency (and to the square with increasing voltage but we shouldnt have that, even tho I wouldnt be surprised, to keep higher clocks stable).

So yeah, under load, the higher clocked cpus of same architecture always draw more power and produce more heat. Check any single mobile CPU benchmark, they always tend to have slightly shorter battery life, which is consistant with the "draw more power" part.

 

battery life? to the some point of time it equals. both have turboboost which will hit maximum on both processors. the only difference will be on 100% load of 2820 where it will drain battery slightly more. In other cases equal. Also 2820 may drain little less battery when it (1 or 2 cores) works on maximum without turboboost while 2720 have to use turboboost for getting same performance because I think turboboost will drain more power ocing 1-2 cores over normal however I may be wrong.
Don't buy 2630 if you can because it is a difference between 2720 and 2630.

Why? Seriously just tell me why. What makes quad core class so special? You want me to emergency notify people that higher clocked dual core CPU are no more better in gaming than quad core processors because ...they suddenly became one of quad class? Case that games are GPU dependent doesn't mean that they will take no benefit from higher quad core CPU at all. In fact it will be better to upgrade quad core than higher clocked dual one. Dual core CPU already have enough power for games while quad core will use turboboost for that OCing first 2 cores for gaming.

 

No, you are still thinking the CPUs as an ohmic resistor. Which actually wouldnt matter, in this case. Although the frequency, i.e. how fast an electronic signal is passed through a circuitry (O and 1) is higher, the voltage and the resistance should be equal.

What you got understand is that the only thing that was changed is the frequency, all the other components are the same.

How did they got a higher frequency when things like, voltage, amperage, wattage are the same?

You have also to remember that the TDP is a measure of how much heat is needed to dissipate when the processor is working



Here is a good read:

Now check the electronic noise theory, and you are going to notice that the cpus provide the same things.

Im going on a travel, when I get there Ill explain this further

 

No, he isn't. Though if I am understanding you correctly, for your idea to work, the cpu would have to be treated as a resistor. If the cpu is just a big resistor, then yeah, what would frequency matter? It wouldn't. But that is not the case.

True.

That's just it. You can't do that. It doesn't make any physical sense.

TDP is the Thermal Design Power. That is just how much power the cooling system has to be required to dissipate. Just because two processors have the same TDP doesn't mean that they are actually consuming or dissipating that much power, let alone the same amount.

 

A really simplified explanation to why a CPU dissipates more power at a higher frequency is because the transistors (Mosfets) only dissipate heat during the transition from a 0 to a 1 or 1 to a 0. (It’s operating in the ohmic region) When a Mosfet is off or on its dissipation is zero. So higher frequency means higher TDP period.
As far as the voltages are concerned since they are dynamically controlled based on processing load, and C states there is no good way to really know what it’s doing in any given instant. The programs (and chips) that read these voltages are sampling typically at a rate of 1Hz (or however often you set it at) .

 

I think that what Mr.MM is trying to get at is that the quad core chips are made out of higher quality manufactured dies, than most dual core chips. Because it is a higher quality chip, there are less 'errors' in its production, and thus it is a 'cleaner and more efficient' running processor die (so in low use situations where the cores are downclocking -and I think some automatically disable a few cores- the quad core will be extremely similar to a dual core chip; if not a bit better in some cases)
So it is essentially made to a mush more accurate tolerence (think any one of the various electronic components, one is made to ~20% tolerance [and usually are at the high end of that -bad efficiency: Dual Core], to one made to 5% tolerance [closer to the middle of that tolerance for most -more efficient = better: Quad Core] That is my exaggerated example, in real life it isn't that great, but then again it is like that for all components- like HDD"s, sure some are better, and not by much, but it is still different)

If you were to stress a quad core to its max potential, its core temps would likely exceed the core temps of a similar dual core chip; but in both cases the TDP is not even close to being reached yet (TDP is the max for the chip, not the average)



IMO if you are at the point where you can be/ are asking if a quad core would be good for you, then it is time to get a quad core (future proofing comes into play faster than you would think)

 

Why are we talking about quad core vs dual core in thread 2720 vs 2820? Besides I doubt that i7 dual core or even i5 has worse quality.

Wrong. This is NEVER gonna be.
Mobile quad processors will never be better using 2 cores against good dual core i5 or i7. even if quad one will use turboboost.
Above sentence is true only for battery drain question and is likely mistaken or not accurate about performance level in case of talking about 2-ng Generation Sandy Bridge i-CPU.