Should I get i7 or 256GB SSD? which is more worth it for the $$$?

right now dell has the deal for the R2 i7 for $1099, but I just looked in the refurb section and I can get a R1 core duo with the 256GB SSD drive for pretty much the exact same price.

I dont game, I just need a small laptop thats got a decent video card to run engineering software (cad, solidworks, catia, etc.) and has the most batterylife, as well as the fast boot up time since I need to access things on site.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions,

Ian

 

An R1 w/SSD wins for both faster boot time and best battery life, given the two choices.

I can't commend on CAD software, as I don't use them.

 

The 335 should be fine for CAD.

If you plan on doing any rendering on the laptop then you'd /really/ see a boost with the i7. However if it were me, I'd do any extensive rendering on something a little more worthy than a CULV processor. Depends on how much of that you're really planning to do. The one off beauty shots wouldn't be too bad.

Modeling on the 11.6" panel might be a little tight, but Solidworks and Autocad's GUIs are pretty customizable. If you had an external monitor then you'd be set.

 

95% of my work would be done at my office on my precision workstation, I just need something the CAN run the software for that 5% when I'm traveling.

I'm mainly going to use this as daily internet, media and maybe occasional racing game laptop.

I just wanted to know if the newer SSD drive really make a huge difference because last time I was shopping for one I was told the boot times are really not work justifying the additional pricetag.

 

Go with the ssd.... Its still by far the best individual performance jump you can make....well unless you are looking to increase FPS in gaming...then its the CPU.

 

Get the i7, you can't upgrade that later on down the road.

You can buy an SSD at any time, and prices will actually probably come down.

 

Here are my two cents:

djjosherie makes a good point, something to keep in mind. However, I have the i7 with the ssd and I can say that if I had to give up one, it would be the i7. The boot and application load times are insanely fast. To be honest, I don't know if I could comfortably ever go back to standard drives on a laptop after this.

Think about the added battery life you'll get with the first revision + ssd, it sounds like that could be of higher value for your as well. I'm fine with the ~4 hours I get out of my R2 though.

Anyway, good luck making your decision!

 

Between the Core i7 or the 256GB SSD, you will get much better bang-for-your-buck going with the SSD.

However, if you have a choice, I would say not to get either of those. Both the Core i7 and the 256GB SSD from Dell are overpriced for the performance that they give. If you want CPU performance, then the better buy would be a Core i5. If you want an SSD, then you would get more speed and more value with an aftermarket 3rd party SSD.

 

Lemme throw my 2 cents in.

I don't run SolidWorks, but I do run Autodesk Inventor 2010 & AutoCAD 2010. (Tho, I have used Catia, Solidworks, Solid Edge, Ideas, NX, & a few AutoCAD clones)


Inventor is single-core....so it benefits more from clock speed than the extra cores....tho, the renderer is multi-core, so the extra cores would help there. The i7 might do well with turbo-boost in that instance. I Overclocked my workstation about 22% & saw about a 19% increase in rendering times.



But as far as loading large assemblies & stuff, you're gonna notice the best increase with the SSD. Some of our assemblies can get into 2,000-3,000 parts range & SSDs have given us the largest speed bump. (First, we got i7 systems, then we got SSDs in the i7 systems & loading times increased majorly from the SSD upgrade.)


Take it with a grain of salt tho, because that's Inventor & not solid works. I do not know if solid works takes advantage of multiple cores. CAD programs don't seem to be too CPU intensive.....just lots & lots of data being loaded from the harddrive/ssd.

I've noticed creating parametric features is highly CPU dependent. Opening files, & inserting parts tho is HDD/SSD dependent.



Cliffnotes:

Creating features....especially stuff like surface modeling & the other intense features involving nurbs & splines & stuff are gonna be highly CPU (I.E. clock-speed) dependent.
Opening parts & assemblies & loading files, inserting parts, stuff like that are gonna be HDD/SSD dependent.
Rendering your model is highly CPU dependent (Both clock speed & number of cores)
Rotating & viewing your model is gonna be GPU dependent.


Our parts are relatively simple parts.....but we have massive assemblies, so SSDs gave us the biggest speed boost overall.

 

Thanks for the awesome advice guys, I just pulled the trigger on the R1 with the SSD.

It came out to be $989.00!!!

Specs:
Base Alienware M11x Laptop
Processor Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800 MHz, 3 MB)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Hard Disk Drive 256 GB Solid State Drive Ultra Performance
Memory 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2 DIMMs)
Video 1 GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335 M
System Color Cosmic Black
Laptop Screen 11.6 inch High Definition WLED Display (1366x768)
Laptop Battery 8 Cell Primary Battery
Network Interface Card Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
Bluetooth Wireless Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module
Web Camera Integrated Webcam
Keyboard Alienware TactX Keyboard
Hardware Upgrade 65W AC Adapter
Software Upgrade 64BIT Operating System DVD
Office Software Microsoft Works 9.0

I mean just the SSD alone is worth half thats so getting an SSD system with a 1gb video card for under a grand is a great deal IMO!

Oh yeah, its the "scratches & dents" from the out let, but considering how my M1210 looks right now from bouncing round on the back seat of my cars, I couldn't care less. Should be here on the 18th, so stoked!