XPS for Developers! (i5 vs. i7)

For developers, which processor (i5-560M/i7-740QM) do you think would work the best? ( With 8GB Memory)

In specific, do any of these software take advantage of the i7 processor??

* Visual Studio 2010
* SQL Server 2008
* Adobe Photoshop
* Eclipse
* Netbeans

I am a casual gamer and also watch DVD's on my laptop.

I recently bought a HP Envy 14 with core i7, 8GB and had to return it due to the fan noise. Now I want to spend some time selecting the right options for the XPS 15 and need some suggestions

 

Go for the i7,compiling the Linux kernel takes half the time with 4 cores compare to the i5.

 

Pretty much any multi-threaded application will see a very significant increase with a quad core, where single threaded applications will only be slightly faster with the higher clocked dual core. There's no real advantage to the i5 unless you're power/heat conscious. Things like compiling code and encoding video will see huge performance increases, though for most games, and watching DVDs, there will be little advantage.

 

I am a professional developer and I have i5. i7 would be better only for big C++/C programs and only, if they are configured for multithreaded compilation. You will not notice performance gain on Java or C# projects using i7.

The best thing you can do is to buy 8GB RAM and SSD.

 

Honestly, I have an i5-460M, 4GB laptop with an 160GB SSD and it works fine for me. I regularly have at least 2 instances of Visual Studio open, running SQL Server, Management Studio, Remote Desktop, Apache, IIS, MySQL, Outlook 2010, Zune etd etc and occasionaly have photoshop open and I've not run into any problems at all. Sure some extra Ram is always nice to have. But honestly the most worthwhile investment I made was the SSD. I'd absolutely advise you to get one. Oh and also at least have a 16 inch screen.

 

I was looking at the 256 GB SSD option, but it will cost me an additional $550!! and thats quite pricey for me... Are there any other notebooks which have SSD's which are less expensive.

 

I doubt it unless you want a lower quality SSD. SSD's from OEM are always expensive, its better to get it with a hard drive and upgrade to an SSD yourself, you may get a 256GB for as low as $450 if you find the right deal. A 128GB would cost like $250. Also, im sure SSD prices will drop this year so it might be better to wait a few months

 

dont get an SSD, buy one yourself, a bit cheaper and you can pick one that performs best in your situation.

oh, and dont buy the i7, the sandy bridge quadcore is miles better in multithreaded apps. you can buy this next month for, probably, a small price premium.

 

I think a good alternative for the SSD is the Hybrid HDD from Seagate, the Momentus XT. It's cheaper and can give you a performance almost like and SSD.
At amazon.com you can find one 500gb momentus xt hdd for only 120 bucks. Search the youtube for comparison videos and you'll get impressed.

 

The Momentus XT will give you performance that is a bit better than a standard HDD, but they are nowhere even near the performance of a real SSD. Also, it only speeds up the ~4GB of files you use the most, like Windows startup files, but doing stuff like creating new content/code/video/etc will not be sped up at all.