Studio 15 configuration advice

i3 vs. i5

Any other difference other than turbo? For my uses I really don't see where turbo is going to be beneficial. My most demanding task is encoding where all four cores are going to be used so turbo will be moot. Anything I am missing here? I don't do enough encoding to justify the i7, IMHO day to day performance will be better with the higher clocked 1i3/i5. $75 difference.

IGP vs. Dedicated

No gaming so no dedicated card needed? One thing I am really liking with my current rig is the nvidia GPU with flash 10.1 enabling support for it. If I am understanding this correctly the GMA4500 is supported so it should be fine. Main thing is HD youtube videos, I noticed a tremendous difference once I installed the beta. $110 difference.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

Neither the i3 or i5 are quadcore.

 

NB: The i3 and i5 are dual core processors you know... only the i7 720QM and 820 are the real QUAD core chips. i3 and i5 mobile chips are misleading in that they have 4 threads but 2 cores..

 

I was going for the 520 and realised this, and decided its better to go for the i7 as its adds a bbit of futureproofing (despite the heat). check the specs (notebookcheck.com) of the i3 vs i5 vs i7. theres a significant increase with i7 mobile chips, and it justifies the extra cost, in my opinion.

 

Brain fart, I don't know why I was thinking they were quads. Makes turbo even more useless.

 

It's a common mistake... I thought it too, and many others make the purchase before actually realising. It's Intels naming convention and the fact that they have everyone believing that anything with an "i" in it is quad core.

 

Well they are HT, so Windows would see an i3/ i5 as a quadcore as HT gives you 4-virtual cores. Technically its obviousley dual core.

 

I would HIGHLY avoid the i3, i5 systems.. There's a confirmed problem of random shutdowns..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=460680

Also, in the Dell forums there are more threads and much more people with the same problem. I am going to return my system, this is completely unacceptable for a brand new $1000 system.

On the other hand, the i7 has been reported with high heat issues (and heat is the main culprit of any electronic equipment). My recomendation would be to wait a little bit to see if the i3 i5 systems issues are resolved. I LOVED my computer except for this problem, it was perfect and it stayed very cool.