Which one do i buy for heavy program usage ? I5-460M VS I7-740QM

Hello everyone,

That's my first thread here and i guess my question was asked before, but i want someone to guide me.

Am in engineering major and i use heavy programs like,
MATLAB: System Requirements - Release 2010b - Windows
Solidworks: SolidWorks
Pro-Engineering: http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/77552/en/proewf5.pdf
Lab-View: System Requirements for NI LabVIEW Development Systems and LabVIEW Modules
AutoCad: Autodesk - AutoCAD - System Requirements

These are my most important programs which i usually use. i guess they are heavy, at least on my current pc they don't work quite well. They need good graphics card to render well. please note that i may be using to programs at the same time during working with heavy projects but this doesn't happen a lot.

i was thinking of buying that laptop: Dell Inspiron N5010 Black | CompuMe eShop
NOTE: it's Intel® Core™ i5 460M 2.53GHz Turbo Boost Up to 2.8GHz, 3MB L2 Smart, it was written 540M by mistake.

There is also another dell 15R but not yet published on their website but i saw it at their store.
Intel® Core™ i7 740M 1.73GHz Turbo Boost Up to 2.93GHz, 6MB Smart DMI 2.5GT/s
Ram: 4 GB DDR3
Disk space: 500 GB
It's more expensive by 2000 EGP

Which on will suit me and will give me max performance ??
if am not clear enough please tell me.

Thank you in advance

 

Ahmed, read this thread since you're basically asking the same thing; quad core vs dual core

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...uad-core-cpus-8740w-general-purpose-work.html

To simplify (and possibly over-simplify) Do you use apps that support multi-threading? Do you do a lot of multi-tasking? Are you mostly connected to the mains? Then get the quad core (i7 740M)

Do you use apps that don't have multi-threading and not multi-task much? Is longer battery life more important? Go for the dual core (i5)

Do these systems have the same graphic card/memory? That will also be important for these graphic heavy programs (provided they use dedicated graphics)

 

mechanical engineering eh? which university are u from?
I am only familiar with a few of the programs u listed, but they can be run on a dual core pretty fast. (i havnt heard of pro-engineering and lab view)!

 

I haven't tried Pro/e on my 14R yet but I'm sure an i5 is plenty. We run it fine on the C2D lab computers at school. Though we don't do insanely complex modeling either.

Oh BTW Labview is basically the most awful piece of software in existence. I'm sorry you're stuck using it as well.

 

Thanks Coruja for your reply. I guess your simplification made it a bit clear for me. but does multi-threading means that the program divides itself to work on several processors not only 1 ? and is that good or not ? and why?

how cand i know whether they are mutli-threading or not ?? i didn't find any information in the system requirements. i guess i'll have to google

i'll also read ur attached link and i may find my answers there.

THank u

I am studing mechatronics in the German university in Cairo (EGYPT) in the 4 year. pro-engineering is also a 3D drawing program like Solidworks while labview is a graphical programming language which can do control and measurements.

Thanks for your help

Thanks for your reply i guess the i5 will be my choice since it's also cheaper than the i7.
Labview maybe awful for me too because am not used to graphical programming. it's so complicated but when you get used to it, i guess it will be a strong tool. i guess MATLB also can compete with labview in controlling and interfacing with external modules. I am still a beginner in matlab but i guess it will be much stronger than labview in the field of control and simulation.

 

yup, and the the i5 will be slightly cooler and use less power too! im actually a industrial engineer, so i dunno much about computer aided design software

 

In simple terms, multi-threading basically means a (number crunching) task that can be split between several cores (processors) simultaneously, and this is very good for such tasks. The i7 has 8 cores in all; 4 'real' and 4 virtual, so for a task that uses multi-threading can be waayyyy faster than 1 core e.g. a matter of minutes vs several hours.

I work for a software house which produces engineering CAD software. One example of a task we use multi-cores for right now is (structural) system analysis - and analysis time is very much less the more cores you have.

Additionally our developer guys are getting heavily into multi-threading for the next release; so even if the software you used now is not multi-thread right now, the chances are that it will be very soon. E.g, we can use one core for a rendering task while another takes care of graphical manipulation, so the manipulation is not slowed at all by the rendering task.

In a nutshell, multi-threading, especially in CAD software, is the future. So, the more cores the better and the more 'future proof' you are, if you like.

If programs support multi-cores, you shouldn't be in doubt, since it's a selling point/advantage. We certainly highlight it in our literature and will do so more for the next release as a) multi-core processors become more common, and b) people understand more what this means (just like with 64-bit architecture).

 

i believe it is more an issue with battery life? The dual core will give you better battery life than the i7 quad.

If you are going to load heavy software and you want to future proof your purchase, I would go with the i7 740QM. Even so, this depends on how higher the price is from the i5 460M.

Also, does the i7 model have a better graphics card? If yes, for your needs I would suggest going with that.

 

i believe it is more an issue with battery life? The dual core will give you better battery life than the i7 quad.

If you are going to load heavy software and you want to future proof your purchase, I would go with the i7 740QM. Even so, this depends on how higher the price is from the i5 460M.

Also, does the i7 model have a better graphics card? If yes, for your needs I would suggest going with that.