Core 2 Quad vs Core i7

After a little bit of reading, I saw that Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad will eventually disappear with the advent of Core i5/i7.

That said, is it still worth buying a quad core laptop when core i7 is just beginning to enter the laptop market?

 

Well, it depends on what you're going to use it for. Nehalem comes towards the end of this year for laptops, and if you need a laptop now, then quad should more than suffice. There's always something new in the horizon.

 

Always buy a laptop when you need it. If you continually wait for the next new thing then you'll be waiting forever.

That said, do not buy a laptop until you need it.

Those two statements are not the same thing.

 

LOL there are already core i7 in laptops. I personally saw one review of a laptop on this website with a core i7

 

and core i7 can own core 2 quad )))

 

Sorry, incorrect.

The core i7 in the clevo will not "own" any Core 2 Quad in terms of power consumption, price or heat generation at the moment. These are all perfectly valid reasons to stick to Core 2 Quad.

Those core i7 processor you've seen in the Clevo (or Sager as you will likely know it), I believe are desktop processors housed in a notebook environment. I may be wrong on that point; but I don't think so. The power consumption is so high that you might as well buy a decent quad core and actually have some form of battery life.

 

Yep, no Core i7 processors for mobile exist at the moment. We'll see mobile Nehalems by August/September with Calpella.

 

your gonna have to wait a bit longer than that... somewhere in 2010... you wont be seeing them in 2009

 

Yes we will. Quad core Clarksfield (aka Core i7) will launch in before the year is over. Dual core Arrandale (Core i3) will launch early 2010.

 

Yea, notice how I said mobile "Nehalem" launch not mobile "Westmere" launch.

 

I was talking about bifnewman, not you.

 

Me too.

 

I have seen a laptop with i7 CPU, Can link if someone don't belive...

 

Yes, we know about it as said in the sixth post. The point is; it's not a mobile processor, it's a desktop processor that has been put into a laptop. This means it will run much hotter (because you simply don't have as much room for powerful cooling), and will sap the battery like crazy

 

Yeah, 130W TDP vs. 35/25/17/10W TDP... no comparison.

 

Even, the 45W TDP of a mobile extreme quad core QX9300.

 

Yeah but reading the first post the user was referring more to the next Generation which will see a Mobile i3 i5 and i7 the mobile and desktop versions of the new i7 arent even the same architecture of the old i7, new desktop i7 wont even work on the lga 1366 motherboards.

If you read fast your thinking a bit wrong. User brings it out more like should I buy a C2Q now or wait for the new mobile quads.

 

Yes, this I realised from the word go. My response was to those people who said core i7s were already in notebooks.

My original comment stands with reference to the posters original question:

If you wait for technology, you might as well not bother buying because there is always something better round the corner, so when you get to the item you wanted you are left asking "should I buy this now, or wait for that next thing"

In the end it doesn't matter what you buy. Something will be better in 6 months time. Which is why you should always:

1. Buy only when you need to. If you want to, but don't need to, then don't. Wait until you need to; this ensures you'll have the more recent technology for at least one day

2. Spend as much as you can afford. If your laptop is too expensive, save for it. Do not spend the money you have on something you will regret buying.

3. Always research your chosen laptop prior to purchase. Ask other peoples opinions, consider those opinions, but never base your decision on any single other persons opinion on it's own. It's your money, you spend it how you think.

We can't really answer the ops original question further until we know what they want to do with their machine, as per the second post.

 

i7 Capella notebook versions won't be available to purchase in a notebook until 2010 if history is any guide regarding release date, manufacture ramp up date, and order date of any notebook ODM/OEM/Reseller.

The first generation of mobile i7 based chips doesn't look that promising with the higher temps and lower clock speeds. Current C2Q offerings are the latest, last and best iterations of this tech platform.

My supposition is that the initial i7 mobile chips will be a beta version of the tech's potential and that the real benefits of the new platform won't be realized until more mature versions are released in the Intel product road map.

 

The lower clock speeds actually do look promissing. Something AMD tried to teach people and then In turn intel did. The new desktop i5's are outperforming higher clocked old generation i7's so far in the ES benches. Its about the work done per clock cycle not just the clock rate.

Heat and the time to wait for them are downers. But if the Mobile i7 turns out anything like the deskop new i5, there wont be a stock clocked C2Q to compete with it.