Dell Inspiron ??? up To 2.7 ghz i5 ???

Will I be disappointed in the new Dell Inspiron that says it can run up to 2.7 ghz? Using the words "up to" leaves a lot of room for disappointment.

They said the next step up was the i7, and I happen to know that I have no use for the i7.

The full spec is i5 3337u , up to 2.7 Ghz, 8 gb DDR 3 1600 MHz ram, Intel video. touch screen, and win 8.

They won't give me the OS Disk with the machine, but they will let me buy it for $20, but only if I call support to get it.

Is the Up To 2.7 Ghz i5 a special CPU version? When I searched on the i5 3rd gen 3337u, they were all 1.8 ghz, not up to 1.8.

Any help in understanding where this laptop falls in spec's I can understand, will be appreciated.

 

I believe it is 2.7 GHz when "Overclocked" it overclocks automatically when doing heavy task like gaming. Extremely useful it is why I love i5 and i7 so much.

 

Is that what they are referring to when they say "with turbo boost" or some sort of saying like that? So it is really a 1.8 ghz overclocked to 2.7 Ghz, but only when the demand is there. Would you agree?

And thanks for the fast reply.

Joe

 

Yes it's called Intel Turbo Boost technology. Normally when your browsing it'll be at 1.8 ghz but when doing gaming it'll "overlclock" itself and be 2.7ghz.

 

Like previously mentioned, the "up to" refers to the TurboBoost functionality, which the i5-3337U lacks. Just note that TurboBoost will give you extra speed at the cost of a core or two, i.e. not all cores will run at 2.7GHz.

Anyway, if you make a thread in the WNBSIB subsection, we can help you pick out a laptop and parts.

 

You basically have an extremely adaptive processor, it can run anywhere between 1.8-2.7ghz depending on your power profiles and the temperatures. The technology is called Intel Turboboost. In all honesty, the dualcore Ivy Bridge i5 chips will just about spend all of their time at 2.7ghz so theres nothing to worry about. If you are paranoid, there is a program called Throttlestop 5.00 may be able to force your i5 to run at 2.7ghz all the time.

 

If the system doesn't have a dedicated (or NVidia/Optimus enabled) GPU then your 'ulv' series CPU will not run at 2.7GHz for long (seconds at a time) before throttling.

This 17W part is for low power usage - not high performance use. I don't see why you think an i7 won't benefit your workflow... anything in Q2 2013 going forward will definitely benefit from a true quad core cpu imo.

See:
AnandTech | Print NVIDIA


Add to this the fact that Dell's systems run hot (at least hotter than I like...) and you can see where the throttling can make a 'spec-perfect' system into something more likely to be abandoned as soon as Haswell shows up (next quarter...).

Hope this helps.

Good luck.