HELP! i3 14" or i5 15.6"??

Hello,

I appreciate any help, I need to decide pretty quickly since the sale is only effective until today. Basically here's my dilemma, I'm torn between a Lenovo 14" i3 330M and a Lenovo 15.6" i5 490M. I'm an engineering student who really needs a portable laptop since I'm on the go all the time. The 14" is 5.62 lbs while the 15.6" is 6 lbs.

I know that the i5 would be much better in terms of performance since I might have multiple windows running AutoCAD, Arena, Powerpoint and Excel simultaneously. But I'm really tempted to just go with the i3 and choose the more portable 14". They're both with 3GB RAM, 320 HD and 32-bit OS.

Question is, would I be able to run all these programs fast enough on an i3 or do I have to get the i5 processor?

Thanks so much!

 

Can't find the i5 490M, but:

See:
Compare Intel® Products,


Can only recomend the i5 with your listed programs (and multitasking them too).

Thing is, I wouldn't get either of these systems unless you get Win7x64 for them and at least 8GB RAM. Also, both of these CPU's will not give optimum results with VM's (if you need to run virtual machines, of course).

For less than 0.4 lbs. difference, the 15.6" (in this comparision) is the preferred system for your usage model. For over 40% faster performance (guessing for the 490M...) over the i3 330M at maximum TurboBoost.

I would venture to say that a new SNB based notebook would be a much better match for your computing needs.

Good luck.

 

If your working in Autocad Id recommend the i5.