My old I5 vs. my new I7

Ok guys be patient with me. I'm pretty laymen when it comes to this kind of stuff.

I own several laptops with I5 processors in them that clock around 2.9-3.3 GHz depending on the system.

I recently purchased a Samsung Series 7 Chronos 700Z7C-S01. This laptop has a ton of memory and an I7 Intel Core i7-3615QM 2.30 GHz. Now Samsung has told me it does not have Turbo Boost however Microsoft store (where I purchased it) noted it had boost up to 3.30GHz.

My question is this.
If my processor does in fact have slower GHz speed than my I5 does that make my computer slower? Its about twice as expensive as the I5 ones were. Sometimes it seems with simple tasks such as browsing and daily activities the I5 laptops are actually faster. Am I nuts?

Reading reviews the only drawback people say is it has an 1 TB SATA 5400 RPM • 8 GB ExpressCache SSD and they wish it was 7200 rpm. Should I invest to have it upgraded to the 7200? I'm so confused.

Thanks ahead of time.

 

You have Turbo Boost; Intel says so: ARK | Intel® Core i7 3615QM

Even if you did not, though, you would only notice a very small difference in performance on single or dual-threaded tasks, and probably not enough to be significant. The 3610qm in my W110ER disables turbo whenever the 650m is active, and I haven't yet noticed any significant loss of performance that can be attributed to it.

 

Thanks Syberia. I just got off the phone with Microsoft and got a crash course in processor and speed difference I should experience between the two processors. It sounds like on daily tasks with the 5200 rpm drive and my I7 chip I may notice some slowing compared to my I5. She stated the difference would be noticeable in gaming and working with larger files.

 

What version of i5's do you have (model and notebook/desktop version...)?

In any case your new i7 will be faster (and to me, is noticeable in everyday usage).


Have you removed all the junk on the new system that they come with? What A/V are you using? Have you used/optimized the system for a good few days (or week...) so that all the 'run once' items have been flushed out?

I would also consider short-stroking your C:\ partition to a maximum of 100GB and create a new partition for your data with the unallocated space you'll create.

As for the 8GB Expresscache SSD - can you confirm that this is installed and the drivers/options properly setup?

Hope some of this helps.

Good luck.

 

Tiller,

I haven't noticed much of an increase in speed and in some cases it seems a bit slower. Its my understanding that a lot of difference would be noticed more in gaming and runing heavy programs (I do neither). The computer I'm comparing it to is a Dell Latitude E5520 with a I5 2520 (2.5GHz). It seems faster than the new I7 laptop on just browsing and things. But its hard to tell sometimes. I could just be paranoid. lol

 

I wonder if an upgrade to the unit such as a 7200 rpm or SSD would help.

However I'd hate to invest another 200-300 dollars in the computer after my initial 1300 dollar investment.

 

A clean Win7x64 install on a new 7200RPM HDD or better, an SSD would definitely make a difference to the pokey 5400RPM drive you have installed now.

Don't think about the money you have sunk in already; if you're really unsatisfied with it, return it, if you still can.

If however you want to enjoy this new system for as long as possible, an SSD is the best thing you can do (assuming you're running Win7x64 Home Premium or above and you have 8GB RAM or more...).

Even for browsing; an unpartitioned, unoptimized 1TB 5400RPM HDD could be noticeably bad - even if the platform you're running on is more than twice as powerful.

See (score: 3606):
PassMark - Intel Core i5-2520M @ 2.50GHz - Price performance comparison

See (score: 7854):
PassMark - Intel Core i7-3615QM @ 2.30GHz - Price performance comparison


If you think you could live with this system for the next few years, an SSD will go a long way to making you see (and enjoy) how fast it really is compared to your old SNB.


I'm also assuming you're browsing 'wirelessly' and that the notebooks in question have similar (Intel) wireless solutions? And that your router and new notebook have the latest drivers/firmware installed? These can all make a difference in browsing speeds. The latest Intel Centrino Wireless drivers are at 15.2 fyi.

Something else you can check: video drivers (latest?) and the RAM installed on the new system (dual channel? PC3-12800 Sodimms?).

I did notice on an HP notebook that putting 2x8GB PC3-10700 Sodimms in made the system MUCH more sluggish than a 2x4GB PC3-12800 setup. Going to a 2x8GB PC3-12800 Sodimm solved the 'sluggishness' that the system exhibited with the slower RAM.

Hope some of this helps?

 

Tiller,

This does help. It sounds like a few hardware upgrades would solve my issue. I will begin to do some shopping around. This explains the speed difference. From the reviews it sounds that the 5400 rpm HDD is my only downfall and that's whats creating some of my issues. Thanks for the GREAT input.

 

Glad to help.

Keep us posted on your results (successful or otherwise).

 

How much RAM do you have? If under 8gb, you should probably upgrade. Also, consider an SSD. If you don't game or work with large files, you can probably get by with 120-128gb. This will be the single best upgrade you can do for your system.

If you act quickly, you can probably pick up this 120gb Kingston HyperX SSD for $60.