Will The i3 2310M Processor Be Good For These Tasks?

I'm looking to get a new laptop pretty soon. Right now, I've been looking at a couple of Dell laptops and saw one that might fit my need. It's the 14R. A good compact size and runs 64 bit Windows 7.

The only thing is that it has an i3 processor and I'm wondering if that will be good enough for my needs. The majority of the use will be Microsoft Office use and general internet browsing. The only real intense tasks I might be doing is casual DJing using the program Virtual DJ and beat making using FL Studio 9. Granted, I'm more of a hobbyist in these two areas so it's something I maybe do every other day for a little bit. Is the i3 strong enough for those? If it is, there's a Dell 14R I can get for under $450.

 

It'll be plenty fast, i3's are good processors.

You might have already seen these: http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...claim-coupon-monday-expires-january-31-a.html

 

i3 is way more than what you need. It is a pretty decent CPU for those tasks.


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Then I guess my main concern now is how it'll perform for the other tasks. My current laptop is an ASUS K60j with a a Pentium T440 dual core CPU and 4GB ram. Those programs actually run pretty smoothly on it right now. I'm assuming that the i3 is a significant step up from this current processor. If that's the case, then the Dell 14R sounds like a pretty good deal then.

 

My old laptop was a Toshiba Satellite with a Pentium T4200 and it ran great for what I did. Office, Internet, games (including CPU-intensive RTS games, CivIV, and GTA San Andreas), DesktopEarth with a high refresh rate, some coding and VMs, etc.

Hell, even a 2008-gen Pentium or C2D would be good enough for basic usage today, let alone anything Sandy Bridge.

 

More often than not it is the hard drive as your PC waits for data to be found and read, not the CPU, that makes your machine seem faster or slower. CPU utilization in some ways has plateaued. Typical notebook usage doesn't require much processing power. This is all tied to Intel's marketing muscle, making you think faster is better. A faster CPU will certainly perform better, but they're significantly more expensive, which means they have a much lower cost to benefit ratio. Unless you've got a specific need to push the CPU frequently, almost any modern dual core CPU will do.

As an example of this, my R60e often feels faster than my X220, though it is five years older and gives up 500MHz of clock speed. This is because it's running the lighter weight Linux OS and has a SSD, a pretty crappy one too, which is more tied to perceived performance. It boots in about seven seconds and is very snappy.

 

^^^ Truth

I notice the load speeds of the Intel 320 more so than the processing power of the quad-core i7-2720QM. Definitely invest in a SSD if you have money you want to spend on upgrades. Or, if the laptop allows for it, it's better to spend money on upgrading the display than the CPU (thought the Insprion line is stuck with 768p displays only -.-).

 

PM 'score' 2611:
See:
PassMark - Intel Core i3-2310M @ 2.10GHz - Price performance comparison

PM 'score' 1388:
See:
PassMark CPU Lookup


Note: I can't find your Pentium T440 CPU in PM's lists - I am using the T4400 to compare the new i3 to.


To take advantage of the new i3 with Win7x64 you need more than 4GB RAM. I would recommend 8GB RAM for around $35 (test the new modules, then sell the original RAM to have the final cost be around $10 extra for 8GB RAM).

This will especially help with multitasking and masking the effects of a slower HDD (while noting that an SSD will effectively double your budget and not help your workflow as much as more RAM will).

With the i3 platform more than twice as powerful as your current setup, I think you will have all the horsepower you need to do all the listed tasks you mentioned. Especially if paired with more than 4GB of RAM.

Good luck.

 

Assuming the 4GB of RAM that comes with the laptop is 1 DIMM, OP could just buy an extra 4GB stick for ~$15 and stick that in without replacing the original RAM. Saves a few bucks, and eliminates the hassle of reselling the original stick.

 

The laptop I'm looking at is a 2 2GB setup out the box.

Micro Center - Dell Inspiron 14R Laptop Computer - Diamond Black I14RN4110-8073D

But an 8GB won't be too expensive. I work at Micro Center so I get a discount on a lot of these things. I was also wondering what everyone's opinion on the Seagate Momentus Hybrid drives was. I've heard that the the SSD components help cut down on the boot up times. The regular HDD part of the drive runs at 7200 RPM as well which seems pretty good. With my discount, I can get a 500GB one for $110. Worth it?

 

Easily. (worth it).