i5-2410m vs. i5-2520m questions

I am curious if the extra ~$100 is worth upgrading to the 2520m for a laptop. The laptop would be used for light gaming (offline, single player campaigns), internet, email, open office, Blu-ray movies, and music composition on Finale 2011.

The 2 main differences is that the 2410 clocks in at 2.3GHz and the 2520 clocks in at 2.5GHz, and that the 2410 does not support VT-d (no clue what this is or if it would affect what I'd be doing with the laptop).

Can someone shed some light?

 

for your uses its a waste of money.

 

The 2520m is superior to the old quad core i7 720m.

With less heat than the old quad core and idle battery life equivalent to the 2410m, the 2520m is definitely a '2011' cpu of choice.

Only $100 more?

Buy it.


See:
AnandTech - HP EliteBook 8460p: Everything But The Screen

 

Don't buy it if you don't need virtualization. For $50 tops I might consider it but $100 for slightly higher clocks is a rip-off.

 

he doesnt use VMs, he doesnt use cryptography, no sense in getting the 2520m, its the same thing when someone asks about the 2720qm, unless you do those tasks no need.

 

OP, what is the price of the system you're currently considering?

If you're at the $500 level, I may agree: don't buy the 'better' cpu.

If you're at the $1K level, then 10% additional cost now will more than offset having to buy a new system a year or two earlier otherwise. Not only will your specific needs change, but software upgrades will only put more demand on your hardware as the years move on.

 

I understand where you're coming from, but the only way I could agree with this fully is if the OP was considering a quad-core against a dual-core; a slightly higher clock speed isn't really future proofing IMO.

 

Here's the deal...

I have the Asus G73SW-XA1 from amazon.com that is 1 week old. It is an i7-2630qm, 1.5GB DDR5 GPU, 1080p res, DVD drive (no Blu-ray), 1 year warranty. For what I do it is TOO MUCH laptop.

I am thinking about sending it back for a refund and getting a Dell XPS 17 that includes the i5-2410m, 1GB DDR3 GPU, 1080p res, Blu-ray, 3 year full coverage warranty for $1,152 delivered. I would also save $250 over the Asus.

I don't need to have the biggest and best that is out there. I get what is optimal for me, and in 3 years (when the Dell warranty is up) if I need to upgrade I"ll get a new laptop at that time.

That's why I was asking about the 2410m vs. 2520m. I don't NEED a quad core right now. I don't run any programs or games that benefit from it. i5's run cooler than i7's which is why I was going that route.

 

The i5 2410m is a very nice CPU, a little history here. I had originally bought a laptop with a i3 380m from the first generation, it was okay but certainly not even close to the beast in my Sager (signature) during the time I had the laptop (I had 45 days to return it) the manufacturer Toshiba came out with an updated model that has the i5 2420m. I traded in the laptop; I definitely feel the increase in speed and am much happier with the performance. It is plenty fast for the everyday uses I have it for, like internet surfing, videos, music, word processing and even the light gaming I do with it is very acceptable. The battery run time went from 3.5 hours to 4 with the updated laptop, so that was a nice increase. Even while running on batter the computer still feels plenty fast. I was hoping to get a laptop with i5 2520m, but really now have no doubts the i5 2410m is just fine.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply any assumptions by what I said. If you're confident the quad would not benefit you, $250 is a very good reason to downgrade to a dual. Moreover, if you're not using any of the additional features offered by the 2520, the clock speed increase alone probably won't give any noticeable improvement over the 2410, so I wouldn't worry about which one you .

Aside, since you mentioned it, I don't think there's any evidence to show that the i5s run cooler than the i7s by any significant amount with your usage. The quads can park the cores not needed; the only time they'll run hotter is when 3 or 4 cores are heavily in use. However, at reaching that point, you would notice a very significant increase in performance and probably not mind too much .

 

I use VMWare Virtualization with the i5-2410m and it has no problems. Just because it doesn't have VT-d doesn't mean it can't do Virtualization which tends to confuse some (thats VT-x!)

The i5-2410m should be more than adequate for your needs, I don't think its worth blowing an additional $100 for a marginal increase in performance.

 

Okay, so you get 3 years full warranty, a Blu-Ray player and a much less (up to 70% less...) powerful cpu and gpu and for that you save $250 on top (an 18% cost reduction for at least double performance reduction).

I don't follow your math - but even the Asus G73SW-XA1 is nowhere close to the 'biggest and best' out there.

Not only does the Asus have a superior cooling system vs. the Dell; the Dell may have throttling issues too (relatively speaking) because of the drastically reduced cooling capacity of the design.

I think that in much less than three years, you may be regretting getting the 'just enough for 2011' system. But then again, you may not.

As you can obviously afford either system, I can't really understand why you'd want to be trying to save $250 now. When the Dell arrives, I think it may pale in comparision (performance-wise) to what you've been used to for the last week.

I say, keep it and enjoy.

 

I do not game on it anymore. I recently gave up PC gaming for several different reasons and when I have time to game I'll pop in something via Xbox 360, play on my 42" plasma TV, and be done with it.

The Dell configuration is MORE than enough to do what I need it to do for the next few years. With a 3 year old running around the house, I feel more comfortable with a 3 year warranty vs. a 1 year warranty. Three years from now I'll upgrade to another laptop and buy another extended 3 year warrranty.

The Asus did not come with a Blu-ray but it did come with 1080p res. That is pointless. Since I would be watching movies from work in my spare time, I want something that is portable and can play Blu-rays in their native res, while allowing me to do other things on the laptop.

I'm not one that has to have "status." I get what is practical for me. I could buy a $3k Alienware if I wanted to, but it would not be worth the cost for what I do on a laptop. My "math" comes from the fact that the Dell does everything I need it to, the Asus does not...and it was $250 more with 1/3 the warranty.

 

So, the question remains... why did you buy the Asus then. ???