i5-540M vs i7-720QM vs i7-840QM/SSD vs HDD

I'm buying a new HP laptop but IDK what combination to do... Pretty much here are the options:

1) Get the best i5 (540M) available with a 160GB Solid State
2) Get the lowest i7 (720QM) with a 160GB Solid State
3) or get the best i7 (740QM) with a regular 7200RPM 500GB....


I don't care about space much, I just want SPEED and BATTERY... I heard SDD makes things snappier and save battery.

Here are the three processors I'm talking about

-BEST I5: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-540M Dual Core processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz

- LOWEST I7: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz

-BEST I7: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-840QM processor (1.86GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz


All of them come with 6gb of ram and what I mostly do is multitasking so I want lots of ram so that's fine, but I don't know if the i5 would suffice me or if the i7 would make a difference?

I do a lot of web browsing, sometimes I do java programing, I do web designs and some graphics. I do use a lot Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver and netbeans (java programming tool) other than that just heavy web surfing, emailing, big powerpoints and word documents.

Any advice?

 

3) is an absolutely horrible idea.

nowadays, with CPUs as powerful as they are. the most important component is your RAM(2GB at least, 4GB preferably). IMMEDIATELY after, you need to get an SSD. ALWAYS spend your money on those two before upgrading your CPU.

 

Upgrade to an SSD yourself, and get one from Intel. Most vendors (not sure about HP I will be honest) are going to ship lower end SSDs. Unless you do a lot of compute-intensive applications I see no reason to go with more than an i5.

 

i7 Quad core will kill battery much quicker than i5 dual core. So, I agree w/ above that either get option 1 or 2. The question very is which is better for you. Technically, you are comparing 2 CPU that is not even is the same class. Say, if you compare i7-620M vs i7-720QM then I would say they are about good even and depend on what you use it for one maybe better than another. So, in this case i7-720QM will definitely beat i5-540M. The question for yourself is what's more important, speed or battery. Looking from the list of application, there is barely much maybe except photoshop that can take a full benefit of 8 threads on i7-720QM of course unless you always have lots of things running in background. If neither one of those are major factors, then I don't see how much you can benefit from quad core i7 either.
@2nd post, he said he is getting 6GB of RAM.

 

Get option 1 if you want maximum speed and battery life. Though if HP offered a 128GB or 256GB SSDs (Samsung or Toshiba), it would be better than the Intels in terms of power consumption, with minimal loss of real life performance.

 

HP ships Intel G2 SSDs.

 

Thank you guys for your input! It's greatly appreciated!

 

Are this specs good enough then?

Can someone tell me if this specs are good?

* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-540M Dual Core processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
* FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
* 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics
* 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
* TouchScreen with HP TouchSmart's intuitive multi-touch applications (includes HP TrueVision Webcam)
* Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
* Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
* Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
* 50% OFF! One 6 Cell (standard) and One 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery
* Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
* HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope


OR should I add the i7? or a regular HDD since apparently based on this video http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ect-edition-owners-lounge-97.html#post6460699 the SSD is slower than the HDD....

 

For your needs, this sounds like plenty.