i5-540m+SSD or i7-720qm+diskHDD?

Hi Everyone,

I had a brief discussion with a fellow member here last night about the benefits of using a SSD over the regular disk HDDs. I asked whether or not a i5-540m+SSD setup would generally be faster versus a i7-720qm+disk HDD (provided that all other specs are equal), and he said that the i5+SSD setup would technically be faster due to the compensation of the slight lack in processing speed made up for by the read/write speed of the SSD.

Now, this discussion is relevant to me because I'm trying to purchase the new HP Envy 17, and thought I could fine tune my last minute configuration decisions. I will be using the notebook for intense graphic and video rendering (along with gaming and an eye on the potential benefits of having a quad-core processor). Would downgrading my processor to the i5-540m and opting for SSD be beneficial over just getting the i7-720qm with the regular disk HDD? Would rendering speeds increase significantly enough to forgo a quad-core setup?

Also, please take into consideration that I primarily use Adobe CS4 (and maybe CS5 by the end of the year) for my design needs. The programs relevant to my usage in particular are Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, and After Effects. For the games I play, they are 90% current and next-gen. To my understanding, most media productivity programs are optimizing towards multi-core processing greater than dual-cores, and games are starting to take advantage of it to. What do you guys think?

 

Yes the SSD setup is better. I use Adobe and write intensive reports sometimes upwards around 6000 pages which contain alot of media. My employer provides me with a hard disk based laptop and they laugh because I choose to use my own SSD system. The difference in the program speed and operation is amazing.

You are getting a large visible performance increase with the ssd and lesser processor than you would with the processor and hard drive. There really is not even a comparison. You can find all kinds of videos on Youtube to help in your decision as well.

 

The SSD will be snappier in most cases, but if you are serious about significant video or 3D rendering, the i7 is a better choice. Also consider that you can upgrade the hard drive much more easily than the processor in the future. Video and image rendering is rarely/never held back by disk speed, more by memory and processing speed. (you will lose some battery life going with an i7, however). Ideally given your usage, I'd suggest the 660GB option... the 160GB SSD+500GB HDD. But that may be cost-prohibitive.

The other thing to take into account is the storage space differential... spinning disks can hold much more info than an SSD. Doing video rendering and image processing you need a lot of storage. If you do go with an SSD, you will pretty much need to get an eSATA external drive for bulk storage. There are a few threads on the forums here that will point you to where you can get an external enclosure that uses a single cable with the eSATA/USB combo port on the Envy 17/15/14.

I love how fast my SSD is. But you need to weigh the pros and cons before choosing one or the other.

 

The i7-720QM on four cores will be something like 10-15% or so faster than the i5-540M in most multithreaded tasks, so the difference isn't too large.

If your computer will spend quite a large portion of its time rendering, you should probably get the Core i7, but otherwise the SSD will serve you better.

 

Ah, thank you guys for your insights. I researched the forums and thought about it the best I could in the short amount of time I had (I needed to make the purchase asap). I decided to just bite the bullet and get both the i7-720qm and the 160GB SSD (thank goodness for BCB). I never had a chance to use a rig with the i5-540m, but I got used to the i7-720qm and what it offered me on my ex-Envy15. I'll keep in mind the stuff you guys posted and verify it through usage- I'll look into external esata enclosures as well. Thanks again

 

with your rendering and CS4 needs, i would say i7 would be a better choice.