HP dv6tqe questions! About to order

I'm looking to buy the HP DV6t soon and this is the plan so far:
Upgrade to the 1080p display
Upgrade to the 6770m 1GB
Perhaps upgrade to the better 6 cell or 9 cell
Silver color option (less fingerprints?)

The only dilemma I have is whether or not to go with the Quad edition or the Select. The select comes out to be a bit cheaper and the only major change is the i7 quad to the i5 dual core.

My ideal quad edition comes out to $954

My ideal select edition comes out to $849

The specs are as follows:
i7 2630QM @ 2ghz / i5 2410m @ 2.3ghz
6770m 1gb
750GB 5400RPM HD/ 640 5400RPM HDD (Should I spring for the 7200RPM at a cost of battery life?)
High Capacity 6 cell battery
Free Blu-Ray reader + dvd burner
1080p display

The items after the "/" are the specs of the Select Edition.
I'm considering the Select Edition for 2 additional reasons:
The dual core CPU is going to run cooler than the quad.
The dual core CPU is going to use less energy and therefore may prolong battery life.

The performance difference isn't going to be major unless the apps are heavily multithreaded.

Any advice?

 

save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.save the money.

Quad core is vastly overhyped - even for gaming, where most things are single threaded or lightly multithreaded.

and turbo boost on the quad core doesn't even work properly! single or dual core turbo boost almost *never* happens, it only tends to kick in when all 4 cores are in use

 

Unless you intend to do some really CPU heavy stuff (e.g. hardcore movie editing or encoding), you're not going to need the quad core.

 

but doing things like having 25 browsers open, itunes, starcraft 2 menu, while playing WoW might make a quad core a bit more attractive

 

...you can watch more pron with a Quad.

 

I got the quad because it sounds boss to say that your computer has a quad core processor.

I also like to labor under the delusion that I futureproofed it a bit.

 

Any thoughts over the 6 cell vs 9?

And also about the 7200rpm vs the 5400rpm

 

I personally prefer the 9 cell, it elevates the keyboard making it better for typing, and increases air flow. Plus the fact it offers significantly more battery life

7200 RPM makes file transfers pretty speedy, and opening applications generally quicker. Although its been said to use up battery more, im not sure if its a significant eat up or not.

 

If you will keep it unplugged for long periods of time or are getting the quad core, go for the 9 cell. And if it is oversized, I've heard it helps you type easier with the lift it gives.

7200 vs 5400rpm. 7200 rpm is faster, bit slightly louder and uses more battery power.

 

So you think the dual core will get superior battery life?

 

Of course.

 

noooo. Quad core hands down gets better battery life because power is used more efficiently between the 4 cores.

Also, if you have the money to spend, then definitely get a quad core as it will last you much longer. As of right now though, there aren't too many things optimized for quad core since it's relatively new compared to dual cores, but if you want something that is beast now and will still keep up in coming years then quad core is a must.

 

Do you have a link to this? Is this Sandy Bridge specific?

Previous generation of I5/I7, the quad's were HORRENDOUS relative to their 2 core brethren for battery life

I'd like some #'s to back this up.

*edit* - http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...i7-sandy-bridge-laptops-battery-life-etc.html

There's links there to power draws on the various chips. Couldn't be anymore wrong.

 

Yes, but by very little. Battery life is typically determined by near-idle usage. That is, people generally browse the internet when on battery rather than running programs that fully task the CPU or GPU. The reason the number of cores makes very little difference is power gating: parts of the chip that are not used get turned off. It's not 100% efficient, but Sandy Bridge has come pretty close to perfecting it so unlike previous generations, the difference between quad-core and dual-core battery life is very small.

 

I suppose I'll get the Select Edition with a 9 cell.
Thanks. I have a quad on my desktop at home anyway.
Most of the time I'll be using it for scholarly work...(should be, at least)