i7 2670QM or 2860QM

I configured an HP ENVY laptop and I'm stuck between the two processors. The price for the lower processor adds up to about $1370 and the higher one at $1711. Since I won't use any heavy 3D rendering programs till college (1 yr after I purchase this) which should I get? Also would I be able to upgrade the processor when the time comes if I pick the lower processor?

 

Wait till another 30% off coupon comes out (it happens very often) and then get the better processor.

 

I'd get the i7-2670qm. A ~10% performance difference doesn't justify an extra $341. Also consider getting the prebuilt model if you decide to go for the i7-2670qm. It's a bit cheaper than the customized model ($1200 price is equivalent to using the 30% off coupon) and ships ~2 weeks faster. You will not be able to upgrade the processor later on. CPU's and GPU's are generally soldered onto laptops.

You also will want to wait until April 23 for Intel to launch Ivy Bridge. It's not known if HP is updating the Envy 15 line on this date, but it's definitely worth waiting. There may be other laptop releases you may want to consider as well.

edit: Mobile Ivy Bridge CPU's (i7-3XXX) are also clocked much higher than their Sandy Bridge (i7-2XXX) counterparts. For example, the i7-3820QM, the successor to the i7-2860QM, is clocked at 2.7ghz and should have better turbo performance than Sandy Bridge.

 

Is this the HP Envy 15 or the HP Envy 17?

Please post your entire configuration and state your usage requirements.

 

My understanding is that very soon HP will be updating the Envy 15 line with Ivy Bridge CPUs and possibly the AMD 7750m.

You may want to hold off on your purchase for a bit until more info is known.

 

Mine aren't soldered on ^_^

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah, disregard that about not being able to upgrade your processor - you probably won't be able to upgrade to an Ivy Bridge or Haswell processor, but anyone with a bit of tech savvy or a sense of adventure should be able to upgrade the processor no problem.

There's no guarantee that upgrading in a year will be much cheaper, though - some laptop processors, especially the most powerful in a class or generation, hold their value fairly well. The reasoning is that the 2860QM is the most powerful 45W laptop processor of the Sandy Bridge generation, so SB machines that can handle the heat of a 45W processor but not that of a 55W Extreme processor will reach their maximum processing potential with a 2860QM, meaning that'll be the preferred upgrade path for a lot of people in the next 2-3 years.

Either way, it's about a 15% performance difference. If you're doing a lot of CPU-intensive tasks, you could see a noticeable but not life-altering improvement. Whether it's worth a handful of bills is up to you.

 

I won't be buying the laptop till about mid-late summer when I have the money.

 

Envy 15; slight animation programs (2d/3d more in college), personal use and maybe video editing and photoshop

 

Which are the exact specifications of the configuration you're looking at, in entirety?

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For the processor, it isn't likely that you'd benefit significantly from upgrading past the cheapest Quad Core (i7-2670QM). The further upgrades only provide slightly higher clocks, more cache which often doesn't make a particularly significant difference, and VT-d/AES instructions which I don't forsee being necsessary for your usage.

If you're getting the HP Envy 15, you should concern yourself with the 1920x1080 display upgrade before you concern yourself with any other available upgrade. The HP Envy 15 shouldn't be bought in any configuration that includes the stock 1366x768 display instead of the upgraded 1920x1080 display, unless you require larger text for eyesight-related reasons.

15.6" 1366x768 displays make things onscreen large, and the resolution itself limits multitasking and productivity because it's difficult to fit more than one window onscreen at a time and because more scrolling is required. 15.6" displays that have this resolution also tend to have low contrast and thus poor image quality.

But if you require color accuracy, the 1920x1080 display in the HP Envy 15 will be disappointing, because of its inability to properly reproduce the color red. You might want to consider something like a Dell XPS 15 with the upgraded 1920x1080 B+RGLED display instead. But even with the red reproduction issues of the 1920x1080 display, the 1366x768 display still has considerably worse image quality because of the poor contrast and viewing angles.