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    W520 & i7-2960XM

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by tomex, Nov 25, 2011.

  1. tomex

    tomex Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm buying the W520, and I'm wondering whether getting the i7-2960XM is worth the extra $$$.

    I do:

    Photoshop, Illustrator, Virtualization of Windows & Linux, Web Design.
     
    tomex, Nov 25, 2011
    #1
  2. FinkPad

    FinkPad Notebook Evangelist

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    are you planning to use external monitors?
     
    FinkPad, Nov 25, 2011
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  3. tomex

    tomex Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes, and a projector.
     
    tomex, Nov 25, 2011
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  4. receph

    receph Notebook Evangelist

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    Sandy Bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    the diff over 2860 is $550 for 8MB cache vs 6MB and 2.7GHz vs 2.5GHz. and an extra 10W of heat to dissipate.

    here's the math: 2.7/2.5 = 1.08. that is 8 pct increase in clock speed (and much less in Turbo mode, mind you. check the figures in the link above)
    for 8pct to justify $550, the laptop would need to cost $6875.
     
    receph, Nov 25, 2011
    #4
  5. huberth

    huberth Notebook Deity

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    Whatever you do, definitely get a SSD.
     
    huberth, Nov 25, 2011
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  6. edit1754

    edit1754 Notebook Prophet

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    In my opinion, that $550 is better spent getting the 1080p screen + an SSD than the CPU upgrade.
     
    edit1754, Nov 25, 2011
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  7. tomex

    tomex Notebook Enthusiast

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    I won't get the SSD because I need more space.
    I know, I could remove the DVD/CD drive, but I need that.
    I will get the SSD from Newegg eventually.
    I decided to change my CPU to i7-2860QM.
     
    tomex, Nov 25, 2011
    #7
  8. edit1754

    edit1754 Notebook Prophet

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    The 2860QM actually isn't all that much faster than the 2760QM, so take that into consideration.
     
    edit1754, Nov 26, 2011
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  9. huberth

    huberth Notebook Deity

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    huberth, Nov 26, 2011
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  10. sniper_sung

    sniper_sung Notebook Evangelist

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    The performance improvement by running virtual machines on an SSD is very decisive, especially when you are using snapshots a lot. On the other hand, the i7-2960XM wouldn't even bring you any noticeable improvement, even if you can overclock it as an Extreme Edition CPU. Trust me, once you've experienced running VMs on SSDs you'll never want to go back to HDDs.

    I don't know about how much capacity you can get from HDD, maybe 500GB or 1TB? But I find the Crucial M4 512GB, the Intel 320 Series 600GB and the Samsung 830 Series 512GB to be plenty, which beats most of the HDDs in both capacity, shock-resistance and performance. This is the best investment of the money if you have.
     
    sniper_sung, Nov 26, 2011
    #10