X220: i5 vs. i7

X220: i5 vs. i7

What's the verdict? I've seen a lot of people on these boards advise against the i7 for this laptop.

 

Most people will tell you to go the I5 route.

I went the I7 route for the extra umph in performance.

Personally you will never tell the difference in day to day tasks, if you run any VMs or anything intensive you might consider the extra for the I7.

 

200Mhz isn't going to make or break a system these days. It's more about the extras they have. The i5 2520 has the same features as the i7, minus 1MB of cache.

The i7 just isn't worth the extra cost in my eyes - nor is the 2.6Ghz i5. The 2.5Ghz is the best bang for your buck and outside of benchmarks you won't see any difference and for benchmarks it'll be marginal.

 

i7 is the only way to get usb 3.0 if that matters to you... just wait for another sale and you can get the i7 for cheaper than the i5

 

It's a dual-core i7 and doesn't make much difference in performance. i5-2520M is the best deal if you're using virtualization applications, and the i5-2410M is the best deal if you aren't.

But make sure you get the IPS display upgrade

 

Rule of thumb I always follow: never go to the maximum. Cost/benefit is usually not optimum and power/heat issues are maximized.

 

Don't listen to the haters.

I got the i7, I edit video. It's worth it.

 

For most people, I'd say the i3 is plenty. If you are doing lots of virtualization or encryption, then there is a significant difference by stepping up to a higher-end i5 at least.

If you are doing video or graphics editing, or some other processor-intensive task (or need the USB 3 port for something) the i7 is probably a good choice.

If you have to ask, the i3 is probably plenty.

 

i7 are for suckers because i3 is fast enough. But I recommend i5.

Only go for i7 if you just want to claim you have the best cpu option for bragging rights and usb 3.0.

 

You are recommending the i5 over the slower i3, yet you don't recommend the quicker i7-2620M (2.7GHz/3.4 GHz, 4MB L3) over the i5-2540M (2.6GHz/3.3 GHz, 3MB L3). Other than usb3 (a very good thing to have) and a little more speed, they are basically the same chip. So why, other than price, prefer the i5-2540M? What is the downside of the i7-2620M?

 

Its about removing cash from the clueless.

Top tier cpus are usually the worst bang for buck by themselves, and the whole i3/i5/i7 naming is intentionally BS. Sometimes the way the vendor prices different system models its not always a bad deal though.

If model naming was done for actual quick reference and not marketing: mobile i3 would be reduced feature (no VT etc) i5 would be full feature, and i7 would only be quad core.

 

The i5 is often recommended over the i3 because it offers Turbo Boost (along with a small array of other features), which could help with single-threaded applications that are heavy on the CPU (although the i3, which is faster than pretty much all the Core 2 Duo processors already, is more than enough for 95% of users).

The i7, on the other hand, differs from the i5 only in clock speed and a slight increase in L3 cache, both of which makes no noticeable difference. So, unless you know you have very CPU-intensive usage patterns or have plenty of money to blow, an i7 CPU doesn't make any sense.

If you know you have usage that will benefit significantly from the i7, I don't think anyone's discouraging you. The vast majority of users, though, won't need it.

 

what if we plan on keeping our laptops for 5-6 years? doesn't it make sense then to consider i3/i5/i7?

 

Frankly I think the USB 3.0 is as important as the 2 core I7 over the I5 if you plan on backing up to an external disk.

I first ordered the I5 but than got that great doorbuster deal a month ago so I could get the I7 at the same (actually lower) price.

 

Not really. If the i3 can't keep up, the slight speed difference in the i7 wouldn't make any difference.

 

I'm using statistical programming softwares (such as R etc) to run statistical analysis. As far as I know R is a single threaded application and it's particulary CPU intensive to run some models. Would I get any benefit with an i7 over the i5 2520M? I mean I don't care if the things takes 2 seconds more to run but does the larger cache of the i7 bring anything?

Also does the i7 significantly run higher temps compared to the i5? Both are 35W CPU so why would the i7 heat more??

Thanks

 

From what I've done in R (granted, relatively basic stuff), a faster CPU wouldn't have made all that much difference. So, personally, I'd say the i7 isn't worth the money. No, the larger cache doesn't make a significant difference in real life usage.

Significantly? No, not at all. In terms of power consumption, though, tests by NotebookCheck have shown i3 processors to consume the least power, i5 slightly more, and i7 a tiny bit more than that (same TDP, at both idle and max load--differences become a bit more pronounced at max load). I wouldn't worry too much about that, though. The main difference between these processors is noticeable only through your wallet.

 

I don't know, I back up everything to an external with USB 2.0 just fine. Course I have never used 3.0 so I guess I don't know how better it is. I think it is more of a convenience thing than necessity. If you are transferring/backing up things all day, I guess I could see the use.

 

The cache probably won't make a major difference if you are running one application. Where it'll come in handy is in multitasking; it means less hits to RAM for process switching. (Statistical analysis could be a border case: if your data set and working storage all fits within the cache, it'll help. But I wouldn't expect much there.)

What would make a difference there is the fact that the i7 has both a higher clock speed, and can overclock itself higher. Which will make it a few percent faster.

If your processing is going to take 5 minutes each time, that might be 10-20 seconds each time. If it takes 5 hours, it's going to be 10-30 minutes...

 

FWIW, you can get an Express Card USB3 port for, like, $30, if that is the main reason to pay up $200+ for an i7.

 

Look, there's no need for all this tension. Yes, the highest end CPU's are always overpriced, but those who need these processors will find the means to pay.

In this case, the i7 version, when it turbo's up to 3.0-3.2ghz, is about half as fast as an overclocked i7 920 at 3.8ghz.

That is no small feat. Of course the high end i5 will come close to that too, but some jobs and workloads really deserve that extra.

As for the usb3 issue, take for instance video production. There are cases where you would WANT access to standalone usb3 AND the expresscard port at the same time. Again, this is not a normal use case, but this laptop, with BOTH expresscard 54 and usb3, was obviously POTENTIALLY built for this use case in mind.

That's how you need to make your judgement for the cpu issue.

 

As mentioned a few times previously, my i3 X220 runs about seven degrees warmer than my i5 X220. I'd hazard a guess that that is due to variation in how well thermal paste is applied and heatsink fitted from machine to machine. Temps seem to be more influenced by this than whether they are an i3, i5 or i7

Well put!

 

Yep--that, and potential differences between the heatsinks used on the various configurations will likely make more of a difference in actual operating temperature. My point was that while there are minor differences in those areas, the main distinction is price.

 

Dual-core i5 has pretty much the same performance as dual-core i7. It makes no sense to spend money on i7, unless it is quadcore. i5-2520M is the best dual-core CPU to get, as performance is top, all functionality is there and price is reasonable.

 

Isn't it the old generation i7 (i7-640M)? The one in the X220 is 2620M. Probably right that it shouldn't matter much between i5 and i7 though.

 

I think the prevailing opinion of I5 is the better value and nearly as powerful is correct. However I will say again "Be patient, Grasshoppers.....a deal likely will appear again making the I7 cheaper than the I5."

So if you aren't ordering right now, keep your ear to the ground. I think I saved $200 by canceling my i5 deal and reordering the i7 on the doorbuster deal.

If it is cheaper there is no reason not to get it.

 

The i7-2620M has both VT-x and VT-d support, the i5-2410M only supports VT-x - so if you want better feature support for virtualisation get the i7. i7 also has a few other extra features like hardware based Trusted Execution Technology and extra AES functions.

 

Of course, all of those are also available in the i5-2520M and the i5-2540M. The only difference between those and the i7-2620M is the clock speed, cache size, and price.

 

i imagine i5-2410 performance wouldnt be far off from the i5-2520. Trying to save $55.

 

Honestly? I would try to wait and get in on one of those doorbuster i7 deals. They had one late last wk; I got in on the one a few wks ago. That way the price equation makes the i7 hard to refuse. The much-maligned throttling issue and mSATA issue is by no means universal...

 

just a small off-topic: does your IPS screen have backlight bleeding??