x201 vs. x201i?

I need a new laptop and the x201 series is top of my list so far and trying to understand the differences between the 201 and the 201i. It looks like it is just different processors offered in each? The i offers a i3-370m or an i5-480m and the x200 has a i5-560m and an i7-620m. I've read that with this last generation of Intel chips it isn't as easy to tell which one is the most powerful just by series and model number, so can anyone give me the scoop on these various options?

I care about speed, but overall generally care more about battery life and heat. I mostly run Office apps and web browsing, so RAM is probably more useful to me than a minor bump in processor speed.

Are there any other differences between the two models? Also, any speculation on when Sandy Bridge processors will make it into this line, and what kind of impact on performance and battery life might be?

 

There are no other differences between the models besides the processor's they offer.

If you run mostly office apps and web browsing I would just go with the i3.

 

I see that you went for the i5. Can I ask what you run that made you decide to go for the faster processor? I mainly run Office apps and web browsing, but I tend to run a lot at once. I know the computer I'm currently using while my laptop is in the shop (4 year old Mac Mini) is painfully slow switching between apps and doing some other types of things, but I think the 512MB of RAM is the limiting factor not the Core 2 Duo processor.

 

It is pretty easy to go to intel's site, select these processors, and compare them against each other.
ARK | Your source for information on Intel® products
Intel is nice enough to give a URL to the page comparing the processors you select to compare, Here I compared the i3-370m, i5-480m, i7-620m.
Compare Intel® Products,

If you look at the page comparing the i3-370m, i5-480m, i7-620m they are almost identical.
The i5 and i7, run a little faster, and thus a littel hotter, and they have Turbo Boost
------------------------ i3-370m /// i5-480m /// i7-620m
Clock Speed------------ 2.4 GHz /// 2.66 GHz // 2.66 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency--- n/a /// 3.333 GHz /// 3.2 GHz

Info on intel Turbo Boost.
Processors — Intel® Turbo Boost Technology frequently asked questions

So if you are doing processor intensive tasks, like transcoding video and the like, the i5, or i7 might have some benefit for you.

The i5, and i7 also have enterprise features like, Virtualization technology, AES New Instructions (enryption I think) that jacks up the price.

You mention: "I care about speed, but overall generally care more about battery life and heat. I mostly run Office apps and web browsing". So I'm pretty sure the i3-370m would be the best balance for battery and power.
I have a Thinkpad x61s that has a 1.6 Ghz core2duo and it did just fine with Vista office2007 and web stuff. I put in an intel SSD and installed windows7 and that really raised the performance level. SSDs play a huge part in the enjoyability of a notebook.
Intel® Core?2 Duo Processor L7500 (4M Cache, 1.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)with SPEC Code(s)SLA3R, SLAET

There are some cool processors comming soon though that you may be interested in. Like if you have any desire to play the odd game on your notebook.
AMD Fusion Zacate is a really interesting one because it competes against intel ATOM ($500 netbooks) but has graphics powerfull enough to actually play games. Best of all it is an 18W TDP, while the i3,i5,i7 you were looking at are all 35W TDP. The lower the TDP, the cooler it runs, less battery power it uses.
CPU power dissipation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Previewing AMD's Brazos, Part 1: More Details on Zacate/Ontario and Fusion - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
AMD Benchmarks Zacate APU - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
PC Perspective - AMD E-350 1.6 GHz APU Brazos Platform Preview - Zacate APU Benchmarked
The Thinkpad 120e will be the first to have AMD Fusion Zacate. I hope it's released soon, next few months, so we can see it reviewed.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/lenovo-thinkpad-x120e-snatches-up-amds-zacate-aims-to-right-al/


Intels new Sandy Bridge Chips will offer better graphics than Zacate but they'll be on more expensive notebooks priced $1000 - $2000. And their TDP will be 35W and above.
A feature of interest to some is Sandy Bridge's hardware excellerated video transcoding
Intel Demos Sandy Bridge, Shows off Video Transcode Engine - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Sandy Bridge Processors are easy to identify by the i5 or i7 followed by a 4 digit number. eg. i7-2630M.

 

Thanks for all the links and useful information. My old laptop had a T7250 Core 2 Duo running at 2GHz in it and 4GB of RAM. Normally it would run fine, but it seemed to get bogged down pretty easy If I left Outlook, Thunderbird, and Firefox all open together for very long. And since those are the three programs I need to have going all the time this was a bit of an annoyance that I'd like to avoid on my next laptop.

I do some video transcoding, so it would be nice to have that feature of Sandy Bridge. Unfortunately I need to get a new laptop pretty soon as the one I'm using slows down if I try to keep more than two programs open at once. Beginning of March is probably the longest I could afford to wait.

 

dylanemcgregor
What CPU usage when you have problem with many OS running at once. If not 100% then i think you have problem with OS or HDD.

 

Generally way below 100%, more like 30%, spiking up to 50% for brief periods of time. The only time I've seen the CPU hit 100% the machine has frozen up shortly after.

I did think it was weird to be CPU constrained, but wanted to make sure not to repeat the same mistake twice. When things would get sluggish the machine would also get really hot and the fan would come on full bore, and I thought that meant the CPU was working too hard?

 

dylanemcgregor:

You mentioned Outlook as a running process - depending on what version you are running, Outlook can be a very memory (RAM) intensive program. If you are dealing with abnormally large PST's - anything bigger than a gigabyte or so - that just makes the problem worse. Firefox has also had a history of eating system memory like candy, to the point where FF3 has been unusable for me on certain incremental updates simply due to memory leakage. That's what prompted my switch to Chrome earlier this year.

I wouldn't push you to switch browsers, I still miss Firefox myself. However, maxing out your RAM is a cheap and excellent way to help your notebook in the multitasking department. The jump to DDR3 will already make it feel a bit faster, but tossing in a full 8 gigs is cheap and will boost your multitasking performance considerably. Don't buy it from Lenovo - picking up a compatible 2x4gb set from an online vendor like Newegg or TigerDirect will serve you just as well, and cost considerably less.

 

I have a X201i with i3 330, which is even slower than the 370m they currently come with. But I think it is perfect, there would have been no need to pay more money for something bigger and faster. If you have the money for the faster one, I would recommend you buy the i3 version instead, which is cheaper, and go with an SSD upgrade instead: you will see better visible performance improvement that way.

So for your Office + Web browsing needs it would be more than enough.

I run Visual Studio (development) on it, and it doesn't feel slow. It evens run WoW in case there is nothing better available It came with 2GB of RAM which I expanded to 4GB and installed x64 Windows on it.

 

Many programms work sluggish after long work. You must control not only cpu load, but memory usage also. Somtimes errors in programs causes memory leak.

When engaged in working memory reaches the size of physical memory, the operating system starts using the hard drive to store the data portion of memory. Here begins the biggest hindrance.


SSD also good upgrade for you. Big outlook bases and multiplie programs that work with HDD can greatly slow down overall performance. Especially if the hard disk is slow.

 

The i5's power will only be noticed if you are using CPU intensive tasks... However, you should note the i3's Intel HD Graphics are underclocked compared to the i5.

 

For graphics the only thing I care about is that it is powerful enough to drive both the laptop display and the external 1920X1080 monitor. And that it doesn't hang up by quickly moving windows back ad forth between monitors.