i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz vs i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz

1 Is it worth the upgrade?

2 its only 200mhz more , how much more performance gain could it have? 10%?

3 its only $50 more, so I was thinking bet this or killer/intel card or ic diamond or something else you guys suggest for gamers

4 or should i get all of the above point 3 ?

5 out of topic question, will the ssd drives die in 2-3 years? thanks guys

 

found this

PassMark - Intel Core i7-2670QM @ 2.20GHz - Price performance comparison

 

If you're main purpose is gaming, then the upgrade won't really be worth it for you. The difference will be negligible in terms of gaming performance, in which the GPU is the bottleneck.

 

I also do multimedia(sounds so retro) tasks like dvd rips, unrar, multi task(write dvd, run anti virus and watch a movie at the same time lol) and all that. still negligible ?

 

Yeah, I personally think it would still be negligible. I'd suggest the thermal paste instead

 

lol! u r still sticking with the thermal paste! but u know whats funny JP? my 1st post you told me to put the thermal paste as last priority!!!! hahaha. man you are confusing potential customers!

 

I can be a bit confusing, but I was going off of the options on this page

Do you see yourself doing much gaming on your wireless card? If so forget the thermal paste and grab the bigfoot card instead. You can always apply the thermal paste later if you feel up to it.

 

Man, if you are looking to play StarCraft 2 on that laptop - get the best processor possible!!!!

The 2630QM is out of the question - 2ghz un-turboed is slow for me. As some games use only 2 cores, you need something with good base clocks.

My 2760QM is 2.4ghz per thread, and it runs CONSTANTLY on turbo while playing starcraft 2 at around 3.0Ghz per thread. Sometimes 3.3Ghz.

So - either get 2670QM or spend more on the 2760QM. Trust me, it matters.

 

Not true, i'm playing SC2 on my 2630qm and gtx 485m, ultra at 1080p and i get between 40-60 fps most the time, only drops to 25-30 during the insane cutscenes when hundreds of units are on screen. Never during real gameplay though.

 

Im getting 130~ fps all around.

 

interesting view, if it helps a lil bit, then I am going to go with bob1man, but i wont get the 2.4 ghz, just the 2.2 since the $50 upgrade feels like a good deal, plus i had 2.53ghz core i5 1st gen b4, so I dont want to feel left out in single processor tasks!

 

Unless you're heavy into video editing or CAD, it's not worth it to upgrade to the 2670QM.

 

of course you're getting higher fps, you're comparing a 6990M to a 485M.

 

I use my laptop for a lot more than gaming , so it was worth the $50 for the upgrade. The way I see it, $50 extra for a 10% higher clock rate on a quad core is worth it. .2 Ghz is not usually all that mutch, but if we look at it based on percentages it seems like a better deal.

 

Only $50 to upgrade to slightly better CPU? Do it. It may only be slightly faster, but it's faster without any overclocking and what not. Do it.

 

10% will never matter for anything.

 

I don't see how he's getting that FPS when this says that card is near the same performance as a 485m

AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Says it should get like 60 fps at the most for starcraft 2 maxed out.

 

6990m are only slightly faster than 485m. as we all know nvidia releases kick driver updates, with a premium ofcourse. Rule of them base card always go with nvidia, its not that expensive(like gtx560m) but upgrading AMD just has so much to offer for that $145 premium man! you can beat that!!!! I think Ill go with the $50 upgrade

 

The real speed with a 2630qm is 2.6ghz, with a 2670 it's 2.8. Hardly noticeable and definitely not worth $50. I wouldn't pay extra for any upgrades unless they gave at least 20% performance boost. Those you can definitely feel without benches

 

FYI I did not get the $50 upgrade, thx everyone check out my specs below

 

You will be quite happy with it.

 

@acroedd

hmmm looks like you got the glare type screen, how is it?

 

I just ordered yesterday man, I wont have the system till the 6th of dec. Plus I am planning on buying a 24 / 27inch led monitor so I dont mind my display!

 

ahh good stuff

 

I was also debating on getting the 2670QM, but I don't think that it will make enough difference in games. Although I did get some issues with my M11x being cpu bound.

Im sure the 2630 is fast enough!

 

lets hope so, will find out in a week either way!

 

You guys are getting making me second guess myself. I ordered a Satori with the 2760. I may have to call Malibal tomorrow and drop down to the 2670 if that's possible.

 

Stop worrying. The 2760 will be a fine chip, and if you ever start serious multitasking/video editing/etc, you'll thank yourself for all the CPU power you can get. Assuming your program will take it all. I STILL can't find a way to max out my blasted i7-950 >_>

 

Eh, I've already emailed Malibal about downgrading the processor and upgrading the SSD.

 

BLASPHEME!!!! Oh well. I suppose a larger SSD would benefit you better in the long run anyway. Even I want one at the end of the day... even if it's 3GB, HDD space is important. I'd wanna get 2x 600GB SSDs. Run em in raid. I'd be so overjoyed at the speed everything works at. I can't even imagine it now.

But anyway, if you use your PC quite a bit, you never know what you might end up using it for. I'm trying to stream, push BF3, do video editing, all kinds of things I never thought I'd be doing with this lappy. And my buddy has a 2920XM/580M and plays little else than CS:S and PCSX2 games. Feels like it'd be better if we traded, no? Try to be sure about what'll last you better in the long run, and what might be, before you buy a laptop. That's about the best advice I can give. I wouldn't touch an SSD unless I could get 800GB+ of space on my machine. Even with a 500GB HDD in one slot, a 250GB SSD in another would still be too small for me. You might be different though. Just try not to doubt yourself so much eh =P.

 

Good advice!

At this point, I've got to make myself happy with gaming and my wife happy with the budget. Honestly, besides high-end gaming there really isn't much that I can't do on the Inspiron E1505 that I've been using since 2006 that I want to do (with the exception of Dreamcast & PS2 emulation). So I theorize that I'll be pretty happy with the i7-2670 as I'm not really sacrificing a ton of speed, but I'm repurposing $160. If need be and if possible, I'll upgrade it in the future.

 

Even the 2630 is fine for emulation. Tested like 50 ps2 games on my last laptop and only a handful weren't consistently over 60fps. A word of advice though, the faster the cpu the bigger the benefit of an SSD. say youre on power saver mode with an i7 throttled to 1ghz, FireFox will start up in like 6 secs either way. Those extra ~500mhz mean a lot