np5165 w/555m

ive pretty much decided on buyin this laptop as i had looked at the 8130 as well but i do not needed a dedicated gaming laptop more i need a dedicated business laptop with gaming capabilities. plus with the optimus switching this model seems to have superior battery life which is perfect for me.

i am only stuck on 1 decision and that is what processor to go with.

i do not want to spend the extra price jump on the midlevel i7-2720qm, so im stuck as to whether i should get the faster i5-2520 (2.5-3.2ghz) or the slower i7-2630qm (2.0-2.8ghz)

any help appreciated.

 

The i7 is faster. It's clocks are slower because it's quad core vs the dual core in the i5. As for what CPU to go with, the i5 should be fine considering you're going to have integrated graphics.

 

i dont mind the small price difference between the 2 i just want to get the better performer so if it is the i7 i will be getting that option.

 

Fair enough; just remember, your laptop is only going to go as fast as the slowest component in your PC. So if you have a slower graphics card like the GT555 (not that it is slow), you will suffer from bottlenecked performance. Basically, you probably won't ever get to make use of the processor with that graphics card. The price difference is pretty small though, as you mentioned, so it may be worth it.

 

Uhm.. That's only true when he's gaming. But for other stuff that requires the CPU to process the Core i7 will be faster than the Core i5 if the software is properly optimized to utilize the cores.