MAC or Windows laptop for MFE students?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JieFu
  • Start date Start date
I buy and sell laptops as a profession (as well as repair and replace). My latest purchase was so good that I actually kept the laptop (a huge deal for me). The laptop is the Sony Vaio Z122GX. They have many different configurations of this, but with the SSD this is more powerful than most PC desktops available today, super fast, and only 3 pounds! I purchased a $2,500 model for $1,150 on B&H refurbished ;).

Specs:
i5 2.66GHZ
256GB SSD
8GB RAM
13.1" Screen --- 720p!


Purchase a 13.1 Sony with an SSD on eBay. You will be very pleased.
 
MRoss said:
I buy and sell laptops as a profession (as well as repair and replace). My latest purchase was so good that I actually kept the laptop (a huge deal for me). The laptop is the Sony Vaio Z122GX. They have many different configurations of this, but with the SSD this is more powerful than most PC desktops available today, super fast, and only 3 pounds! I purchased a $2,500 model for $1,150 on B&H refurbished ;).

Specs:
i5 2.66GHZ
256GB SSD
8GB RAM
13.1" Screen --- 720p!

Purchase a 13.1 Sony with an SSD on eBay. You will be very pleased.
Click to expand...

8 GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, ..... i5? Why not an i7?
 
Beleive it or not i7 is not better than i5. They run identically, however, if you are running four or more programs that all have the ability to use multi-core (not probable), then in this unique situation i7 would be optimal.

As a side note, it has been proven that i7s drain battery quicker, heat the computer faster, etc...

I stick to i5s for laptops.
 
MRoss said:
Beleive it or not i7 is not better than i5. They run identically, however, if you are running four or more programs that all have the ability to use multi-core (not probable), then in this unique situation i7 would be optimal.

As a side note, it has been proven that i7s drain battery quicker, heat the computer faster, etc...

I stick to i5s for laptops.
Click to expand...

Any evidence of this?
 
alain said:
Any evidence of this?
Click to expand...
I knew I'd get in trouble for using the word "proven"! ;)

I always do loads of research before purchasing a laptop. If you check out all of the review sites you will see that they all (CNET, PCMAG, LaptopReview.com....) have the same opinion. I myself experienced this with the Dell E6500 - I have owned the i5 and i7 model.
 
 
MRoss said:
I knew I'd get in trouble for using the word "proven"! ;)

I always do loads of research before purchasing a laptop. If you check out all of the review sites you will see that they all (CNET, PCMAG, LaptopReview.com....) have the same opinion. I myself experienced this with the Dell E6500 - I have owned the i5 and i7 model.
Click to expand...

a lot of research in those sites is as good as doing nothing. Gaming sites, Ars, Anandtech, Tomhardware. They tend to be more thorough in their testing
 
I can't wait anymore so let me call this BS right now.
Click to expand...
lol. I confess that my information is pre-Sandy Bridges. Regardless, I have seen many such benchmarks (most released from Intel themselves) claiming that both processors (pre-Sandy Bridges) use the same 35W. However, countless customer reviews + professional reviews claim that in the real world the Quad cores drained the battery quicker albeit only slightly so.

Regarding performance you will see the same such reviews if you Google. I spent hours on this. Of course, once again, I have no knowledge of Sandy Bridges.
 
Alain, maybe I am reading this wrong but the only i5 vs i7 (where both are 2.66GHZ) comparison here (where i7 is HT and i5 is not) the i5 is actually faster. Am I missing something? http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832

- I though I'd pull up an old pre-Sandy Bridges review
 
alain said:
I can't wait anymore so let me call this BS right now. By pure specifications, check this link:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/2

Then here are the tests:
Click to expand...
Also, your benchmarks are not fair because you are showing comparisons of i7s with faster CPU speeds than i5s. Show me one equal comparison where i5 and i7 both have the same Ghz and no other differences where the i7 is faster. Even with Sandy Bridges I have not seen such a case yet except for exhausting multi-core gaming tests.
 
Let me find equal clock speed benchmark. They i7 will have more L3 cache that's their advantage. If not, they will be i5's
 
At least for the Lenovo x220/t models, the i7 actually has a throttle issue where under heavy load, the i7 processor kicks into slow mode. Not an issue for the i5. I think it might be a bios/motherboard issue.

For everyday use, I don't really think i5/i7 will be all that different.
 
SYau said:
At least for the Lenovo x220/t models, the i7 actually has a throttle issue where under heavy load, the i7 processor kicks into slow mode. Not an issue for the i5. I think it might be a bios/motherboard issue.

For everyday use, I don't really think i5/i7 will be all that different.
Click to expand...
that is true. I was doing so much research regarding the i5 and the i7. I went to anandtech and every possible sites. For our purposes, it doesn't make sense to use an i7. infact, an i3 should suffice. But, i went for the i5 (inbetween the two). Unless you are into hardcore gaming like playing halo etc this shouldn't matter.
 

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