Best laptop processor for electronics/spice simulations

[pyrohaz]

Hey guys, I'm currently in the process of buying a new laptop and was wondering what processor would do best for this task. I currently have a HP laptop with a phenom B960 quad core in it but today experienced a simulation 100%ing every core. What would be best for what I'm doing? Unfortunately I only have a small budget of £450 but I am willing to buy refurbished/second hand. Currently, I'm considering the a10-4600m in the packard bell easynote TV but I am willing to take opinions. I also enjoy light gaming and don't wish for fancy graphics, just playabilitty at a native res.

Would a first gen i7 work better or a 1st/2nd gen i5?

Cheers, Harris

 

[pyrohaz]

Bump? I meant P960 not B960 lol sorry! I mainly use LTspice as my simulating program which is apparently optimized for quad core

 

[Pyree]

Sandy Bridge i7 (QM i7, not M i7) will be better than Ivy Bridge i5 for your purpose.

 

[hpfreak]

Pyree- the OP was referring to 1st gen i7 e.g. 720qm etc.. versus 1st/2nd Gen i5..

Pyrohaz- It depends on which model of the Core i series you were looking at .
Let's say it was the average i7 1st gen vs that of i5 2nd gen.. It would be: Core i7-720QM and the i5-2450m

the i5 in that case is faster, but if you want to do simulations- you'll benefit more from having the 4 cores of the i7 over the 2 faster ones in the Core i5.

If you could give me the specific model name for the i7, and the same for the i5 2nd gen- we can compare the specs.

The 1st gen i5 is out of the question.. it will be slow, and a dual-core. There would be no reason to go with one if you had the ability to go with a newer i5, or an i7 of the same generation.

Good luck,

 

[Pyree]

Some naming confusion here. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I wasn't thinking back that far. To avoid further misunderstanding, provide the model number of the CPU.

 

[pyrohaz]

Sorry guys, in the future I will ensure that I include model numbers

Currently within my price range:

Packard Bell Easynote TV - AMD A10-4600M
Samsung NP300E5A - i5-2430M
Dell Inspiron N5110 (Same processor as above)
Dell Studion 1558 - i7-720QM

Would these provide an added bonus over my current CPU? Unfortunately, I use the passmark charts to compare the CPU's (I don't know how this forum stands on using these benchmarks) and that shows that the AMD one comes on top.

Thanks,

 

[pyrohaz]

Problem solved cheers guys, I bought an Acer Aspire 5755g with the it-2670QM

Thanks a lot