Buying a new Laptop: Is the I5 worth it?

[thedonquixotic]

So I have narrowed my search down to two laptops. I bought a laptop earlier this year, and it was stolen. I decided to wait for summer, to let the tech improve, so when I bought another one at least it would be a little faster. The new Intel cpus are out and I am wondering if it worth it.

Basically I have two options:

Acer Aspire AS5740G-6979 This has a 2.26 I5 processor. Also it has a good graphics card. Cost: $750

On the other hand I could get the Acer Aspire AS5542G-5281 This one doesn't have the I5 but the processor is an AMD Turion II 2.2 and the graphics card is plenty good. It costs $600.

The hertz are the same. The graphics cards are comparable. But is the difference in speed from the I5 to the Turion II enough to justify spending another $150. I am just a college student, and these are plenty strong enough for the games I want to play, and the work I want to do. So why spend the extra cash? Thoughts?

 

[jmike911]

I have been told that the new "I's" are going to be the new standard. I just bought the new VAIO with the I7. Problem I can see is the power requirements. Hopefully with the rush to Battery powered cars, they will be able to make a halfway inexpensive power supply for a laptop.
Most of my friends have gone to Apple (Mac) but they were pleased I did stick with the Intel if that's worth anything.

 

[Komomu]

Hopefully with the rush to Battery powered cars, they will be able to make a halfway inexpensive power supply for a laptop.

I don't rly think battery powered cars will make it, you still have to charge them up for 15 hours to make them work for 5, and you are still polluting the atmosphere (unless you run on wind or water power)

I think hydrogen cars will make it better.

 

[Komomu]

So I have narrowed my search down to two laptops. I bought a laptop earlier this year, and it was stolen. I decided to wait for summer, to let the tech improve, so when I bought another one at least it would be a little faster. The new Intel cpus are out and I am wondering if it worth it.

Basically I have two options:

Acer Aspire AS5740G-6979 This has a 2.26 I5 processor. Also it has a good graphics card. Cost: $750

On the other hand I could get the Acer Aspire AS5542G-5281 This one doesn't have the I5 but the processor is an AMD Turion II 2.2 and the graphics card is plenty good. It costs $600.

The hertz are the same. The graphics cards are comparable. But is the difference in speed from the I5 to the Turion II enough to justify spending another $150. I am just a college student, and these are plenty strong enough for the games I want to play, and the work I want to do. So why spend the extra cash? Thoughts?

Actually the i5 is a lot better because you judge the processor by the cache and the technologies it has on it and not the speed unless they are in the same series. The i5 has Level 3 3Mb cache while the turion has Level 2 1MB cache and also the i5 has the auto boost thing.

So unless your only planning on playing games like (around that level) then yea get the turion but if you want stream videos, sort through music and just generally be faster for the future(future-proofing) get the i5 it will pay for itself.

Also the 4570 can play sims 2 but it would take a while to load.


Edit: also the core i5 is dual core but acts like a quad core

 

[lostandwandering]

1) The i5 is much faster than the Turion II. Even the Core2Duos were faster than the Turion II's.

2) The 5470 is in no way comparable to the 5650. You will get close to double the frame rates from the 5650 compared the 5470. Find the two here and compare: http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html

IMO, the combo of the i5 and 5650 would give the laptop some longevity. So yes, I think the better CPU and GPU is worth the extra 150. BTW, with the i5 based one, you are also getting faster RAM and more HDD space.

 

[thedonquixotic]

Well, I am planning on mostly playing TF2, so I don't need real super high settings. I checked the fps for the two using Left for Dead as a baseline. On high settings, the stronger one was 58 while the weaker was 48. Only 10 frames per second.

Is the I5 going to make the power supply waste away faster?

I do have a desktop, so this doesn't have to be my uber future proof computer. It just needs to be good enough for when I am away from school. I also don't need a big HDD at all.

Hmmm.... I am leaning towards it. I find it funny that now my desktop is going to be obsolete compared to my latptop.