core i3 3217u + ssd vs core i5 3317u + hdd

[calvinklein]

which should i get the i3 + ssd or i5 + hdd? it is used mainly for browsing, youtube, watch movies and photoshop

 

[Prostar Computer]

i5 + SSD.

That's not enough information to go off of I'm afraid.

 

[jaguarskx]

I would rather go with the i5-3317u. The base clockspeed is 1.7GHz which is 100MHz lower than the i3-3217u. However, when Turbo Boost kicks in the CPU can go up to 2.6GHz if only one core is being used and probably 2.4GHz if both cores are used. That can be a significant difference in performance especially in the future since everything generally becomes more CPU intensive.

It will be much more easier to replace the HDD with a SSD in the future, than it would be to upgrade the CPU because the CPU is soldered into the motherboard which basically makes an upgrade impossible.

 

[Prostar Computer]

The i5 will treat you better in Photoshop during editing, but it's still a limited CPU since it's the ultra low voltage type. The SSD will make a bigger splash when it comes to saving + loading large projects, as well as installing/uninstalling programs.

I suppose a good question would be: how big is the SSD? If you need more storage space than it offers, then get the i5 + HDD.