Customised Sony s-series laptop - which spec?

[alex_f]

Hello, I am looking to customise a Sony Vaio s-series but am unsure about which customisation to go with:

1) Core i7-620M processor, 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm), 8 gig RAM, NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M 512MB (£1220 or £1198 with 6 gig RAM)

2) Core i5-540M processor, 500 GB Serial ATA (7200 rpm), 8 gig RAM, NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M 512MB (£1168)

Is there much of a difference between the i7-620M and the i5-540M. Is it worth sacrificing on hard drive speed (and possibly RAM) for this faster processor? Or maybe its not a sacrifise at all; would a a 7200 rpm drive get too hot and noisy? Maybe I should get the slower processor AND the slower drive!?

I am a Computer Science student and will be using the laptop for programming in Java and C, as well as for general use (music, video etc).

 

[Upendra09]

the core i5 will be plenty for you but u don't need 8 gigs of RAM 4 would be good 6 would be plenty

 

[alex_f]

the core i5 will be plenty for you but u don't need 8 gigs of RAM 4 would be good 6 would be plenty

Thanks for your reply!

Can you give me more information on the difference between the i5 and i7? I'm unsure whether my course will involve graphics work etc, and therefore whether the i7 would be better in this case.

The reason I selected 8 gig RAM is because the cost is £30, so it is much cheaper than upgrading myself at a later date.

What are your thoughts on the hard drive? I am unsure whether to get the 5400 rpm drive or the 7200 rpm drive. Is there a noticeable difference between the two?

 

[Upendra09]

the i5 is basically just slower than the i7

the 7200 RPM hdd won't be noticeably faster

but over all the i5 laptop is better