Do I need an i3 or i5 for a laptop to be used studying 'Sociology' at Uni!? Getting mixed responses...arghhh help!

[CostaP]

Before the questions are answered below I have one main question.
*Looking on behalf of my sibling who will be studying Sociology at University. So laptop to be used mainly for essay writing, browsing online, MS office suite, streaming/Netflix. That is the main use I believe*

But the difficult part I am trying to find out is if the laptop needs to have an i3 or i5.
I want the laptop to have 8GB RAM, and a (minimum) 128GB SSD so performance on that part will be good. But worried that an i3 will be a little slow with the tasks needed? Maybe an i5 is too much? I have a gaming PC myself (from 2013) and an i5 runs smoothly with my 250 SSD.
Getting mixed opinions/responses online and its making that last decision difficult!!

1. What is your budget? Between £400-£700 (idealy around the £500 mark)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14/15 inch

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1920 x 1080 (HD)

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? A laptop for Universsity

5. How much battery life do you need? Not sure...maybe 8-10 hours?

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? No

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Mainly Microsoft Office package. Browsing online, youtube, facebook, streaming etc

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Preferably will use an SSD (128GB?) for OS, MS Office etc, some work also. Will buy an external HD/USB.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Preferaby from John Lewis as I get a Discount https/www.johnlewis.com/electricals/laptops-macbooks/c60000876?rdr=1

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 3 years at least, for the duration of my course!

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD drive

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. HP, Dell and maybe Lenovo seem like reputable brands, and the best 'general' laptops. No Macs, expensive and I wont need it.

13. What country do you live in? United Kingdom

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

P.S If anyone knows why I cant log into TomsHardware on Google, but can on Microsoft Edge, why is this!? Let me know

Thank You!

 

[TerryLaze]

i3 is 2 cores 4 threads
i5 (for laptops) still are 2/4 and only some are 4/4
2/4 will be fine for this usage, when not pushing the CPU to close to 100% then clocks are more important then number of cores.
It's better to save money on the CPU and get an i3 but get a system with a better cooling solution because that's what's gonna kill performance more then anything (except maybe for the battery)

 

[CostaP]

i3 is 2 cores 4 threads
i5 (for laptops) still are 2/4 and only some are 4/4
2/4 will be fine for this usage, when not pushing the CPU to close to 100% then clocks are more important then number of cores.
It's better to save money on the CPU and get an i3 but get a system with a better cooling solution because that's what's gonna kill performance more then anything (except maybe for the battery)

hmm. alright. Will have to look into the other specs of the laptops. Not sure what "cooling solution" it has. Its a laptop...

 

[TerryLaze]

hmm. alright. Will have to look into the other specs of the laptops. Not sure what "cooling solution" it has. Its a laptop...

Yeah I'm not great with laptops either but you could at least look at reviews to see if they mention throttling which is the cpu slowing down to prevent overheating,good reviews will take laptops apart and actually look at the fans or heat spreaders and tell you if it's good.