Replace My Sony Vaio With....???

[JinxDalinx]

I am hoping to get everyone's opinion on what to "upgrade" to from my 5 year old Sony Vaio. I work at home and use a 2nd monitor as well. I used to upgrade every few years but they dont make Vaio's anymore and I am having trouble finding a laptop with newer/better hardware to replace my aging Vaio.

My Sony Vaio VPCF127FX consists of:
- Windows 7 64bit
- Intel i7 CPU (740QM @1.73GHz)
- 8 GB RAM (full capacity)
- 500GB SSD Samsumg EVO(upgraded from original HDD)
- 16.4" screen size

I need:
- At least 15" screen. bigger the better
- MUST BE A LAPTOP
- SSD

I have gone to all the local computer shops such as best buy, office depot, frys, etc but I have yet to find a laptop that is a significant upgrade to this one. I have seen some samsung laptops that look nice but aren't much faster. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[jaguarskx]

Depends on what you do with your laptop.

As far as not seeing anything much faster... I assume you are referring to the clockspeed. Performance is more than just mere clockspeed. A 5th generation Intel CPU running at 2.0GHz is more powerful than a 1st generation Intel CPU running at 2.0GHz. It has to do with the increased amount of instructions the CPU can execute every cycle (Hz) and is generally referred to as IPC. The following is the average performance gain based on many different types of CPU benchmarks per generation (assuming the same clockspeed).

1st gen -> 2nd gen = 12% (Sandy Bridge)
2nd gen -> 3rd gen = 6% (Ivy Bridge)
3rd gen -> 4th gen = 6% (Haswell)
4th gen -> 5th gen = 5% (Broadwell)

Going from a 1st gen to 4th gen equates to about a 26% increase in performance on average. Going from 1st gen to 5th gen works out to about a 32% average performance increase.

Mobile 6th generation Intel CPU (Skylake) has just been released this month, but I don't think any laptops with these CPUs are currently in the market. I think it is suppose to be about another 4% - 5% increase in performance (much less than what people were hoping for), but I have not done my research.

As for a laptop with a SSD... while it is nice if it came with one pre-installed you can always upgrade it later if the laptop(s) you are interested in do not have one.

If you only want a quad core CPU, then you need to look for Core i7 CPUs with the "HQ", "MQ" and the overclockable but extremely expensive "MX" moniker. The "MX" CPU itself generally sells for around $1,000 each when purchased in bulk. The 6th generation introduces the "HK" moniker which is a quad core i7 as well.

Anything with a "U" moniker is a low voltage dual core CPU and they are used in many mainstream laptops. Anything marketed as an "ultrabook" will have a "U" model CPU since that is one of the requirements. "Y" CPU are even lower power CPU with less performance.

 

[JinxDalinx]

Depends on what you do with your laptop.

As far as not seeing anything much faster... I assume you are referring to the clockspeed. Performance is more than just mere clockspeed. A 5th generation Intel CPU running at 2.0GHz is more powerful than a 1st generation Intel CPU running at 2.0GHz. It has to do with the increased amount of instructions the CPU can execute every cycle (Hz) and is generally referred to as IPC. The following is the average performance gain based on many different types of CPU benchmarks per generation (assuming the same clockspeed).

1st gen -> 2nd gen = 12% (Sandy Bridge)
2nd gen -> 3rd gen = 6% (Ivy Bridge)
3rd gen -> 4th gen = 6% (Haswell)
4th gen -> 5th gen = 5% (Broadwell)

Going from a 1st gen to 4th gen equates to about a 26% increase in performance on average. Going from 1st gen to 5th gen works out to about a 32% average performance increase.

Mobile 6th generation Intel CPU (Skylake) has just been released this month, but I don't think any laptops with these CPUs are currently in the market. I think it is suppose to be about another 4% - 5% increase in performance (much less than what people were hoping for), but I have not done my research.

As for a laptop with a SSD... while it is nice if it came with one pre-installed you can always upgrade it later if the laptop(s) you are interested in do not have one.

If you only want a quad core CPU, then you need to look for Core i7 CPUs with the "HQ", "MQ" and the overclockable but extremely expensive "MX" moniker. The "MX" CPU itself generally sells for around $1,000 each when purchased in bulk. The 6th generation introduces the "HK" moniker which is a quad core i7 as well.

Anything with a "U" moniker is a low voltage dual core CPU and they are used in many mainstream laptops. Anything marketed as an "ultrabook" will have a "U" model CPU since that is one of the requirements. "Y" CPU are even lower power CPU with less performance.

That is extremely useful information and I greatly appreciate it!