Sandy Bridge or Ivey bridge. important?

[MFeder]

is there a big difference for student use (occasional movies, word processing, no games, photos, music) between i5 2d and 3d gen? We need a laptop that will be useful for 5 years.

 

[raytseng]

get new if you can afford it.

Theoretically, they should consume less power for laptop, but it's all about execution/implementation.

 

[dudewitbow]

if its the desktop side, all it would do is unlock a few extra stuff like pci-e 3.0, but the 2500k overclocks higher to cover for the slight architecture advantage the icy bridge has. for the laptop, i would think getting ivy is beneficial for battery life and stock performance. as ivy is between 5-10% more efficient then its sandy counterpart supposedly.

 

[jaguarskx]

The biggest difference is Ivy Bridge's Intel HD 4000 integrated graphic core which is about 40% more powerful than the older Intel HD 3000 integrated graphic core. Outside of games there is generally no difference in "normal" usage.

Ivy Bridge's performance is about 5% better than Sandy Bridge at the same clock speed. For example , a 2.0GHz Ivy Bridge CPU would be the equivalent to a 2.1GHz Sandy Bridge CPU. That increase is go unnoticed unless you run CPU benchmarking software.

IB CPUS consumes a little less power than the older SB CPUs. That means battery life should last a little long (several minutes perhaps a little longer).

 

[Pyree]

^The laptop i7-XXXXQM are actually all 45w part regardless of IB or SB. Apart from i7-3612QM, which is 35w.

 

[rubbateckie]

Basically what most people are saying, and what I agree with is that for YOU - there is essentially no difference.

 

[MFeder]

Thanks, this is helpful. I was also wondering whether saving the $150 bucks now will make the laptop obsolete quicker say, 3 to 5 years down the road. I don't quite understand Pyree's comment on "45w" but I'm priced out of the i7 I think. My Intel friends seem suspicious of ASUS as a laptop mfgr, but I don't seem to notice that bias here. Any comments? Again, I really appreciate your help--great forum.

 

[DarkOutlaw]

if its the desktop side, all it would do is unlock a few extra stuff like pci-e 3.0, but the 2500k overclocks higher to cover for the slight architecture advantage the icy bridge has. for the laptop, i would think getting ivy is beneficial for battery life and stock performance. as ivy is between 5-10% more efficient then its sandy counterpart supposedly.

It's more like a 3% performance difference.

@OP I like Toshiba Laptops. Dell is good, but expensive. Lenova has a bad rep. Asus/Acer I have heard make good netbooks, but cannot comment on there full laptops. HP I have heard is decent, but a bit more than Toshiba.

 

[Pyree]

What I mean by 45w is that although on desktop, the IB CPU is 77w instead of 95w in SB (IB use less electricity). In laptop, IB and SB i7 are both 45w and use the same amount of electricity. The saving in electricity is the IB able to complete the same task slightly faster due to better performance per clock.

If you are using it for word processing and watching movie, the mobile i5 will so for the next 5 year.

However whether the laptop will last for that long is a big gamble.

 

[dudewitbow]

It's more like a 3% performance difference.

@OP I like Toshiba Laptops. Dell is good, but expensive. Lenova has a bad rep. Asus/Acer I have heard make good netbooks, but cannot comment on there full laptops. HP I have heard is decent, but a bit more than Toshiba.

my tastes are sightly different

Toshiba is fine, ive personally have a friend and a cousin who uses one. one of them had a flickering problem, other has a fine laptop. Lenovo(not lenova) is a branch that broke off of IBM when ibm quit in the computer business. I personally think lenovos make solid units for the prices. Acer in the laptop business will always be the cheapest per part, but because of it, the sturdiness and cooling on them is subpar. Dells make good laptops, but they are slightly pricey. Sony is just brand which you pay for looks and service rather than parts as their brand is expensive. HP, i personally have hps and my cousins have HP and several hp users can almost say they hate their laptop to be honest. Asus is fine(and of course msi is too but msi is usually more high end builds)

 

[AyuX]

The biggest difference is Ivy Bridge's Intel HD 4000 integrated graphic core which is about 40% more powerful than the older Intel HD 3000 integrated graphic core. Outside of games there is generally no difference in "normal" usage.

Ivy Bridge's performance is about 5% better than Sandy Bridge at the same clock speed. For example , a 2.0GHz Ivy Bridge CPU would be the equivalent to a 2.1GHz Sandy Bridge CPU. That increase is go unnoticed unless you run CPU benchmarking software.

IB CPUS consumes a little less power than the older SB CPUs. That means battery life should last a little long (several minutes perhaps a little longer).

No hd 4000 in all models. Core i5 3570k has intel hd 4000, but i5 3550 has only hd 2500. BTW i don't know nothing about laptop processors

 

[dudewitbow]

No hd 4000 in all models. Core i5 3570k has intel hd 4000, but i5 3550 has only hd 2500. BTW i don't know nothing about laptop processors

iirc during the sandy bridge area, all core i3+ had hd3k graphics and im assuming the same for the laptop models. the desktop versions are the only ones that have varying hd graphics on them.

 

[4745454b]

And I'm opposite. My old IBM laptop (Pentium M era machine) developed a common screen issue so I'm not so hot for their laptops. Meanwhile my two HP laptops are still going strong. I would use an HP without a thought. Acer as well. I had an old P3 Acer tablet that "survived" several falls and still worked. Built like a tank that one was.

Performance between them are close. The big draw for IB is that it has better graphics abilities over SB. Seeing as you don't game this doesn't matter. Get IB in case it matters in the future, but if you are "stuck" with SB don't feel bad. You likely will never notice the difference.

 

[MFeder]

Thanks much all-very helpful

 

[MFeder]

Best answer selected by MFeder.