3740QM vs 3840QM?

cedar999

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Dec 4, 2012
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Hello.
I am customizing a gaming laptop, more specifically the Sager NP9150 (Clevo P150EM). In the options, there is the 2.7-3.7 Ghz Processor, the Intel 3740Qm, and then, the 2.8-3.8 Ghz Intel 3840QM. I'm leaning towards the former right now, since the latter is about double the cost, while only having .1 more GHz. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that the 3740QM has 6MB Cache, and the 3840QM 8MB Cache. Will this affect my performance significantly? I am planning to play very taxing games, such as Crysis or Far Cry 3, as well as do a lot of photo and video editing.
If I go with the 3740QM, I can get 4 Extra GBs of RAM and a better Optical Drive at more or less the same price. Is it worth it to go with the 3840QM?
 
Solution
Okay, you got a nice system. I'd still not get the i7 3840qm because of the large cost and low performance gain. It will not help you in gaming. It will only help a little (4%) with video and photo editing. Unless you are going to be making a lot of money editing photos or video's it will not be worth it for you.
That extra 100MHz is not worth the extra money.

It is called "The Law Of Diminish Returns". In the case of computer tech, the more performance you want to more you need to pay. An extra 100MHz means nothing. Nothing!!!! Also, the extra 2MB of cache doesn't make a difference in games either. It can help marginally improve video encoding, financial modelling, and scientific modelling program performance. It is likely useful if you are going to use VMWare as well (for virtual machines).

 

whyso

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Jan 15, 2012
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No, you will not notice any significant difference in photo or video editing (less than 4%). There will be no difference in gaming unless you have SLI 680m's

In fact, unless you are getting 680m SLI drop the processor down to a i7-3630qm. Save a couple hundred dollars and get 16 GB ram for your photo and video editing or an SSD. The 3630qm will be maybe 8% slower than the i7 3740qm (but this will likely not be noticeable as a much bigger difference is required for someone to actually feel any difference).

A SSD (with photo and video editing 256 GB would be best especially once you install a couple games) because video and photo editing requires a lot of I/O. Boot times will be much faster and loading your projects will take much less time. The overall speed of the system will be greatly improved (you can also get a slower storage drive).

What are the spec of the laptop?
 

cedar999

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Dec 4, 2012
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My budget just got a huge boost, so I have room for a $3000 laptop. Perhaps a bit extravagant, but I am planning to use this laptop for a long time. The specs are currently:

GPU: 680M
CPU: 3740QM
RAM: 16 GB 2 SODIMM RAM
Hard Drive: 512 GB Crucial M4 SSD
OS: Windows 7 Pro (I really don't like Windows 8)
Overclocking for the system and speeding up the OS are services provided by the reseller (XoticPC).
 

whyso

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Jan 15, 2012
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Okay, you got a nice system. I'd still not get the i7 3840qm because of the large cost and low performance gain. It will not help you in gaming. It will only help a little (4%) with video and photo editing. Unless you are going to be making a lot of money editing photos or video's it will not be worth it for you.
 
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mcgrath678

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Feb 3, 2013
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I added a 128 GB SSD and installed a 7200 rpm 750 gb drive in the optical drive bay . this mod doubles or triples your your drive access time
I am going to change out the 750 GB 7200 for a WD 2 TB 5200 soon as this is triple the storage and not too much performance difference
the external cd rom has been used 3 times , to reinstall windows and install BF3 , the game plays discless
 

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