i3 vs i5 laptop for programming

[sYankOv]

I use Visual Studio with resharper , VS Code sometimes Webstorm. I've searched in the local tech stores and websites in Bulgaria and came to the choice between i3-6006u/i3-6100u or i5-6200u . I was wondering if it's worth the extra clock speed and turbo boost in exchange for SSD ? Other specs are 8gb ram 1tb hdd and 256ssd (or both)

 

[Blas]

I wouldn't trade an SSD for a slight speed bump in the CPU. Having an SSD makes the system so responsive compared to an HDD, that i would never want to use an HDD-only PC anymore, no matter what the advantage in CPU.

 

[jaguarskx]

I would go with the i5-6200u because the increase in clockspeed will reduce the amount of time required to compile programs. Depending on how are and complex the programs are, the increased clockspeed can shave seconds or minutes off of compiling programs.

You can always replace the HDD with a SSD in the future, but you will be stuck with the CPU because it is soldered into the motherboard.

 

[Blas]

You can always replace the HDD with a SSD in the future, but you will be stuck with the CPU because it is soldered into the motherboard.

True, if he feels comfortable opening the laptop and changing drives. Not a terribly difficult thing to do if you are experienced, but it can be quite daunting if you don't know what you're doing. Assuming he wants to buy the laptop and just use it without ever servicing it, i would definitely pick the one with an SSD. Besides, shaving some time off the compile times can be worth it when compiling huge programs for a living, where times are long and mean $$. But if he codes as a student, or as a hobby, i'm not sure that shaving a few seconds here and there compensates the time you have to wait for the laptop to boot up, to open any software, etc. I'm a fan of SSDs, they really make a very large difference in the day to day experience. Just my two cents, though!

 

[-Fran-]

Lol, interesting that we all have different views on this, haha.

I say get 16GB of RAM instead of the better CPU and, by all means, get an SSD. You can always live with a "slower" CPU as long as the code compiles fast and moves fast across your regions.

It will also depend on the complexity of what you intend to do: simple web stuff (even in C#) will consume a lot of RAM due to the application servers and dotNET; Visual Studio, I would imagine is similar. I remember my Girlfriend running VS in her laptop with 8GB alongside a DB. It ran like crap. 16GB and an SSD made it look like a whole new computer. And this is using a mobile Llano A8.

In any case, for *real* programming, any "U" CPU from Intel is garbage; I can attest to that from my company from the tears the plebeians shed trying to work with them. You will always want a full fledged i3, i5 and, if budget allows, i7 HQ for a mobile software development machine. The money investment is SO worth it.

You can find decent alternatives looking around, but after helping a friend, it took us AGES to find something that wasn't mobile garbage.

Cheers!