Which Processor is better?

[flyerfan27]

Hello,

I am looking to buy a new Notebook computer with Windows 7. I want one that will be fast and powerful to use in place of a Desktop. Can anyone tell me which of the below processors would be the better one to have in a Notebook or any recommendations are welcome. I am looking to stay below $1,100.00.

Intel Core i7-620M 2.66GHz Processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz with 4MB L3 Cache & 1066MHz FSB

OR

Intel Core i7-720QM 1.60GHz Processor with Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz with 6MB L2 Cache & 1333MHz FSB


Any help would be deeply appreciated!

Thank you,
Jim

 

[SidVicious]

The 620M is a dual core and clocked higher than the quad core 720QM, it really boils down to what you intend to do with your laptop.

For mundane tasks, the difference will be insignificant, it really depends on your use, the 620M will perform a bit better than the 720M in singlethreaded tasks but the 720QM will shine with apps that can spawn more than two threads.

If you're interested in gaming with your laptop, focus on the GPU and LCD panel, even a mobile C2D or Athlon/Turion will do just fine.

 

[Lmeow]

Considering you're going to use it as a desktop replacement, the i7 720QM would probably be better, the i7 620M is, as stated before, only a dual core with four threads compared to the 720QM which is a quad cores with eight threads.

But, what are the uses of your computer going to be? That'll help narrow down the decision.

 

[flyerfan27]

Hello Sid,

Thank you so much for replying to my thread. I am not really into gaming. I use it more for office type work with a lot of applications running at once and for web cam chats. I am not sure what you mean by singlethreaded.

Right now I am using an Apple PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz with 2 GB of ram and it is nowhere near good enough for my use. I have to keep shutdown all my applications and re-booting the computer about every 35 minutes because everything slows down to a crawl or the computer will freeze. I need to do something soon because I can no longer go on the way I am.

I saw another thread where they were saying you can over clock a quad processor. Can you do that with Notebook computers and can this processor be over clocked to the speed of the dual core? Then wouldn't that give me the best of both worlds.

Thanks again for your help, Jim

 

[someguy7]

You can not overclock the cpu in a notebook.

The turbo feature on the mobile chips ramps up the clockspeed tremendously. If they are the same price I would go with the quad for a notebook that is meant to replace a desktop. But either chip should actually do fine. Depending on what all these apps are that you run at the same time.

 

[flyerfan27]

Hello Guy,

Thank you for your reply. Believe it or not the one with the quad core is about $50.00 cheaper. So I am glad to hear that I should go with this one. Plus the quad core is an HP Notebook and the other one is an Acer.

Thank you all for your help. You all have been very helpful in helping me decide which notebook to buy. This is an awesome Forum. I cannot believe how fast I received answers.

Thanks again,
Jim

 

[LePhuronn]

The reason the quad core is cheaper is because it's 1GHz slower than the dual. For what you're doing I'd be inclined to get the dual because it's faster, but that being said you don't need a super fast CPU for what you're doing anyway, so you may be better off running lots of things a bit slower than a few things faster.