luke.mccormick Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Hey guys,Looking at the newest Lenovo Thinkpad line...I just sold my 14" ThinkPad T61 which consisted of:Intel C2D T8300 2.4 GHz4GB RAM500 GB HDDIntegrated GFXthe usual...I also have a ThinkPad W700 with the 2.0 GHz Q9000 Quad core, 8 GB RAM, a 250 and a 500 GB hard drive, hi res display..etcThe w700 is absolutely incredible, I love the machine, it's just not mobile enough (I'm carrying that back and forth with me to work daily, and it definitely does it's part of the job)I need something to replace my T61 for the high performance mobility side, the T61 was incredible.A fellow colleague burst my bubble this morning when he told me the newest i7 mobile processors were not ALL HT quad cores, so I searched on intel's website, and sure enough, hyper threaded dual cores. I have all my options picked out now except for the processor.my two options now are the newest Intel i5 540m at 2.53 GHz (3MB L3), or the i7 620M at 2.66 GHz (4MB L3) with a 70$ price point for the i7.I was all set to order the i7 until I found out that both this i7 and that i5 are only hyper threaded dual cores. I understand I have bragging rights with the i7 just because it's the i7, but is the 130 MHz and the 1 MB of L3 really worth 70 dollars?I don't do any graphics, photoshop, blender, video, etc...My power is all for my virtual machines (I'm a network admin/engineer so I use a lot of them), media players, a few web browsers, IM clients and the other usual stuff.Any advice would be greatly appreciated, who would've thought I could beat myself up this much over a stupid processor Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Honestly, in a dual-core configuration you probably wouldn't notice a huge difference in anything but multimedia. If you're not using it as a media workstation (and it sounds like you're not), you'll get better bang for your buck with a (quality) SSD rather than a more expensive processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripken204 Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 i currently have an R61 with a T8300 and 4GB ram and am also considering getting a new T510 with i5.i have never used a laptop faster than mine even considering that it is now over 2 years old..the reason for my upgrade would be the use of lightroom, the T8300 just can't handle it whatsoever.i would say to go with an i5/i7 and install much ram as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke.mccormick Posted January 24, 2010 Author Share Posted January 24, 2010 thanks for the replies... i ordered with an i7 and plan to buy 8 gb of ram as soon as i have the $500. thanks for the input Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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