Help, i7-640m vs i7-820qm

[tecton]

Dear guys

I want to buy new laptop, and finally there are two alternatives. Both of them are local brand.

1st choice
i7-820 + gt 335 1 gb
pros= better proc (?) and gpu
cons = shorter battery time + more expensive (more USD 100)


2nd choice
i7-640 + gt 330 1gb

Guys, is it really worthmoney to spend USD 100 to get 1 st choice?
Both of them still in my budget.

I want to use it for my simulation and my excel ( lot of data with long iteration). It will be proc intensive. Unfortunately, I dont know my simulation application support for 4 core.

Please, I need your opinion


Thanks alot

[NotEnoughMinerals]

surprisingly enough, microsoft excel iirc is one of those programs that great benefits from the use of multiple cores so if your excel sheets really are that intensive you'll really see a difference.

if memory serves the 335 is pretty good bump over the 330 so I'd recommend the 820qm + gt335 as long as your not in dyer need for battery life.

[tilleroftheearth]

Even if Excel 2007 and above were not multi-threaded,

[You can configure Excel to use up to 1024 concurrent threads when recalculating, regardless of the number of processors or processor cores on the computer.

Source:
Multithreaded Recalculation in Excel


If you plan on keeping this system for anything over a year $100 will be insignificant to how well it will handle future O/S's and apps.

Go for the 4 core, 8 thread i7-820 - and, buy an extra battery too - if you need the un-tethered run time.

Nice system!

[tecton]

Thanks a lot for opinion, so I should buy the 1st choice.

[Tsunade_Hime]

Thanks a lot for opinion, so I should buy the 1st choice.

Yes, for 100 bucks more you are future proofing yourself.

[Trottel]

Thanks a lot for opinion, so I should buy the 1st choice.

Yeah. The theory of future-proofing is nonsense. But since you should see a real-world improvement in performance and possibly a longer useful lifespan with what you are using it for, it is money well spent. And if you ever sell it, you would probably make back a lot of the $100 price difference anyway.

[Kaso]

$100 is not small or easy money. I don't believe the 820 will give you a noticeable boost in performance. If I were you, I would save the $100 for an eventual RAM upgrade or SSD upgrade.

Excel uses a lot of RAM for big spreadsheets, and if there is not enough, "paging" will be involved to extend the RAM virtually. Lots of swapping using a mechanical disk drive while the powerful CPU sits waiting is not a very good prospect.

I see no real advantages, in your case, of the quad-core 820 over the dual-core 640. in fact, even if I went with a 640, I would ask myself very hard why not go with, say, an i5-560.

[Hungry Man]

I agree with Kaso. I personally would be more than satisfied with the 640m and wouldn't pay so much more for the 820qm. That's just me. I don't think you'll notice a difference with excel and if you spent that 100 bucks on a faster hard drive or more RAM and paired it with the 640m you'd really feel it... throughout the entire system.

[tecton]

$100 is not small or easy money. I don't believe the 820 will give you a noticeable boost in performance. If I were you, I would save the $100 for an eventual RAM upgrade or SSD upgrade.

Excel uses a lot of RAM for big spreadsheets, and if there is not enough, "paging" will be involved to extend the RAM virtually. Lots of swapping using a mechanical disk drive while the powerful CPU sits waiting is not a very good prospect.

I see no real advantages, in your case, of the quad-core 820 over the dual-core 640. in fact, even if I went with a 640, I would ask myself very hard why not go with, say, an i5-560.

Unfortunately, the option just two of them. No processor custom here.

I agree with Kaso. I personally would be more than satisfied with the 640m and wouldn't pay so much more for the 820qm. That's just me. I don't think you'll notice a difference with excel and if you spent that 100 bucks on a faster hard drive or more RAM and paired it with the 640m you'd really feel it... throughout the entire system.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I will run simulation. For more specific, I run oracle Crystall Ball addin for my ms excel, Schlumberger Petrel and Schlumberger Eclipse. It takes hours to complete.

Basically, I will buy 1st choice but chek the link below

Intel Core i7 640M Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech


You'll find that I7 640 m, sometimes mightier in some tests. What about that?

[Judicator]

Basically, I will buy 1st choice but chek the link below

Intel Core i7 640M Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech


You'll find that I7 640 m, sometimes mightier in some tests. What about that?

If you mean why the i7-640M is better in some tests than the i7-820QM, it depends on the program being run. Single-threaded programs that stress very few cores will run faster and better on the i7-640M because of the way it's structured/arranged (faster 2 cores). Programs that are well-threaded and better at the utilization of multiple cores will run better on the i7-820QM (4 slower (than the i7-640M) cores).