Making sense of the T540P processor options?

Which processor offers the best price/performance ratio? What are the drawbacks of going with any given processor (IE: Battery life). Is a faster 2 core or a slower 4 core better for the same price?

I'm thinking the sweet spot on this list is i7-4700MQ, but I'd like your input.

Intel Core i3-4000M Processor (3MB Cache, 2.40GHz)
Intel Core i5-4200M Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.10GHz)[add $50.00]
Intel Core i5-4300M Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.30GHz)[add $105.00]
Intel Core i5-4330M Processor (3MB Cache, up to 3.50GHz)[add $155.00]
Intel Core i7-4700MQ Processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.40GHz)[add $205.00]
Intel Core i7-4600M Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.60GHz)[add $295.00]
Intel Core i7-4800MQ Processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.70GHz)[add $345.00]
Intel Core i7-4900MQ Processor (8MB Cache, up to 3.80GHz)[add $585.00]

 

Is the current best discount for ordering a T540P the barnes and noble discount?

 

So Lenovo does not sell a SSD directly through their system.

What is the best option to add it? Should I just grab a samsung 840 and toss the built in HDD? Or does this laptop have a spot/way of adding a SSD without tossing my HDD?

 

Please only make 1 thread on the same topic.

 

They were different questions... I don't think a purchasing question asking about discounts belongs grouped in with a question about what SSD interfaces a laptop has. People knowledgeable about the technical topics but not purchasing and vice versa are likely to overlook the topic.

 

I had the same concerns as you. I'm building out my T540p with the i7-4700MQ, but want to know how much this will affect battery life. On the geek bench results the 4700mq is pretty damn fast compared to some of the lower options.

It also depends what you plan to do with the extra cores. I'm going to be running lightroom and photoshop, which can take advantage of those cores.

 

Demanding office productivity. Poorly written slow java apps, over-bloated quickbooks file that takes forever, creating large PDFS, and the likes. No photo/video creative elements though.

I'm starting to lean towards the 4600M. The factor is when I configure the MQ + 730M, it forces me to use a 135 watt power supply. I'm not sure if I want to carry that brick -- and I'm not sure what other thermal/battery life penalties having this combination will entail.

However, I suppose it would not be impossible to drop the 730M and keep 4700MQ (90 watt combo).

i5 + onboard graphics = 65 watt brick
i7 dual core + onboard = 90 watt brick
i7 dual core + 730M = 90 watt brick
i7 quad core + 730M = 135 watt brick
i7 quad core + onboard = 90 watt brick.

Choices, Choices.

 

I went through that process trying to decide on the cpu for my t440p (which will hopefully ship in 2 weeks)... At any rate... I chose the 4800mq in the end because..

I think Intel doesn't specifically create chips to be 4700 or 4800 or 4900... I think they probably create all to be 4900's (or maybe 4700's) and ones that can operate at the higher clock and base voltage are deemed the higher speed chips.... soo... using that logic I picked the 4800 because it might be slightly more power efficient then the 4700...

And as far as to get a gpu or not... with optimus enabled, if you aren't using the gpu it should be off.. and the 730m is only a 35 watt part... so if you had the cpu and gpu completely loaded you will still be drawing less than (but maybe very close to) 90 watts...

So... what I've done is order the notebook with the 135 watt adapter, then got the ultra dock with the 90w adapter and I'll keep the 90w in my bag but use the 135 with the dock....

btw... I'm coming from the m6600 whose power supply is 240 watt... I was going to start a thread of ridiculous comparisons to the m6600... starting with the size difference of the power supplies

 

Extra $50 for the 4800MQ would yield you roughly 10% raw improvement over the 4700MQ. Thats good value IMO, but your usage may not see noticable benefit.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

I'm curious what the price/performance ratio is for the 4700MQ and the 4600M. Why is the dual-core 4600M a significantly more expensive upgrade than the quad-core 4700MQ? I know the clock speed of the 4600M is higher, but it also only has two cores so I'd expect it to be about the same price as the 4700MQ (faster per-core performance offsetting lower number of cores to make it a wash)