I5 versus I7 thoughts

[Wayne Orwig]

I suppose that this is very subjective, but I'll ask for opinions anyway.

In years gone by, I used to do a lot of hardware and software development for manufacturing tests. I preferred to work on laptops, so I would need a new laptop often, just to be able to run the current tools at a reasonable speed.
Well, manufacturing has left the US, and job changes have left me now mostly working on documentation, and an occasional spreadsheet. I don't need a lot of horsepower, just a good screen.
I have an original Surface Pro. More than enough power, and it is a great secondary portable machine. Other than the mediocre battery life when portable, it is great.
My main machine is a 9 year old HP laptop with a 32 bit AMD CPU, and a 15" display. It is never moved, and always on AC. The battery would only last about 4 minutes if unplugged. . I have been wanting to replace this slow poke for a long time. I suspect the 3GB memory is the main reason for it running slow since I have a LOT of background things running. I did upgrade it to an SSD about a year ago, which helped a lot.

So basically, I want to replace that old HP. I was hoping for a 14" display, but I think the 13.5" Book, and that tall aspect ratio, will actually be a good thing for me. I want something that is built well, like my Surface Pro. Everything else that I see when I get my hands on it, is too 'plastic'.

I still occasionally do some software development, schematic capture, CAD and Spice emulation. I also occasionally play with a flight simulator. So that leaves me with the question, which processor? I'm not sure the i7 and GPU will mean much to me. But then, if I am still using it 6 years from now, I don't want to be staring at a slow machine wishing I had gotten the faster model. Does anyone have any thoughts on i5 versus i7?

 

[GreyFox7]

Best bang for the buck in this is assuming you wanted the GPU the i5 256 dGPU @ 1900 or i5 128 dGPU @ 1700 although this was there for a few days it's now gone again, IDK what the story is with it.

Maybe you'd squeeze a little more time out of the i7 but not a lot. If you need more storage you have to go i7 or you can hang an external SSD off a USB 3.0 port, not quite as fast as an internal SSD but still blows the doors off an HDD.

 

[malberttoo]

I suppose that this is very subjective, but I'll ask for opinions anyway.

In years gone by, I used to do a lot of hardware and software development for manufacturing tests. I preferred to work on laptops, so I would need a new laptop often, just to be able to run the current tools at a reasonable speed.
Well, manufacturing has left the US, and job changes have left me now mostly working on documentation, and an occasional spreadsheet. I don't need a lot of horsepower, just a good screen.
I have an original Surface Pro. More than enough power, and it is a great secondary portable machine. Other than the mediocre battery life when portable, it is great.
My main machine is a 9 year old HP laptop with a 32 bit AMD CPU, and a 15" display. It is never moved, and always on AC. The battery would only last about 4 minutes if unplugged. . I have been wanting to replace this slow poke for a long time. I suspect the 3GB memory is the main reason for it running slow since I have a LOT of background things running. I did upgrade it to an SSD about a year ago, which helped a lot.

So basically, I want to replace that old HP. I was hoping for a 14" display, but I think the 13.5" Book, and that tall aspect ratio, will actually be a good thing for me. I want something that is built well, like my Surface Pro. Everything else that I see when I get my hands on it, is too 'plastic'.

I still occasionally do some software development, schematic capture, CAD and Spice emulation. I also occasionally play with a flight simulator. So that leaves me with the question, which processor? I'm not sure the i7 and GPU will mean much to me. But then, if I am still using it 6 years from now, I don't want to be staring at a slow machine wishing I had gotten the faster model. Does anyone have any thoughts on i5 versus i7?

Just out of curiosity, and maybe I missed something, but why are you replacing your old HP with a Surface? I'm just thinking you could get a similarly spec'd laptop for a lot less than a Book.

 

[Wayne Orwig]

Just out of curiosity, and maybe I missed something, but why are you replacing your old HP with a Surface? I'm just thinking you could get a similarly spec'd laptop for a lot less than a Book.

Well the old guy is just very slow. I really like Win 10, and it is a bit much for it. Plus the Win 10 drivers on the old thing have issue. I want a touch screen device to easily zoom in on web pages and documents. I will use the pen, but not really often enough to say it is needed.

And I often work outside on a porch swing, with the laptop in my laptop. So desktops, or external displays, don't interest me. I prefer a 'lapable' (is that a word) device.

Looking around, the only thing that slightly interests me is the HP Spectre X360. It appears to be a well made machine. I know I could probably be fine with a cheap Asus, but I want something a bit more durable

 

[GreyFox7]

The heart wants what the heart wants.