Worthy Upgrade?

P

poindexter

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
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I currently have a thinkpad with i3-2310M (2.1GHz, 3MB L3), 8 GB RAM, 7200 RPM HDD, and am thinking of buying a new laptop, possibly a Macbook air with i5 (1.3 - 2.6GHz, 3MB) or i7 (1.7 - 3.3GHz, 4MB) or a Macbook Pro with i5 (2.4 - 2.9GHz, 3MB), both with 8GB RAM and SSD.

I have looked at some benchmarks (linked), but based on these I still have little idea if the CPU upgrade would be significant, or if I should perhaps simply buy an SSD for my thinkpad. My typical use is for research/university running several applications at once including statistics/mathematics software & possibly vmware/virtualbox, no gaming, occasional video.

Thanks.
 
Aside from external styling, I don't know if you'd be getting much of a bump for your money. I would second grabbing an 840 EVO or PRO and putting it in your thinkpad. All of those processors are dual cores (the i7 might be hyperthreading capable?), so they will be within 20% of one another performance-wise.
 
I believe they both have hyper threading actually. And depending on whether or not you can find the software you use on OSX, it could be a good move.
 
You may get the most from RAM and an SSD, but if you do get a Mac (they're great machines), I'd go for the Pro. You're running math software, so you want a reasonably fast system with a high screen resolution. I have a current-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro and love it.
 
Thanks all for your replies.

Re: hyperthreading, it looks like all of these processors, including my current i3, are capable of HT.

SSD prices have come down significantly since I last looked. I may try an mSATA drive while waiting for the next macbook refresh.

Cheers
 
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