CPU/Mobo What is the difference between core i3, i5 and i7 processors?
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i3 and i5 are dual cores only. i7 has quad cores which are denoted as QM, else they are dual cores only.
i5 and i7 will turbo boost, with the i7 being better than i5 being better binned. i3 does not turbo boost.
i5 and i7 will turbo boost, with the i7 being better than i5 being better binned. i3 does not turbo boost.
For the mobile segment, ALL the i3 and i5 chips are dual cores. For the desktop segments, there are quad cores in i5 chips.
For desktop :
i3 - dual core with no turbo boost and no hyper threading.
i5 - quad core mainly with turbo boost standard and no hyper threading.
i7 - quad core with turbo boost as standard and hyper threading.
For gaming and most other generic stuff except video editing and rendering i5 is considered enough for the needs.
i3 - dual core with no turbo boost and no hyper threading.
i5 - quad core mainly with turbo boost standard and no hyper threading.
i7 - quad core with turbo boost as standard and hyper threading.
For gaming and most other generic stuff except video editing and rendering i5 is considered enough for the needs.
TheIndian
Forerunner
This is the first time I have heard that i5 and i7 are basically the same. NO WAY
Show me 8 threads running on an i5
I was comparing only the U series laptop processors. Those have 2 cores and 4 threads in both i5 and i7
Extreme series laptop i7 have 4 cores.
TheIndian
Forerunner
you do not have to get extreme about it to get 4 cores - the polite regular ones have 4 of them too
You can look at the following link, http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/TYPE-Core i5 Mobile.html, if you want more proc related info. I5 in mobile world are indeed dual core.
When it comes to laptops processing speed matters even less than in a desktop. Don't worry about the processor but focus on the quality of the screen, sound from inbuilt speaker and fer God's sake keep some money for upgrading to a SSD and use the inbuilt mech as a data dump in a small external chassis.
Higher processing power usually means more heat and battery usage. a Core i7 laptop will have a minimum of 10% higher power draw and as a result, shorter battery life. And don't forget that mobile processors tend to throttle very badly when warm, AT tested some of the high-end Dells and found the i7 to be constantly throttled because of heat issues.
An i3 with a quick SSD will smoke an i7 laptop with a regular hard drive for daily needs. Your balance of needs changes when you go to a laptop. The whole package has to be evaluated as opposed to clunking together a bunch of parts for a desktop. If you need lots of processing power a laptop is a bad idea to begin with. And if you're OK with your current laptop, just put in a nice SSD and you get an instant upgrade.
Higher processing power usually means more heat and battery usage. a Core i7 laptop will have a minimum of 10% higher power draw and as a result, shorter battery life. And don't forget that mobile processors tend to throttle very badly when warm, AT tested some of the high-end Dells and found the i7 to be constantly throttled because of heat issues.
An i3 with a quick SSD will smoke an i7 laptop with a regular hard drive for daily needs. Your balance of needs changes when you go to a laptop. The whole package has to be evaluated as opposed to clunking together a bunch of parts for a desktop. If you need lots of processing power a laptop is a bad idea to begin with. And if you're OK with your current laptop, just put in a nice SSD and you get an instant upgrade.
My laptop usage is not typical so battery life is not really important but yes I would prefer a cool base. 
I have not used a desktop for over 8 years and the laptop mostly stays at home hooked to a charger and downloading something. Only for a few hours it is used as a laptop and the heaviest app that I run on it is photoshop, HD movies and Rise of Nations. 
I have already decided on an i3 laptop and just wanted to check if I will be missing out on something in terms of future proofing. My previous laptop of 5 years has lasted me well and the only thing it was not able to do for me was play 4GB+ mkv files and that too because of the faulty charger. But I will be passing it along to someone and get a new one.
As for SSD, I somehow feel is an overkill both in terms of price and performance.
I have not used a desktop for over 8 years and the laptop mostly stays at home hooked to a charger and downloading something. Only for a few hours it is used as a laptop and the heaviest app that I run on it is photoshop, HD movies and Rise of Nations. I have already decided on an i3 laptop and just wanted to check if I will be missing out on something in terms of future proofing. My previous laptop of 5 years has lasted me well and the only thing it was not able to do for me was play 4GB+ mkv files and that too because of the faulty charger. But I will be passing it along to someone and get a new one.
As for SSD, I somehow feel is an overkill both in terms of price and performance.
You should use one to know the difference.
Most of them whom I've recommended the SSD to, have been satisfied of the upgrade. Recently, our kauzy was going gaga over it on my FB wall. He mentioned, "I should've done this upgrade ages back!".
Nowadays, those 60GB drives are going for less than 6k, although I reckon a 120GB should be the bare minimum. The boost in the performance is instantly noticeable.
It is overkill in terms of price. Definitely not performance. Let me say this. SSD does not make your system faster. Hard drives make your system slower and prevent them from reaching higher levels of experiential performance. SSD unlocks that performance from the system. The slowest part of any modern PC (and I include the Mac ecosystem) is its storage subsystem. It's a big bottleneck and killjoy and even the fastest processor has to hang around doing nothing while the hard drive gets to your data.
I get a desktop from standby in one second on my laptop. One.
From cold boot screen, the desktop itself appears in under 10s. I never have had to wait more than a second for any application to open, and the slowest thing is waiting for the browser to load pages. Everything else is lightning-quick.
I don't have a single system on mech drives any more. I have 4 systems, from a lowly Atom DN2800MT to a heavily overclocked Phenom 970BE. None of those 4 take longer than 12-14 seconds to be usable from the time I push the power button. Technically my server is a Win7 PC, and it doesn't have a SSD yet (though I still have a spare 40GB kicking around somewhere) but that would still be 4 out of 5.
Only when you see what a SSD can do for even a diminutive little Atom all-in-one board (hint: make it boot and respond quicker than a CPU dozens of times as fast but with a regular drive) will you understand how much hard drives slow down performance.
Note that most of my SSDs are not even high-performing ones, or even large. I use a 32GB Sandisk mSATA, and a couple of OCZ Agility 3 60GB drives, only the laptop has a 256GB Vertex4 drive and it is a future-proof buy.
@cranky - I will definitely try it out just because of that detailed post. Though maybe not right away considering the cost. Lets see how much I am left with post the laptop purchase.
Actually 128Gb ones are for 6K on flipkart.
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