Chosing the right CPU

[jp_bl_68]

How do you chose the right CPU?

I've been looking at custom built laptops and I've noticed that some of the high end i5s are more expensive than the low end i7s. I had assumed that any i7 was going to be more powerful than an i5 but having seen the prices I must be wrong.

I'm looking at gaming laptops for up to £1,000. Would I be better off with a high end i5 than a low end i7?

 

[arobase]

CPU is only one aspect of a laptop, and you could have a i7s with a bad gfx card and it will be less expensive and less powerfull than a i5s with a more powerfull gfx card.

It also depends on the hard disk (5400 RPM or 7200 RPM), on the amount of RAM or if it is supplied with a SSD or not.

You have to figure out your real need...

 

[marktime]

One thing to consider, i5 has on-chip intel gfx so if you were running in conjunction with a dedicated card it will switch between the 2 depending on the task to save on battery power. The i7s don't have this so you'll be using the discrete gfx all the time with a bit more drain on the power. Quite a few of the i7s come with larger batteries as a consequence.

[edit] Just to add more confusion, there are the 6x0M i7s that are based on the Arrandale architecture, like the i5/3s, that do have the intel HD gfx on-chip, and only 2 physical cores+hyperthreading. The comment above is based on the i7 7x0M chips with 4 physical cores and no gfx.

Personally unless you run a lot of stuff that is going to take advantage of all those cores (still very few games out there that will run better on i7 rather than i5 atm) I'd stick with i5 (or even i3, all you're losing is turbo-boost).

The 560/580Ms are a bit pricey in comparison with the lower spec chips and not really worth the premium imo (and I own a 560M myself), just go with one of the mid range ones for best value.