upgrading i3-2328M to i7-3520M or i7-3610QM?


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Is there much difference in i7-3520M and i7-3610QM? 3520M is really cheap and i'm wondering if it's worth getting 3610QM.

 

i7-3610QM packs more cache inside:

 

1024KB L2 and 6MB L3

 

vs

 

512KB L2 and 4MB L3 (i7-3520M)

 

Despite having a lower clockrate, i7-3610QM performs better as it proccesses more data per cycle.

 

i'm wondering if it's worth getting 3610QM.

 

This depends on what you need it for, what your future upgrade plans are, and...money.

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Despite having a lower clockrate, i7-3610QM performs better as it proccesses more data per cycle.

 

What do you mean by more data and performs better?

 

In general, the i7-3520M has better single thread performance. Basically, the i7-3610QM is sacrificing its single thread performance for more cores. There is a trade-off here because it means on one hand you have 4 cores to execute things but on the other hand you have the worse single thread performance. At the end of the day, whats more useful for the workloads he'll be running?

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You're aware that replacing a CPU in a laptop is not easy, yes?

 

You'll need to completely dismantle it and may even need an entirely new mainboard with the CPU pre-installed, depending on the model.

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You're aware that replacing a CPU in a laptop is not easy, yes?

 

You'll need to completely dismantle it and may even need an entirely new mainboard with the CPU pre-installed, depending on the model.

yeah, it's not easy. just depends on the model. some are user-replaceable. others are soldered to the motherboard.

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Thanks, I guess it's 3610QM then allthough it is 45W and 3520M is 35W.

 

What exactly are you going to be doing with the machine? That should dictate what you get. If it is non-computation intensive tasks (web browsing, document creation, etc) , don't go for the quad core.

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What exactly are you going to be doing with the machine? That should dictate what you get. If it is non-computation intensive tasks (web browsing, document creation, etc) , don't go for the quad core.

 

Most intensive would be programming and some photoshop use. I'm not really sure if quad core has any benefits in Visual Studio? 

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Most intensive would be programming and some photoshop use. I'm not really sure if quad core has any benefits in Visual Studio? 

 

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think VS can do parallel builds. I have done parallel builds with cmake/make in Linux and they can be considerably faster on very large compilations (on something that can take ~15-30 minutes on a single core). It's also worth nothing that the better single core performance on the 3520 may be better in this case for you.

 

I wouldn't get the quad if I were you based on what you've said. I think it'd be mostly a waste of money for little benefit.

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