Mobile CPUs

[robertito]

I tried searching but there's still no forum search feature *shakes fist*, so if this has been asked a million times before don't yell at me. Its been a while since I kept up with all the newest components.

I'm off to college next year and will be needing a laptop. The cache is I need to use it for graphic design work and audio recording, so it needs a fast processor, the problem is I know nothing of the new i-cores. It would be great if someone could let me know what turboboost does and how the different i-cores stack up to one an other. For instance, is it worth the extra money to get an i7 and how does the best i3 compare to a lower i5.

Also, how much RAM do you think I'll need? I was thinking 4/6gb, is 8 overkill? Well, any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[yakri]

This depends a great deal on the software you're going to be using. In software programs that can utilize HT, it is certainly worth it, in programs that don't though, it's useless. You should probably research whether the software you intend to use for work can make use of HT, and check how much RAM it needs.

Personally, I have 8GB of RAM, but don't find it to be overkill, I do a lot of multitasking, and I often go at least a little past 4GB, I don't think I've ever made use of even 6GB of ram though, tbh, so that might be a good option.

You might want to wait a bit and try and get a laptop with a sandybridge processor, as they are killer for audio/video encoding, and the newest model on the market.

I'm afraid that's all I can tell you really, more of a desktop guy.

 

[robertito]

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, I'm not looking to buy now, I'll get it over the summer most likely. I'm just trying to catch up on what hardware is available, whats coming out, and what I really need.

My DAW is Reaper and I'll be primarily using Podfarm for guitars. I believe both support HT. I'm not sure about the other VSTs though.

6gb seems good, I'll get 8 over 4 if 6 is not available though.

The sandybridge seems awesome, I'll definitely look into it more.

Anymore suggestions/comments would be awesome. What's the cores/threads thing with nahelm/sandybridge?

 

[robertito]

Best answer selected by robertito.