2nd GEN I-3 or 1st Gen I-5

[dark34]

My laptop is being replaced (after 4 years) by dell. The computer is going to be faster than what I had regardless, but I have an issue.

"LAPTOP 1"
Inspiron with 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i3-2310M processor 2.10 GHz
3 gigs ram
300 gig 5400 rpm hardrive
Video card...???

"Laptop 2"
Studio 1569 with 1st gen Core i5-430M
4 gigs of ram
500 gig 7200 rpm hardrive
upgraded ATI videocard (I THINK)


Putting video cards aside, my main concern is whether to go with a sandybridge I-3 over a 1st GEN I-5. This probably makes many of you who are up to date just chuckle at my dilema, but I am truly in the dark on this. I built a new desktop just before the I-Series came out, but I know that the difference between Gen 1 and Gen 2 are substantial.

What is the better decision? The hardrive size is not as big an issue to me as is the SPEED. 4 gigs is better than three, but...what about this OLD i-5 vs the new I-3......I just dont know. I have a little time before I need to respond. Please give me some feedback fellas.

Thanks!

 

[dark34]

Greghome, thank you for taking the time to address this. I was told the graphics card is a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4570

 

[Stupido]

+1 since i3-2100 is less power, thus longer battery while having virtually the same CPU performance

 

[Stupido]

though if i were you, the first thin that I wuld upgrade on that laptop is the HDD...
I hate 5400 RPM HDD as main drives. indeed 7200 RPM HDD will consume more power (thus discharging the battery bit faster) but to me, the performance is more important.

of course, if you can slam SSD, that would be ideal - lower power and way, way more performance...

 

[dark34]

Sounds great fellas. Thanks for the input!

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

In the battle between the 1st and 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processors the easy way to understand it is that the 2nd generation processors have a 10 -15% performance increase at the same clock speed. So with the 1st generation Intel Core i5-430M running at 2.26GHz and the 2nd generation Intel Core i3-2310M running at 2.1GHz the Intel Core i3-2310M would be the winner except for one thing. The Intel Core i5-430M has turbo mode which will allow it to clock up to 2.53GHz based on usage. The Intel Core i3-2310M doesn’t have turbo mode so performance on these 2 processors would be very close. The 2nd generation Intel Core i3-2310M wins the battle because of better battery life. You can see how these two processor stack up against each other at http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=43537,52220,.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Oh one more thing the Intel® Core™ i3-2100 is a desktop processor that has Intel HD 2000 Graphics, the Intel Core i3-2105 is the same as the i3-2100 except that it does come with the HD 3000 Graphics. Now on the Intel Core i3-2310M is a mobile processor and all of 2nd generation Intel Core i3 mobile processors are coming with Intel HD 3000 Graphics.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team