Processor for drafting/mapping/design

[Denali81]

I have searched the internet and some threads here, and have not found a satisfying answer....

I am trying to figure out what is the better processor for running several of these programs at once, on a laptop... ESRIs ArcMAP, Adobe Illustrator, possibly AutoCAD, Photoshop, MS Office programs, and heavy internet browsing. My work would be heavy in the drafting and design aspect- NOT for gaming or heavy 3D rendering.

So whats better: A faster Core 2 Duo (2.5+) or a slower Core i7 (like the 720 (because I'm looking at prebuilt computers and low budget))

I'd get min 4 gigs of RAM DDR3 (should I go 6?)

and 500gig hard drive

I would not be using these progams all the time, but when I do, I want to make sure what I have can handle it...

Thanks for the help!

 

[TheViper]

Easily the i7. The Turbo Boost feature will increase the clock speeds of one or two cores if the remaining cores are not in heavy use. They can also be manually overclocked very easily to 3.0+ Ghz with the stock cooler. Let's not forget the return of HyperThreading.

 

[Denali81]

okay.
Thats what I wanted to get, but I heard that the processor you choose depends on what you are doing, so I wanted to know whats better for my application: more cores or more clockspeed?
sounds like more cores

Thanks!

 

[TheViper]

The more you want to run at once, the more cores (and virtual cores via hyper threading) you'll want. And better still the i7 can boost clock speeds when only some cores are not in use.