Core i7 v Core i5 processors

[awilkinson]

I am looking at a Lenovo x201 laptop to handle a lot of on the orad (no power supply) work. It will generally run business applications such as the Microsoft Office suite (often several at the same time) plus fairly heavy use of Outlook for email, contacts etc.
The option is to go for either a i7 620m or an i5 560m processor.Some say that the i5 is just as good and uses less power when idle.
Comments/help, please.

 

[Maziar]

Go with i5,it can handle your tasks perfectly fine and will give you more battery life too.

 

[jasongom]

i say go with the i7 cuz, well if mobile i7s are anything like their desktop coutnerparts, only certain i5s have quad core processors, most i5s are duo.
Also i7s run quad core and HT so windows will see that as "8" cores.

But again im talking about desktop i5s and i7s, i dont know anything about their mobile counterparts, only if they are anything like each other.

 

[lostandwandering]

i say go with the i7 cuz, well if mobile i7s are anything like their desktop coutnerparts, only certain i5s have quad core processors, most i5s are duo.
Also i7s run quad core and HT so windows will see that as "8" cores.

But again im talking about desktop i5s and i7s, i dont know anything about their mobile counterparts, only if they are anything like each other.

The i7-620M that he is looking at is actually a dual core CPU, but it does have hyperthreading. In this case, they are almost exactly the same processor. Same base speed, near same turbo frequency, same integrated GPU. The only differences is a slightly higher Turbo and an extra mb of L3 cache on the 620.

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=49653,43560,

 

[raza715]

there is a good difference between i3 and i5 but not the same case between i5 and i7, so if you want to save money go with i5 560m it performs almost same like i7 720qm in most applications as most of the applications are not quad optimized and usually get benefit from i5's l3 cache turbo boost.