I3 380M vs i3 2310M

[Uniqueuponhim]

I'm looking at buying a new laptop, since the HP tablet I had basically self destructed recently and it's not worth getting the piece of junk repaired.

Right now, the two I'm looking at are two different versions of Dell's Inspiron 15R which are identical in every respect except that one has an i3 380M processor while the other has an i3 2310M processor and is $80 more.

As far as I've been able to gather, the 380M is slightly more powerful than the 2310M, as despite the reduction in clock rate doesn't make up for the increased efficiency of the Sandy Bridge architecture.

What I don't know is what kind of difference there would be in battery life between the two. I presume that the Sandy Bridge processor would use less juice and therefore last a bit longer, but how much longer? Battery life is much more important to me than the slight difference in speed, but I wonder if there is enough of an increase with the 2310M to be worth the extra $80?

And is there anything else I might want to take into account when choosing between the two?

 

[AntiZig]

well they both seem to be sitting at 35W for power consumption, so I don't imagine you will see big difference in battery life.

The only advantage I see in 2nd gen is that it support 1333 RAM, vs 1st get only up to 1066Mhz ram.

 

[Uniqueuponhim]

They both have a thermal design power of 35W. But TDP isn't the same thing as power consumption, and two chips with the same TDP could easily vary quite significantly in power consumption.

 

[burnley14]

I'm under the impression that Sandy Bridge is made on a more efficient architecture, thus it uses less power at a given clock speed than previous generations of chips. Also, since the 2310M is clocked lower, I would imagine that this would be even more pronounced. As for the effect on battery life? I'm not sure how much of a difference it actually makes in everyday use, but if you value battery life more I'd say the 2310M is probably the better bet. It has a more powerful IGP than the 380M as well.

 

[Uniqueuponhim]

Yes, but what I'm looking for is just *how much* more efficient it is. In terms of actual numbers, and how much of an effect that actually has on battery life. If it only adds a few minutes then it's probably not worth it...

 

[Rickymon]

Interesting results thru' CPUBENCHMARK

even when the clock is lower the benchmark is superior in the case of
the 2310M.

I have heard this before Intel latest version and CPU models specs are very confusing.
newegg should include the CPUBENCHMARK value in the specs section.

U might be buying a lower processor laptop at a higher price If u dont check
carefully.

Thats why I like AMD. They keep it simple.

 

[jaguarskx]

Sandy Bridge Core i3 CPUs have on average about 10% better processing performance than the older Clarkdale Core i3. Therefore, a 3.0GHz Sandy Bridge Core i3 CPU is about the equivalent to a 3.3GHz Clarkdale Core i3.

Additionally, base model Clarkdale Core i3 laptops relied on the Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics core that is inside the chipset. Base model Sandy Bridge Core i3 CPU used either the Intel HD 2000 or the Intel HD 3000 graphics core that is part of the CPU.

Roughly speaking the Intel HD 2000 graphics core has about 50% better performance than the older Intel GMA 4500MHD. The Intel HD 3000 graphics core is around 2x better than the older Intel GMA 4500MHD; it actually performs a little better than the desktop version of the Radeon HD 5450.