Dual Core or Quad Core? What to buy?

[nobodysbusiness]

I agonized over dual-core versus quad-core processor for my current build. So, I compromised and put in an AMD Phenom tri-core.

Someone made a 3-core processor!?!?! Next you'll be telling me that someone designed a processor with 3 values per bit instead of binary! Oh, wait...

[blueshiftoverwatch]

they have a Core i5-520M Processor with 2 cores and a clock speed of 2.40GHz, and also a Core i7-720QM Processor with 4 cores and a clock speed of 1.60GHz...So the one with 2 cores has a higher clock-speed and the one with 4 cores has lower clock speed. So which way should I go with this tradeoff, and why? Is the clock speed more important to a high performance system, or the extra cores?

Clock speed should only be used to compare CPU's of the same family. The i7 has has the RAM controller integrated into the CPU, wheras the i5's goes through the Northbridge. This gives the i7 a performance boost that is unrelated to clock speed.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth

[00ber n00b]

Go with the i7. 8 cores ftw! 4 virtual cores obviously.

[nobodysbusiness]

Clock speed should only be used to compare CPU's of the same family. The i7 has has the RAM controller integrated into the CPU, wheras the i5's goes through the Northbridge. This gives the i7 a performance boost that is unrelated to clock speed.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth

That's an interesting perspective. So based on the Wikipedia link, perhaps I should go scouting for some benchmarks?

Edit: I found a few interesting threads that seem to suggest perhaps the i7-720QM isn't such a good idea:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...78&postcount=7
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=456240

[Chemical Imbalance]

fixed that for you, core i5 and i7 are different than "old" dual and quad cores in that the have hyperthreading. That "dual core" still can do 4 threads...just not 8 like the i7...

Ah...thanks. I haven't been keeping up with the latest Intel processors.

[nobodysbusiness]

Just to let everyone know, I think I'm going with the dual-core 620M. The quad core ones are nice but to get a definitively better quad core, it's a little above my budget.

[blueshiftoverwatch]

Just to let everyone know, I think I'm going with the dual-core 620M. The quad core ones are nice but to get a definitively better quad core, it's a little above my budget.

If money is a big factor, quad core is just a luxury. In reality, unless your an uber power user where your multitasking a ton of high performance apps or your buying a ton of extra unnecessary power now to "future proof" your computer, your never going to take advantage of four cores. It's more of a status symbol than a necessity at this point. Two is perfectly sufficient for almost any task. Even gaming, because the GPU plays a bigger role than the CPU.

[abhibharti]

It depends upon the use of your PC. I suggest you to go for dual core. Quad core is meant for higher work load. I am using Dual core processor.

[tgalati4]

Buy an older Dell poweredge, a decent graphics card--

And a set of earmuffs.

What's the power consumption between the two machines considered?