More technical advice please (sorry!) - processor speeds - c2d vs i5?

[jcdenton08]

Hello..

Just a quick question for people who know what they are talking about; buying a new ultrabook to replace my knackered laptop and was wondering about processor speeds.

According to PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs

My old laptop has this; Intel Core2 Duo T5550 @ 1.83GHz 1015 1008 NA NA

And the laptop I'm looking at is this; Intel Core i5-3317U @ 1.70GHz 3110 391 NA NA

The first number (1015/3110) is a "Passmark CPU Mark"... with the i5 being over three times "better". Is this right that the processor should be up to 3x quicker? If so, how does that work with the processor being .13Mhz slower than my old one?

Secondly, the ultrabook I'm looking at comes with 4gb ddr3 ram, upgradable to 8gb for around £40. Would this be worth it and would I see improved performance?

Thanks again chaps

PS. I'm thinking mostly Football Manager 2013 here. My old laptop on 4gb ram just about ran six leagues from one country on a small database at a crawl. Would I see an improved performance with the above processor?

 

[clippedgull]

Quite simply. Yes and Yes.

i5 is quicker than c2d. More Ram will help your software run quicker.

 

[beorhthelm]

my rule of thumb on this is if you dont know what the numbers mean dont worry about it. you are buying a newer machine, it will be faster.

however, it wont be 3x faster as Passmark indicates. its complicated. GHz has bugger all meaning when comparing different generations of CPU, often somewhat misleading on the same generation (a lower GHz multi core chip will do better than a higher GHz dual core, but even then there are use cases where the higher would be better).

be aware that Ultrabooks exist to leverage more money out the market with a fancy name, check that you cant get the same spec for less with an old fashioned "notebook" name.

more memory will help if you are likly to do stuff that exceeds the main memory, which is highly unlikly for 4GB using browser, few apps and FM2013. a btter upgrade if available for for about £60-80 would be Solid State Drive (SSD), this will make things much, much quicker.

 

[jcdenton08]

my rule of thumb on this is if you dont know what the numbers mean dont worry about it. you are buying a newer machine, it will be faster.

however, it wont be 3x faster as Passmark indicates. its complicated. GHz has bugger all meaning when comparing different generations of CPU, often somewhat misleading on the same generation (a lower GHz multi core chip will do better than a higher GHz dual core, but even then there are use cases where the higher would be better).

be aware that Ultrabooks exist to leverage more money out the market with a fancy name, check that you cant get the same spec for less with an old fashioned "notebook" name.

more memory will help if you are likly to do stuff that exceeds the main memory, which is highly unlikly for 4GB using browser, few apps and FM2013. a btter upgrade if available for for about £60-80 would be Solid State Drive (SSD), this will make things much, much quicker.

Thanks for the advice mate. This is the spec of the ultrabook Sony VAIO SVT1311W1ES.CEK 13.3-inch Laptop (Silver) - (Intel Core i5 1.70GHz Processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Windows 7 Edition Home Premium): Amazon.co.uk: Computers Accessories

At the time of writing it is £586.03 and comes with a 128gb SSD. I've got a large external HD I'd use for mass storage.

 

[jcdenton08]

Got the above ultrabook. It is incredible - got it used off Amazon Warehouse deals in "used" condition. The thing is brand new, but it only came in an Amazon box. I'm guessing the Vaio box got damaged so they couldn't sell it new. A steal at £530.