i7 confusion: 2nd gen or 3rd gen?

[PeterGreen]

HI everyone,

I've been doing some research on which laptop to buy. A desktop is not an option since I will relocate. I'm getting confused now about these i7 processors. THe following link gives a list of i7 processors
and some info on clockspeed, cache and # of cores.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...rocessors.html

The list doesn't say whether it's a 2nd or 3rd gen processor but from HP's costumizable laptops I know that an i7 3610QM is a 3rd gen and the 2760QM is a 2nd gen. So 3rd gen seems better than 2nd I guess however...the 3610QM has a lower clockspeed then 2760QM. Isn't a higher clockspeed better?

Now on HP's site I customized a 8460w and a 8470w to my needs and budget.What is strange to me is that the 8460w only offers 2nd gen i7QM processors but an option to upto 32GB of RAM. The 8470w only offers 3rd gen i7QM processors but only max of 16 GB RAM. I would surely go for the most possible RAM so the 8460w but I would also go for the best processor given the price which means I should go for the 8470w 3rd gen i7 QM. PLus the 8470w has a better graphics card.

Here's a link to the 8470w
http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/Mid...5&BaseID=38903

8460w
http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/Mid...7&BaseID=35627

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

PS: It was my intention to buy an HP workstation because it's on avids list that works with USB 2.0 drives. However. Why should I buy an HPws over a different brand cheaper laptop with the same components when HP's offers the worst service in the universe.

[albee1952]

Honestly, this is a tough call as PC laptops are a crapshoot with Pro Tools. Rule #1 is go for one with separate graphics(preferably nVidia). Intel graphics are integrated into the mobo and are often a show stopper for PT. Your safest bet might actually be a used late model MacBookPro. Have you given that any thought? Got a budget in mind? Meanwhile, maybe you will get lucky and someone here uses one of these exact models and can comment on how well it works(or how bad)

[PeterGreen]

Thanks on the graphics card. Yes I have a considered a Mac. Might consider it again. I'll look into an older model. I never really had any problems working w PT on Windows other than that I no longer have enough RAM and ...this mbox2.
My budget is about 1500. Maybe a bit more.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by PeterGreen

Thanks on the graphics card. Yes I have a considered a Mac. Might consider it again. I'll look into an older model. I never really had any problems working w PT on Windows other than that I no longer have enough RAM and ...this mbox2.
My budget is about 1500. Maybe a bit more.

Too bad you are hot for a laptop as $1500 would build a killer desktop

[EGS]

I'm getting great PTools performance from my HP (see sig below for details). I did spend a lot of time removing all the HP bloatware. Do all the AVID recommended optimizations. Mine was about $1000 plus $50 for the SIIG FW card.

[PeterGreen]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Too bad you are hot for a laptop as $1500 would build a killer desktop

I know but with 1500 you should be able to get a pretty strong laptop too. But it's an idea to keep in mind maybe spent less now on a laptop and build my own later...dunno if I can do that. It's not exactly like cleaning the fan

[PeterGreen]

Originally Posted by EGS

I'm getting great PTools performance from my HP (see sig below for details). I did spend a lot of time removing all the HP bloatware. Do all the AVID recommended optimizations. Mine was about $1000 plus $50 for the SIIG FW card.

Wow wow now I'm even more confused. I didn't even consider a probook but I checked out yours and compared with the 8460w with the same processor, 4 GB RAM, same HD, Now here are the differences. the probook is 17inch! screen with AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 1 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory the 8460w only a 14 inch screen and AMD FirePro™ M3900 w/1 GB gDDR3. The probook graphics card seems faster but I have no time right now to do the research. The 8460w is prolly better but still I don't think to justify the price which is close to 1500 compared to 1129 for the probook. It seems like a done deal to me go for the probook but why does avid recommend the workstation and not the probook? What's the most RAM you can get in yours. The 8460w w that processor can have 16GB. Not sure about the probook.

[EGS]

My HP ProBook's got 8GB RAM, and a 750GB int drive. PTools sees all 8 cores. I record to an ext USB2 drive. It's zippy fast - almost as fast as my studio rig. Good luck !!!

[dino_squirrel]

Check ebay for refurb dell precisions. I bought one - m6600 and it beats pretty much every desktop I've come across. EXTREMEMLY powerful laptops and at great deals. the refurbs were sold to people who for some reason sent the laptop back, so they are discounted by about $1000. Got mine for $1700.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Precisi...item3cc9d1e3bb

You will not find a better laptop for the price. I run four monitors on mine, 16gb ram, has two internal hard drive bays, and one Msata. port replicator will add 6 usb, 1vga, 1 esata, 1dvi, 1 audio, 1 lan, etc. the list goes one. USB3 and DP++, has HDMI, I could go on. has raid on all sata ports, so I ran 2 crucial, m4 64gb and was getting 1GBps constant. Oh, and the 2720qm, 4 cores, 8 processes. Plays sc2 no problem.

[PeterGreen]

Originally Posted by dino_squirrel

Check ebay for refurb dell precisions. I bought one - m6600 and it beats pretty much every desktop I've come across. EXTREMEMLY powerful laptops and at great deals. the refurbs were sold to people who for some reason sent the laptop back, so they are discounted by about $1000. Got mine for $1700.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Precisi...item3cc9d1e3bb

You will not find a better laptop for the price. I run four monitors on mine, 16gb ram, has two internal hard drive bays, and one Msata. port replicator will add 6 usb, 1vga, 1 esata, 1dvi, 1 audio, 1 lan, etc. the list goes one. USB3 and DP++, has HDMI, I could go on. has raid on all sata ports, so I ran 2 crucial, m4 64gb and was getting 1GBps constant. Oh, and the 2720qm, 4 cores, 8 processes. Plays sc2 no problem.

Dino sorry for late reply but thanks so much for that link I checked it out and there was an awesome deal there on a M4600 for about 1100. It was very tempting but I really wanted a different graphics card and full HD. I looked deeply into the precision and got a customized M4700 3720QM and 10GB of RAM now for about 1600 incl tax.