If I were to purchase a new laptop in anticipation of getting X2, which would be better:  i7 quad core (2.20 GHz, 6 MB L3) or a faster i7 dual core with less cache (2.80 GHz, 4 MB L3)?  It's just a hobby, mostly MIDI, nothing huge.
 
tia, Matt
 

The quad core is a no brainer

It doen't matter "if it's just a hobby",you ALWAYS want the most powerful cpu,you can afford,it's the brain of your machine,and determines how many instances of plugins,synths etc you can run,so a slightly lower GHz Quad Core i7 with Hyperthreading is again,ALWAYS the smart choice!
Bob

Matt  so what laptops are you looking at?  Something off the shelf or custom made?  I'm looking also.

Neil

i7 2600k here. I guess it might be getting old now (after only six months) but it's pretty awesome. It was worth the extra dough... which wasn't much. I'm sure they are cheaper now.

mrneil2


Matt  so what laptops are you looking at?  Something off the shelf or custom made?  I'm looking also.

Neil

off the shelf, HP 8560w -- but unsure about how to configure it.  So far, it looks like it's better to go for the quad core i7, even though it has lower speed than the dual core i7.  My ears are open for further advice...
 
Matt

The clock speed is only part of the story. SONAR will use all the cores available. That is why everyone is pointing to the 4 core CPU, it will perform better than a sightly faster 2 core CPU.

Hey Beep,I'm not sure about the US,but in Oz,the price of Intel CPU's never drops,even 3 year old Xeons,are the same price,as when they were released!

Good call on the 2600k,as Ivy has been proven[by Scott from ADK's Benchmarking]to be not wildly better,and due to heat[ivy's have a lower T-Case limit]it makes them more unstable to overclock,whereas the Sandy B.'s can overclock,without any hassle at all.

I actually don't need to overclock mine[my projects really only have a handfull of tracks] it's just I got a pretty good CPU cooler with my desktop,and 4.6GHz is as simple as changing the "multiplier" in the Gigabyte BIOS from 34 to 46,[plus a losing a few C-State settings,as they mess with the "throttling"]and I don't touch the "Front Side Bus" or the voltages[like one had to previously apparently]and its as stable as could be,but lightning fast,and my temps Never go above 40c,even when "Geekbenching" it[around 14,000].

I can't see a need to upgrade for quite a while,but pretty soon the 2011 socket will be the only one with new chips,as I think Ivy is the last upgrade for the 1155,due to it only having "dual channel" memory[which is still more than enough ATM].

To the OP,it's a little bit of a weird time to shop for a latest laptop,as the newer model of my Dell XPS 15",only comes with a 5,400 rpm HDD[too slow for audio]and my 2011 model actually seems better,but due to Sonar being able to make use of "Hyperthreading" definitely go for a "Quad i7"as the i5's don't have H.T.
Cheers
Bob