New laptop, Dell XPS 15z?

[doodab]

I like the look of the Lenovo T520 and fitting my own SSD.

Worth bearing in mind that with the sandy bridge processors the headline speed is a bit deceptive because with the turbo boost the quad core ones have roughly the same maximum speeds with one or two cores active as the dual core ones do e.g.

i7-2620M (2.7GHz) will turbo a single core to 3.4GHz
i7-2640M (2.8Ghz) will turbo a single core to 3.5GHz
i7-2720QM (2.2GHz quad) will turbo a single core to 3.3GHz
i7-2760QM (2.4GHz quad) will turbo a single core to 3.5GHz

[chef]

the odd thing is, in my M4400 right now I have the Intel Core 2 Extreme (X9100) which has a standard clock rate of 3.06GHz, this was bought back in Jan 2009.

why is it that modern processors haven't managed to easily eclipse that speed? or am I missing something?

how do I compare speed between what i have now and the i5/i7's?

[Spacecadet]

the odd thing is, in my M4400 right now I have the Intel Core 2 Extreme (X9100) which has a standard clock rate of 3.06GHz, this was bought back in Jan 2009.

why is it that modern processors haven't managed to easily eclipse that speed? or am I missing something?

how do I compare speed between what i have now and the i5/i7's?

Processor Speeds are reaching a limit, it's all about multiple cores and lots of fast access memory now. I'll see if i can dig out the graph

This also means that crap programming can no longer be fixed by throwing more hardware at it. Chances are, it will still run like a dog!

Edit: Here's the graph:

[chef]

I assumed that given my spec right now of:

256Gb SSD
8Gb RAM
15.6" Screen
4kg weight
DVD Writer
Webcam
3.06Ghz CPU
HDMI out via Display Port

that nearly 3 years later there should be something out there that would improve my current workhorse noticeably. It seems that I can shave 1kg off the weight or lose screen size and gain a blu-ray but speed hasn't changed so much and both options come at the cost of 1.5k+

[chef]

Found it:

well again almost

Medion Erazer X6817

15.6" LED backlit screen
Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM processor (sand bridge) = 3.3Ghz
8Gb Ram
Blu Ray
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX560M DirectX® 11 graphics with 1.5GB GDDR5 RAM and digital HDMI audio/video output
Webcam
120Gb SSD + 750Gb HDD
USB3
HD Audio

the ONLY snag is it's 3.5kg in weight as it's a gaming laptop

but it is very impressive, if only I could shave off some weight off it

EDIT: and given the graphics, audio and 2 hard disks, i don't expect the battery life to be so good

[BoredBloke]

Check their outlet thing. that's where I got my laptop from and it was huge saving on the normal cost

quad core processor and 6gb Ram etc nvidia 550m graphics and the rest for 571 inc VAT

[PAH]

Ultrabooks may be worth looking at.

[doodab]

I assumed that given my spec right now of:

256Gb SSD
8Gb RAM
15.6" Screen
4kg weight
DVD Writer
Webcam
3.06Ghz CPU
HDMI out via Display Port

that nearly 3 years later there should be something out there that would improve my current workhorse noticeably. It seems that I can shave 1kg off the weight or lose screen size and gain a blu-ray but speed hasn't changed so much and both options come at the cost of 1.5k+

How much did you spend though? Include the cost of the SSD and extra RAM you added after you bought it.

A current top spec desktop replacement has a quad core CPU with hyperthreading, 16-32GB maximum RAM, 2GB graphics memory, full HD screen and probably longer battery life. You can fit a 600GB SSD if you want as well, though you'll have to buy that yourself I think.

[Spacecadet]

EDIT: and given the graphics, audio and 2 hard disks, i don't expect the battery life to be so good

It also looks like an Aldi Special Purchase

[chef]

I like the look of the Lenovo T520 and fitting my own SSD.

Also a good choice ticks all the boxes with a very good speed and just 2.6kg but no blu-ray