Intel i5 or i7 for engineering

[genexis_x]

Sure, i7 is more expensive than i5 but it has 4 more threads. Is the extra money worth it?

[Sakkura]

Can be depending on what software you're running.

 

A Ryzen chip might be even more worth it though.

[werto165]

I'm second year in my uni course and my i5 3570 has been running good however the most complex thing I've done is a bit of matlab and a rear suspension of a formula student car. I'm sure once ansys comes around I might need a bit more... 

[genexis_x]

2 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Can be depending on what software you're running.

 

A Ryzen chip might be even more worth it though.

Ryzen will be available in laptops?

[reniat]

It definitely depends on the kind of engineering you're doing. Also, make sure your school isn't going to provide machines for the higher end software (for example, in my CS courses were able to SSH into a linux cluster to do some stuff that would have taken too long to run locally).

 

Keep in mind, if money is tight you should think very carefully about it as I don't know of any software that a student is required to run that would MANDATE a high end computer. Poor people can get engineering degrees too

[beavo451]

2 hours ago, ZM Fong said:

Ryzen will be available in laptops?

Why wouldn't it be?

[typographie]

2 hours ago, ZM Fong said:

Ryzen will be available in laptops?

Probably sooner or later, but I don't think I've heard a word about them yet. The desktop Ryzen R7's go on sale March 2, so everyone's in a bit of a frenzy about waiting for that. But I don't think anyone knows how long it will be before Ryzen-powered laptops launch.

 

Between the i5 and i7 it does depend a bit on the software you're using, but since you're talking about laptops, that changes things a bit. Some (maybe most?) laptop i5's are Hyperthreaded dual-core chips, unlike the desktop i5's that all have four physical cores. That being the case, even if you don't need all eight threads, an i7 may still be worthwhile just to have a real quad-core CPU.

[reniat]

I want to step in to emphasize, for things like electrical engineering/computer science, there really isn't a need for a high power system. If OP is buying for gaming or other purpose, then that's different, but and i5 or i7 won't make a noticeable difference in terms of coursework. An SSD and more ram would make significantly more difference, as the only things that matter are general purpose computing needs (chrome tabs, opening/closing software, booting up, etc.). Especially if he is a more software oriented discipline (software engineering/computer engineering/computer science), where you can pretty much get away with anything that will run eclipse/visual studio (and the requirements for those are not high).

 

I'm all for high power. I spent $1500 to put my high end desktop together while in college (I had a very bad sense of money back then), so i'm all on board the power train, but I don't want to convince a student they need to spend $1000 on a laptop when a cheaper one will do just fine if they are not looking to do gaming on it as well. 

[genexis_x]

44 minutes ago, typographie said:

Probably sooner or later, but I don't think I've heard a word about them yet. The desktop Ryzen R7's go on sale March 2, so everyone's in a bit of a frenzy about waiting for that. But I don't think anyone knows how long it will be before Ryzen-powered laptops launch.

 

Between the i5 and i7 it does depend a bit on the software you're using, but since you're talking about laptops, that changes things a bit. Some (maybe most?) laptop i5's are Hyperthreaded dual-core chips, unlike the desktop i5's that all have four physical cores. That being the case, even if you don't need all eight threads, an i7 may still be worthwhile just to have a real quad-core CPU.

I mean the quad core i5 hq and i7 hq