i5 6200u vs i3 7100u

[Princess Luna]

Hello everyone!

I'm shopping for a new notebook to replace my old one for college and work, no need for anything fancy since I have the desktops. In the price range I'm comfortable affording I have these two options for CPU, the userbenchmark shows the i5-6200u is 10ish% faster than the i3-7100u however the i3 is the latest Kaby Lake architecture... both are duo cores with HT with a single 0,1ghz difference in clock speeds.

 

As many of you may know the Brazilian market for these is a complete mess up, so no point in advise me specific models for notebooks, lets keep the debate whether the processor here makes any difference and which should be favoured, thanks!

[Krominicon]

5 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Hello everyone!

I'm shopping for a new notebook to replace my old one for college and work, no need for anything fancy since I have the desktops. In the price range I'm comfortable affording I have these two options for CPU, the userbenchmark shows the i5-6200u is 10ish% faster than the i3-7100u however the i3 is the latest Kaby Lake architecture... both are duo cores with HT with a single 0,1ghz difference in clock speeds.

 

As many of you may know the Brazilian market for these is a complete mess up, so no point in advise me specific models for notebooks, lets keep the debate whether the processor here makes any difference and which should be favoured, thanks!

I personally would go with whatever is cheapest. If you aren't going to be doing much with it other than basic college and work stuff, you won't need a lot of power, and either of them would get the job done. 

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, Krominicon said:

I personally would go with whatever is cheapest. If you aren't going to be doing much with it other than basic college and work stuff, you won't need a lot of power, and either of them would get the job done. 

Both are pretty much same priced.

[Not_Sean]

Honestly with the Laptop U's its like they only make 1 processor and just tweak the speeds and disable or enable more cache. Its actually insane they been getting away with it.

 

Example: 
i3-7100U 2c/4T 3mb smart Cache 

i5-7200U 2c/4T 3mb Smart Cache

i7-7500U 2c/4T 4mb Smart Cache

 

Go with ether, main thing is make sure its SSD or add one, That'll make the biggest difference. 

[Krominicon]

Just now, Princess Cadence said:

Both are pretty much same priced.

well, then there a other things you could look at. the i5, is an i5, and is inherently better than an i3. however, the i3 is a kaby lake processor, but the i5 might have more cpu cache. i would have to look at their exact specs. Since there isn't much of a difference in price, right off the bat I would probably lean more towards the i5, just because i5's tend to be better than i3's. 

 

at this point it's a bit beyond my understanding because it goes into the individual specs of the cpu's themselves. I tend to not really look at those finer details, just because I don't fully understand what they mean yet.

 

so i guess it's personal preference. I'm sure that there's someone else on this forum who can shed more light on the subject than I can. 

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, Not_Sean said:

main thing is make sure its SSD or add one, That'll make the biggest difference

I give people this advise here everyday

[Not_Sean]

3 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

I give people this advise here everyday

and that's why we're friends

@Krominicon check my post, You are the exact person they been taking advantage of. The difference between the i3 and i5 in the U series is a tiny change in Mhz.. nothing else. its supposed to be i3 = 2C/4T i5= 4C/4T i7= 4C/8T 

you pay for the i5 badge and get nothing for it, in this case it doesn't matter as they same price. so i5 all the way  

[Princess Luna]

@Krominicon

Yeah it's not like skylake is outdated or any thing, I'm pending towards the i5-6200u right now...

[Krominicon]

@Princess Cadence @Not_Sean

 

like i said, there are people on this forum who know more than me. And that's good i guess, because that means I learn things. 

 

My personal laptop is a "gaming laptop" with an i7-5500u. I don't even know what the heck alienware was doing with using a business grade processor in a laptop that's supposed for gaming. however, I did not spend full price, i got it used, so i guess it's okay. maybe.

[Princess Luna]

I found one with the i5 7200u in the price range but it is 14inch screen, and I am faaaar too used to 15,6 inch to switch now

[Not_Sean]

2 minutes ago, Krominicon said:

@Princess Cadence @Not_Sean

 

like i said, there are people on this forum who know more than me. And that's good i guess, because that means I learn things. 

 

My personal laptop is a "gaming laptop" with an i7-5500u. I don't even know what the heck alienware was doing with using a business grade processor in a laptop that's supposed for gaming. however, I did not spend full price, i got it used, so i guess it's okay. maybe.

we all here to learn  

You might want to sit down for this one though  Your i7 is basically a i3 with a tiny speed tweak, its a 2C/4T with 4mb Cache (Not Smart Cache) its basically equal to a i3-4150 but slower Mhz. i'm sorry buddy  for Gaming laptops they normally put in the i7-xxxHQ the HQ are the hardcore CPUs, they 4c/8T. AFAIK there isn't any laptops proper i5's (4c/4T) as those would be brilliant for gaming and battery life and dont get as hot as the HQ's. 

@Princess Cadence 14" really aint that bad. you get used to it fast. 

[Krominicon]

2 minutes ago, Not_Sean said:

we all here to learn  

You might want to sit down for this one though  Your i7 is basically a i3 with a tiny speed tweak, its a 2C/4T with 4mb Cache (Not Smart Cache) its basically equal to a i3-4150 but slower Mhz. i'm sorry buddy  for Gaming laptops they normally put in the i7-xxxHQ the HQ are the hardcore CPUs, they 4c/8T. AFAIK there isn't any laptops proper i5's (4c/4T) as those would be brilliant for gaming and battery life and dont get as hot as the HQ's. 

@Princess Cadence 14" really aint that bad. you get used to it fast. 

When I got this laptop I didn't know nearly half the stuff I know about processor now. it's also a 2015 model of the alienware 13 R1. So it's probably outdated at this point.

[Not_Sean]

1 hour ago, Krominicon said:

When I got this laptop I didn't know nearly half the stuff I know about processor now. it's also a 2015 model of the alienware 13 R1. So it's probably outdated at this point.

as long as you happy with it and its doing what you want It doesn't matter whats inside  

[Krominicon]

3 minutes ago, Not_Sean said:

as long as you happy with it and its doing what you want It doesn't matter whats inside  

alrighty then.

[Princess Luna]

I went with the i5 6200u by the way [;

[Zodiark1593]

5 hours ago, Not_Sean said:

Honestly with the Laptop U's its like they only make 1 processor and just tweak the speeds and disable or enable more cache. Its actually insane they been getting away with it.

 

Example: 
i3-7100U 2c/4T 3mb smart Cache 

i5-7200U 2c/4T 3mb Smart Cache

i7-7500U 2c/4T 4mb Smart Cache

 

Go with ether, main thing is make sure its SSD or add one, That'll make the biggest difference. 

In the first gen (not sure how much it applies now), the i3s also had Turbo Boost disabled. The i5's got a relatively modest Turbo, and the i7s got the additional cache and a quite aggressive Turbo. 

 

For the loads that ultrabooks typically take on, the Turbo nor cache will matter much. They're all dual cores with Hyperthreading.