i3 or i5>

[laserblazer]

We have to replace a load of laptops when we upgrade to Server 2012 and Windows 7. We can get Toshiba i3 laptops at a really keen price with three years warranty but County are pushing us to go for i5s. Whilst I appreciate what they are saying, the extra we would have to pay would mean that other things like projector replacement wouldn't happen. These laptops will be used in classrooms running Smart software and Office documents. So their options are a fast laptop with a display that can just be seen if you turn off the lights and close the blinds or an adequate computer and a nice bright display.

 

We've always used Toshiba laptops and had very good reliability.

 

I'm interested to know what others would do in my place.

[FN-GM]

How long are you planning on keeping them?

[difinity]

Considering the work load i3, to keep the costs down, in 3 years time you can always upgrade them with SSDs

[elsiegee40]

Personally, I'd go for i5 ... i3 is likely to become too slow for comfort within the lifetime of the machines.

 

Go for the highest spec you can afford.

[Netman]

i3 and get the other kit you need too - it's not much of a compromise and barely noticeable to end users at all...

[SYNACK]

If you are only keeping them for a couple of years go i3, if you plan on them being not horrible three years in go i5. Look at SSDs as they come down in price.

[jamesfed]

When it comes to Office/IWB software you would feel the speed of a hard drive swap out with SSD more than you would with a CPU change.

[CHR1S]

i3 and SSD's

 

I'm still running a Core 2 Duo that's pushing 6 years old with an SSD. You would be hard pushed in a school environment to tell it apart from an i7!

[uffy2000]

i would go with i3 if your refreshing in 3 years, re-image them if they get slow.

[LazyD]

We've had a number of i3 models come in, I've been really unimpressed with the i3's, lots of i3 laptops I've used seem more sluggish than a decent core 2 duo. If you want the laptops themselves to last, maybe an os upgrade or 2 in future, go for i5. Personally I wouldn't ever recommend using i3 for work or home.

[SYNACK]

We've had a number of i3 models come in, I've been really unimpressed with the i3's, lots of i3 laptops I've used seem more sluggish than a decent core 2 duo. If you want the laptops themselves to last, maybe an os upgrade or 2 in future, go for i5. Personally I wouldn't ever recommend using i3 for work or home.

 

I have had simmilar experiences, Intel motherboards are rubbish.

[Jamo]

I would say I3, we are completely I3 here and don't notice any slow performance.

 

In terms of OS upgrades? What OS is that? Windows 8? Don't think so!

[witch]

So.....that doesn't really help you much, does it

[Norphy]

When it comes to laptops, the only noticable difference between the i3 and the i5 is that the i5 supports turbo boost while the i3 doesn't. Both have the same amount of cache (3MB). Both are dual core CPUs. Both have Intel HD4000 graphics. The i5 supports more in the way of virtualisation options, supports vPro and it has a hardware encryption engine but personally I wouldn't say that any of those options are important for classroom machines apart from possibly vPro if you use it.

 

Frankly, I'd go for the i3.

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/65700/Intel-Core-i3-3110M-Processor-3M-Cache-2_40-GHz

http://ark.intel.com/products/65708/Intel-Core-i5-3210M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz-BGA

Edited March 12, 2013 by Norphy

[jonnykewell1]

I3 with a nice chunk of ram, and as the others say go down the SSD route.

[zag]

i3 all the way.

 

People who tell you an i5 makes any difference using office in the real world have no idea what they are talking about

 

An SSD will make far more difference.

[sonofsanta]

As @Norphy says, with laptop CPUs the only difference is in Turbo - i.e. the i5's will boost their clockspeed when thermal headroom allows. In a laptop that's not worth as much as in a desktop, as the thermals are rubbish.

 

Sometimes you'll get an i5 laptop for only £20-£30 more than an i3, in which case it may be worth it. If it's £80-£90 though, i3 and SSD would be subjectively quicker for end users, or i3 and other-bits-you-desperately-need. I know from experience that teachers love a bright and shiny projector almost more than anything else

[SHimmer45]

i3 for laptops imo.

even an i3 on a desktop is a decent experience and more than capable (im sat writing this on an i3 system at work)

HDD performance is the bottle neck especially as alot of cheaper laptops still come fitted with 5400rpm drives which are usually woeful

[w-clarke101]

i3 with SSD and the best N band on them, Last lot of laptop can't get them above 75Mbs (don't know if I missed a setting on them) But some older laptops with N band good for 150! also some new laptops now only giving you 100Mbs on Lan now...

[SYNACK]

i3 with SSD and the best N band on them, Last lot of laptop can't get them above 75Mbs (don't know if I missed a setting on them) But some older laptops with N band good for 150! also some new laptops now only giving you 100Mbs on Lan now...

 

What kind of aweful laptop is only specing a 100mbit Ethernet card, is this 1997?

[Jamo]

What kind of aweful laptop is only specing a 100mbit Ethernet card, is this 1997?

 

Not that it matters, none of ours are ever plugged in! Plus we only have 100mb to the user so it wouldn't make any difference

 

With N make sure it can handle the A and G radio ranges, ie 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Some radios only support one of the ranges.

[SYNACK]

Not that it matters, none of ours are ever plugged in! Plus we only have 100mb to the user so it wouldn't make any difference

 

With N make sure it can handle the A and G radio ranges, ie 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Some radios only support one of the ranges.

 

Even N 300Mbit has a hard time keeping up with 100Mbit Ethernet as the Ethernet has comparatively no overhead and is dedicated. Wireless comparatively spends most of its time avoiding other stations and resending corrupted frames. Gigabit beats the pants off both even if it never gets to the theoretical max with your system it still blows the doors off the other two. 802.11ac may finally close the gap with the several decades old 100Mbit/s in real use but that will require a rebuy of most hardware.

 

i3 can be alright if you have the right motherboard (again - Intel is rubbish). SSDs will make a huge difference as will a decent amount of RAM (at least 4GB) with a more modern OS (Vista or higher). i5 will have a longer lifespan thanks to the turbo boost and the four real cores is you get those ones.

Edited March 12, 2013 by SYNACK

[sonofsanta]

the four real cores is you get those ones.

 

True with desktop i5s, not with laptop i5s - they're dual core with hyper-threading, as with the i3s, and the Turbo Boost is the additional feature. As if the Core iX naming scheme wasn't already stupid enough!

[laserblazer]

i3 will be fine. About to purchase a number of laptops to be run for the next 5 years. Much better things to buy with the money saved over the i5. Thing to watch out for is the generation of i3. The cheaper laptops tend be Sandy bridge with HD3000 graphics when you really want Ivy Bridge with HD4000 graphics. There is also more to the longevity of a school laptop than just raw power. That i5/i7 wont be much use when the cheap plastic chassis has snapped when the laptop has been chucked, sorry placed somewhere sans case.

 

The one we are looking at is HD3000 but in view of the usage, I'm not sure that's too big an issue. As for flimsy cases, apart from a couple of broken lid catches, we've not had that much damage to the Toshiba laptops. As for faults, out of the 50 odd we have bought, we,ve had two dead screens (one under warranty) a dead drive, again under warranty and an external vga port died (laptop moved to a non IWB invironment).

[old_n07]

We've run Toshiba's since 2009 (600 ish) and the latest Sat Pro R850's and Tecra R850's we've had don't seem as well built as the older A300 series we are replacing at the moment. So this time we've gone to Dell with the Latitiude E6530 which is a lot better built.