Any benefit to the 4gb i5 over the m3?

[WhatTheDickens]

I just ordered a SP4 from Best Buy. I intended to buy the fanless m3, but with my student discount the 4gb i5 was the same price, so I ordered that instead. I am planning to test it out for two weeks to see if the fan noise bothers me, and then I will decide if I want to keep it or exchange for the m3.

Other than the fan noise, what should I look out for during the trial period? Are there other downsides to the i5? I expected battery life to be worse, but online reviews suggest that it's actually about the same as the m3. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

Will I see any real world improvements from the increased processing power? I'm a little fuzzy on the technical details, but I am under the impression that the RAM will limit my usage before I see any improvements from the i5 processor. Is that right?

I am a graduate student and will be using this mostly for MS Office, annotating pdfs, and taking notes, along with Web browsing and Netflix. I don't do any gaming, but I dabble in photography and would like to try my hand at digital artwork. I don't expect the m3 would be able to handle RAW files, so if the i5 could do that, I'd consider it a step up.

 

[ioaniro]

Fan noise is not really an issue on the i5, it rarely kicks in at least in my case. I'd say for your usage scenarios you should get the m3 with the discount and save some money which you can invest in other stuff. But since you ordered already just see how it behaves. The main difference for what you use it is the charger, m3 has a smaller charger probably fills up slower and there's also no extra usb on the charger to use for your phone.

 

[ryankelsey7]

You made the right choice if your going to be editing raw files. The m3 would have been fine for the other stuff, but sluggish for editing video or photos. The RAM should not be a problem at all. Most programs dont require more than that.

 

[WhatTheDickens]

Wow, fast responses! Thanks! I guess I should clarify that the Best Buy student discount doesn't apply to the m3, only the i5 models. (I was pretty disappointed about that.) So for me they're effectively the same price. Sounds like the i5 will be a small step up. Should I worry about dust or anything with the fan?

 

[boltman2013]

Fan noise is not really an issue on the i5, it rarely kicks in at least in my case. I'd say for your usage scenarios you should get the m3 with the discount and save some money which you can invest in other stuff. But since you ordered already just see how it behaves. The main difference for what you use it is the charger, m3 has a smaller charger probably fills up slower and there's also no extra usb on the charger to use for your phone.

It does not "fill up slower" same rate of charge

 

[boltman2013]

Wow, fast responses! Thanks! I guess I should clarify that the Best Buy student discount doesn't apply to the m3, only the i5 models. (I was pretty disappointed about that.) So for me they're effectively the same price. Sounds like the i5 will be a ings lioke dustsmall step up. Should I worry about dust or anything with the fan?

You'll be ok but the m3 is a better choice (more custom vs mass market)..if they were same price I would still pick m3 due to things like dust, noise and fan
Microsoft Store honors student discount across the line

 

[onlysublime]

The m3 is a 4.5 W CPU which is the most power it'll use. The i5 scales from the same wattage but can power up to speeds at 15W. So under the same workloads as the m3, it'll use the same amount of energy (and therefore battery life).

But push the CPU harder than what the M3 can do and you'll use up to 3x more power and thus have lower battery life. At least with the increased speeds, you will be able to do more than what the M3 can do. It also comes with a faster GPU than the M3.

6th Gen 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-6650U processor with Intel Iris graphics 540
6th Gen 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-6300U processor with Intel HD graphics 520
6th Gen 900-MHz Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor with Intel HD graphics 515

In terms of RAW images, it really depends on the size of the files (resolution) and how many files you need to edit at a time. If you are editing 8+ MP RAW files, the i5 will make a difference. Now, the differences are more about comfort. Some people are okay with doing a process and waiting a couple seconds to see the change. And if you're only editing a couple pictures, it's fine as well. Some people will get impatient and if you have to edit a significant number of pictures, all that time waiting can be annoying.

You'll notice that you experiment a lot more with different effects if you have the speed to instantly see the effects. If you have to wait a second or two, that tends to discourage experimentation (just like if you have to browse through multiple pages of a slow website versus a fast website; with a slow site, you might be satisfied with finding something on page 3 versus a fast site where you might actually browse to page 15).

 

[badMojo69]

The m3 would not be better for him if he is going to be doing raw photo editing. Sure it can do it, but it would be slower and as he get's more into it the i5 will scale much better.

Get off your m3 high horse. My S3 pwns the M3 for $300 less.

 

[ioaniro]

It does not "fill up slower" same rate of charge

That wouldn't make sense, lower W = slower charge (since is the same battery). It could be that the difference is insignificant (5-10 minutes slower) but it cant be the same :smile:.