R.e New laptop
 

Hi, I'm just about to start an individual project for my third year and will be using openFoam and fluent, I'm looking at getting a laptop especially for this; 2 quick questions,
1. Is it worth sacrificing RAM for a faster/better processor, I wasnt going to go below 4GB.
2. I have looked at benchmarks but is there much difference between i7 and i5 processors in relation to time taken to compute a simulation, im just worried i could spend a couple of hundred pounds and only save 5/10 mins on a long simulation, im torn between an i5 2410M and an i7 2630QM.

I appreciate any help

Thanks

1. Depends much on your case. You need enough memory for your simulation, otherwise the processor speed is meaningless. Swapping to hard disk is cutting your performane to nearly 0, no matter what cpu you are using.
So make sure, you've got enough memory for your project. When it's enough (with some safety margin), it will not speed up your sim by just having MORE memory. It makes no difference whether there are 4GB unused or 24GB unused - but it might speed up with the bandwith or cpu speed.

2. Don't know, I'm using server cpu's.

I second what Robin said about the ram. you will need lot of ram.

2) even if laptop are not reccomandable to run cfd computations (heat issues, raw power, etc) if possible i would go with a i7 porcessor. it has 4 cores instead of the 2 of the i5. obviously i am assuming that your simulations will be big enought to be parallelizable.

Im using a Dell M6500 Covet i7 940 Extreame with 16GB of RAM and 2x SSD hard drives. I've just completed my final year at uni and used it for all my CFD and CAD work and performed as well as the Uni's high end workstations for almost everything. Ite the first version of the i7 not the newer one but its still a very fast piece of kit.

My previous laptop had an Core2Duo Extreame X9000 with a GB of RAM with a single SSD. Whilst it was several years old it worked very well. I felt this was becuase it had a much higher clock speed but less cores and the SSD makes a huge difference.

There's something wrong then the SSD makes a huge difference. When having enough memory, the SSD will make no difference except loading or saving mesh / result files.

I too use a dell Precision 6500 with satisfaction.

now they upgraded the line to the 6600. but there are other nice pieces of hw: HP workstations, clevo - assembled laptops, etc...

i'm afraid it doesn't exist such a thing like "the best laptop". everything has pros and cons.

good shopping.