What are the laptop speeds? (in order of preference)

[S.Taylor]

Still a little ignorant, personally, can someone list what laptop specs make for which speed value for chess, and their relative speed comparisons?


e.g. 1-2 Ghz, single core

core duo, Ghz? 32 bit, 64 bit? i7?

Quad? 32 bit? 64bit?

Let's say, e.g. I have a laptop from 4-5 years ago, which is less than 2 Ghz single core, 32 bit.

So I would expect that by now, I could get atleast 3 times that speed for a very economical price, yet, I see a place where there are great offers, however, the fastest and most expensive of them (Bezeq offers, by Acer and others, for those who might be familiar, here in Israel), seems to be something like
Core duo, 1.3 Ghz, 32-bit.

Isn't this little more than the speed i have from about 5 years ago?

[CRoberson]

Core Duo is 32 bit and old tech.

Core 2 Duo is 64 bit. That is what you want even if you run only a 32 bit OS. 3x the speed of 5 years ago is about the best you can do now.
Maybe less if you are only interested in laptops. The I7's seem to be the best in performance.

Tom's hardware web page has Fritz benchmarks. That should help you some. This page could help: http://www.jens.tauchclub-krems.at/dive ... marks.html

[M ANSARI]

You definitely want 64bit capable processor as that gives you a huge boost with bitboard chess engines. I think that fastest laptop is around 2.5 Ghz for dual and 2.2 Ghz for Quad. Personally I think if you want performance then a laptop is not a good solution. You can probably get a decent laptop and a very powerful desktop for the price of one of the high end laptops.

[S.Taylor]

Thanks, for replies.

I think they have here Acer and Lenovo, (and i have had hp) so i don't find it easy to understand from the comparisons how to compare. There are so many different numbers and figures and names, so I could easily make mistake between x18 faster and x6 or even x3 faster.

Yes, perhaps i don't need a lap top at all, but they are on offer, plus a few other reasons, including reaons of lack of space. Maybe i need to get an expert locally and pay for his time, and hope he knows what's flying.

It seems too complicated to just sit down for one hour and understand all i want to know by myself via internet searches. Maybe not even 20 hours!

[M ANSARI]

Well it all depends what your needs are. If you want to use something that you can travel with then a laptop is definitely a big plus. But if you plan to keep it at home and want a chess analysis tool and high performance, then a desktop system will be better. If you try to get a high performance laptop to do both ... then I am afraid you will be severely disappointed. A high performance laptop has very limited battery life. Also it is very expensive. Your best bet would be to get a small sized Core i5 Quad system. Shuffle makes some nice systems for that, or you could simply build one in a small case. Really building a computer today is a piece of cake, and I am sure for a small fee any competent computer store could put one together for you. Just make sure your OS is Win 7 64bit.

[Peter Hegger]

Well it all depends what your needs are. If you want to use something that you can travel with then a laptop is definitely a big plus. But if you plan to keep it at home and want a chess analysis tool and high performance, then a desktop system will be better. If you try to get a high performance laptop to do both ... then I am afraid you will be severely disappointed. A high performance laptop has very limited battery life. Also it is very expensive. Your best bet would be to get a small sized Core i5 Quad system. Shuffle makes some nice systems for that, or you could simply build one in a small case. Really building a computer today is a piece of cake, and I am sure for a small fee any competent computer store could put one together for you. Just make sure your OS is Win 7 64bit.

I concur on the short battery life for high performance laptops. I have a quad 4 x 2.0 that gives me just over 3 hours on an 8 pack of lithium ions. This seriously hampers its portability.

Pricewise, I can get a faster quad tower for less than half of what I payed for the laptop.
Regards,
peter

[Peter Hegger]

Well it all depends what your needs are. If you want to use something that you can travel with then a laptop is definitely a big plus. But if you plan to keep it at home and want a chess analysis tool and high performance, then a desktop system will be better. If you try to get a high performance laptop to do both ... then I am afraid you will be severely disappointed. A high performance laptop has very limited battery life. Also it is very expensive. Your best bet would be to get a small sized Core i5 Quad system. Shuffle makes some nice systems for that, or you could simply build one in a small case. Really building a computer today is a piece of cake, and I am sure for a small fee any competent computer store could put one together for you. Just make sure your OS is Win 7 64bit.

I concur on the short battery life for high performance laptops. I have a Q9000 4 x 2.0 that gives me just over 3 hours on an 8 pack of lithium ions. This seriously hampers its portability.

Pricewise, I can get a faster quad tower for less than half of what I payed for the laptop.
Regards,
peter

[S.Taylor]

Well it all depends what your needs are. If you want to use something that you can travel with then a laptop is definitely a big plus. But if you plan to keep it at home and want a chess analysis tool and high performance, then a desktop system will be better. If you try to get a high performance laptop to do both ... then I am afraid you will be severely disappointed. A high performance laptop has very limited battery life. Also it is very expensive. Your best bet would be to get a small sized Core i5 Quad system. Shuffle makes some nice systems for that, or you could simply build one in a small case. Really building a computer today is a piece of cake, and I am sure for a small fee any competent computer store could put one together for you. Just make sure your OS is Win 7 64bit.

Indeed, my main use is for high performance at home, and for it to cost as little as possible.
If for travel, I'd prefer a very small one which is also very inexpensive, and as a backup if something goes wrong with big one, e.g. I don't have space, or, if i need to move to new constricted room/appartment and it takes time to fnd a place to put it, if at all, so i should atleast have something, and don't need to be cut off. Also, for travelling, only if it's very light, although I usually rely on internet cafes, which is not so easy for me in America, but easier in London.
Indeed, btw, the less I'm seen (by members of my society) in internet cafes, the better!

[CRoberson]

Core Duo is 32 bit and old tech.

Core 2 Duo is 64 bit. That is what you want even if you run only a 32 bit OS. 3x the speed of 5 years ago is about the best you can do now.
Maybe less if you are only interested in laptops. The I7's seem to be the best in performance.

Tom's hardware web page has Fritz benchmarks. That should help you some. This page could help: http://www.jens.tauchclub-krems.at/dive ... marks.html

I should have been a little more specific here. When I said 3x is about the best you can do, I was talking about single processor versions
of chess programs. With such programs the extra processors don't help much. When you factor in multiproc software and your old
machine was single proc, then the speed up is much more.

I agree with the two machine upgrade. If you haven't upgraded in 5 years, an inexpensive Q6600 desktop and an inexpensive laptop could be best.
I recommended exactly that for one of my brothers two years ago. He had computer needs that no one machine could meet unless he
went with a very expensive laptop. Also, two machines are way more fun than one. Connect them via a wired or wireless network and
remotely access the big one from another room or another house. Now, that is nice extra functionality!