fast i5 vs slow i7 for reaper...?

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uncle sixer

uncle sixer

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So, I have been shopping for a while now and it is time to commit to buying a computer.

My plan is a Behringer umc404HD into a windows 2in1 style laptop running reaper. This is for personal, recreational recording (and other basic stuff like email, streaming movies, web browsing, posting in home recording forum....)

I am buying form Best Buy because I have a gift card that I won't likely use for anything else. I am down to these two possibilities that I think offer pretty good specs and reviews for the price. Basically, the Samsung has a 1.8ghz i7 and the Lenovo has a 2.4ghz i5. The Samsung also has more usbs and HDMI, the Lenovo has 1 usb 3.2 type A and thunderbolt.

After a lot of reading, one angle is that for music production the i7 is superior .... then I also read that a good i5 might actually be better (depending on how the program uses system resources). The only port I would NEED is the USB...

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/compare?skus=6398414,6426710

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsun...12gb-ssd-royal-silver/6398414.p?skuId=6398414

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...state-drive-dark-moss/6426710.p?skuId=6426710

Thanks for any advice, this will be my first new computer purchase in quite a while.
 
For audio, either will be fine, though I've heard if you use a lot of VSTs the processor can matter. (I don't.) But, generally, that's all quite manageable by freezing tracks and such.

It's video that (IMO) takes processing, and then you really want to be looking at "cores" as much as processor speed, because a lot of background processing is necessary to have quasi-realtime editing capability.
 
Performance wise, the I5 11th gen will be faster than the 10th Gen I7 because of faster memory access, and a better GPU processor section. If you ever plan to do any video work, the I5 would be the way to go.

As for audio, I doubt you will see any difference. The spec'd frequency is for the base speed, but both will throttle up to 3.7 or 3.8gHz when they get stressed and need more power. They run the same number of cores and PCIe lanes. 12G of memory is plenty.

I run Reaper on a 4th gen I5 with 12GB and I've never had any problems. I also have a Lenovo laptop with 8GB and a 10th gen I7-1065G7 (1.3gHz) and as a test, I once stacked up about 18 or 20 tracks with various compressors, EQs and convolution reverbs on each channel, just to stress it. It didn't skip a beat. There were something like 45 plugins running.

I've had no issue with my two Lenovos. My ex has 3 Lenovo laptops, and she has had no problem with any of them (business use).
 
One other thing would be to check to see how easy it is to add a second SSD. I added an extra 500g SSD to my Lenovo, and it was about 15 or so screws, a guitar pick to separate the bottom of the case and 30 mins of time to do the work. 256gb is a bit on the low side for me.

Update:

I did a bit of checking and the only way to increase the SSD space is to clone and then replace the current SSD with a larger one. There is no SATA slot, and no room to add a 2.5" drive. This seems to be common to most of the newer Lenovos, especially the slim ones.
 
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The Dell looks to be very comparable to the Lenovo, with a slightly larger screen. Having an HDMI port is nice. Otherwise you have to go with a T'Bolt to HDMI adapter on the Lenovo... another thing to misplace. The Dell also has the Optane memory which speeds things up a touch.

I like having the Thunderbolt available on either the Dell or Lenovo, as I would probably upgrade to a Thunderbolt interface vs USB. I don't know if anyone has experience with PC Thunderbolt with any current interfaces, perhaps they could chime in.

I had Dell computers at work for years. As long as you don't throw them around and do stupid stuff with them, they seemed to last.

Given the choices, for $120 less, I would probably spring for the Dell.
 
The nice thing about the USB-C ports (aka Thunderbolt) is that you can plug a docking station into that port and extend the laptop. It will give you video, extend USB and power in one stop. USB-C is really a very good option for the future.
 
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