Looking for tight budget friendly single thread performance bump over my old Core i5-3320

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ss88

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My current laptop (which gets light use and is also a backup if my desktop goes down) has a Intel Core i5-3320M @ 2.60GHz CPU. Looking to make a low cost upgrade (buy a slightly newer laptop and sell my existing laptop). I'm particularly interested in getting an improvement in single threaded performance.

I was looking at a laptop with i7-5600U CPU @ 2.60GHz, but the Passmark single thread rating is only marginally better, at 1853 vs 1610 for my old i5-3320.

I don't think such a small improvement is worth the hassle of setting up a new laptop (tweaking Windows, installing my apps, etc.).

What is a good single thread performance bang for the buck upgrade (CPU or laptop model) I should consider? Trying to keep overall price of laptop purchase under $350.
 
Best bang for your buck would be a Dell Refurbished or outlet laptop. I bought a Dell Vostro 3350 with i5 2450m back in 2012 that has a 1275 single thread score. Last year I bought a Latitude e5470 with i5 6440hq with single core score of 2018.
 
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Dell Refurb site just had a 40% off sale on anything that ended on Monday. They usually run sales on holidays like MLK, 4th of July. All of those laptops are way overpriced unless they are running a sale.
 
Dk975 said:
Dell Refurb site just had a 40% off sale on anything that ended on Monday. They usually run sales on holidays like MLK, 4th of July. All of those laptops are way overpriced unless they are running a sale.
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I'd say overpriced even at 40% off. I saw 50% off Latitudes last fall but haven't seen it since. Have seen 45% a few times. Rakuten is the best way to check.
 
Varmint said:
Best deal I see right now is a dellrefurbished 5490 w/ i5-8350U (scores 2060) and is $583 shipped. Probably can wait for a better coupon ($200 off $500 right now).

https://www.dellrefurbished.com/item/dell-latitude-5490-5f6c783a/dell-latitude-5490/1.html?child=dell-latitude-5490-000098&/=&template=

Don't think you're gonna get anything near $350.
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I'm probably spoiled. I always buy my used laptops on ebay and craigslist, so I'm used to a different price level entirely from what I see on manufacturer and retailer refurb sites.
 
ss88 said:
What is a good single thread performance bang for the buck upgrade (CPU or laptop model) I should consider? Trying to keep overall price of laptop purchase under $350.
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Intel Skylake (6th gen) or newer or some sort of Ryzen if you can find a nice one. i3 or i5 might be a better deal than an i7 if you can get a newer model. I tend to favor business models for laptops since I don't really game on them, so for $350 I'd probably be on eBay trying to find a used/refurb corporate laptop from a recycler. For max speed get a CPU with an "H" in the model number. The full power chips are farthest ahead of the low power "U" models in multi-thread, but they're still faster in single thread too. Of course the machines they come in also weigh more.

I'd also be careful with ultralights, especially consumer models. You haven't been able to tell how fast an Intel laptop is by the CPU model number since the 5th gen core chips. It's up to the laptop vendor to decide what the cpu's TDP is, and thus how fast it goes particularly once it runs out of turbo budget. Then they don't publish what the TDP is, or if they do it's hard to find. Checking benchmarks for a particular model before buying is a good idea in general, and it's even more true with thin & light laptops.
 
Most budget friendly is OS upgrade, try Linux Mint, Mate or Xfce4 edition. Free, secure, fast, does not call home. Just my 2¢. My ThInkpad T410 has similar CPU, I'm not complaining.
 
ss88 said:
My current laptop (which gets light use and is also a backup if my desktop goes down) has a Intel Core i5-3320M @ 2.60GHz CPU.

I was looking at a laptop with i7-5600U CPU @ 2.60GHz, but the Passmark single thread rating is only marginally better, at 1853 vs 1610 for my old i5-3320.
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Saw a sale on a new i3-1115G4 laptop for $300, which is in my budget. Even though it's only i3, it is 11th gen. And it looks like single thread performance destroys both my existing i5-3320 @ 2.60GHz CPU and the i7-5600 @ 2.60GHz CPU that was in a used laptop I was considering.

Can I rely on this Passmark result and see this kind of single thread performance improvement going from my i5-3320 to a i3-1115G4?

cpu perf.png
 
ss88 said:
Saw a sale on a new i3-1115G4 laptop for $300, which is in my budget. Even though it's only i3, it is 11th gen. And it looks like single thread performance destroys both my existing i5-3320 @ 2.60GHz CPU and the i7-5600 @ 2.60GHz CPU that was in a used laptop I was considering.

Can I rely on this Passmark result and see this kind of single thread performance improvement going from my i5-3320 to a i3-1115G4?

View attachment 441368
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Yes, I think that's a pretty good estimate of what it would do compared to those older CPUs but remember its only 2C/4T which is a little light in 2022.
 
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