Notebooks 13-14" laptop with quad core - do I really need quad core?

Is there any 13-14" laptop with quad core cpu?

 

Plenty out there with AMD quads (so really a dual) I'd imagine...

 

Razer Blade http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade

Squeezing a 35W CPU + 970M into a sub 1" chassis will be hothothot though.

 

But, but ... it's so pretty!

OP: How much are you wishing to spend? We could be here for endless hours showing you options, but they're no use if they are out of your budget!

 

13/14" with quad core = top dollar. I'd be VERY surprised if you can find one mid-range/budget. I've only ever seen quads in 15-17" really.

 

Dell XPS 15, Marketed as a 15" laptop in a 14" chassis. £1049 from Here: John Lewis

Sam

 

Thanks guys.

Yes, I saw that MSI, but as you mentioned, heat will be an issue.
Even for stuff I want to do on it - not games, just databases and things like that, would generate heat.

XPS 15 - this is what I have just now, wanted to get smaller, but like you guys mentioned, quad will be heat problem, plus needs bigger battery, that is why there is not that much 13-14" with quads...

 

I have an MSI GS40 right now and exchanged the harddrive for a Samsung 1TB EVO, worked without issues. Having a M.2 drive plus a 1TB SSD comes in quite handy. However, it is almost the same size as the XPS 15, slightly thicker but weights around 0.2 kg less. I used it alot for work, mostly data analysing, simulation and so on and it didn't got too hot. However while gaming the 970M in combination with the quad core heat up significantly.

Compared to my working notebook, a Samsung Notebook 9 (15" version), its more flashy but the keyboard feels far supperior, the Steelseries keyboard is a dream to type one. The Samsung however is far lighter and smaller then the bulky GS40 but the hard drive is a huge limitation as its only 512GB (M.2). Also it only features Intel graphics and the smaller 13.3" variant only has 8GB of Ram.

If you want something small and handy I would recommend the Samsung 15" and if you can live with 8GB RAM the 13.3", if you want better cooling and a better Keyboard get the GS40.

 

I have XPS15 and looking for a smaller laptop.
I'm fed up with QHD screen (3200x1800 needs to be run on scaling 200% which messes up lots of apps), so wanted only a full HD.
Plus XPS13 can run up to 10 hours on battery. XPS15 can do 4...

Now I'm questioning if I need quad core. Maybe I would be good with dual core?

XPS13 has i7-6560U which should be enough for me, I think...
I would put 512GB and 16GB RAM in it.

What I do is data analysis, lots of MS Access stuff. Then all other office work.
Rest of my stuff I run on SQL server...
Do I need quad core for this?

 

Well, Gigabyte are releasing the Aero 14 very soon, which is available on Scan. Once the GTX 1xxxm variants are released, I'm going to be all over it.

I've been using a Gigabyte P34v3 since the beginning of 2015, and it's a fantastic ultrabook. Yes, it's loud, but it can handle sustained CPU load - I use a bit of software at work which is massively multithreaded and it'll quite happily churn it for an hour or two.

 

It looks like you'll be CPU bound, so yes I would recommend going for a higher wattage chip. Remember you'll be TDP bound mostly so a 15W chip will revert to base frequency quicker than a 45W.

Also: http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/p40-yoga/
Z-book Studio has Xeons/Quad i7s in 14" http://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/zbook-studio.html#&pd1=1
Look for "workstation laptop 14" quad core" or "business" and these will come without high-end GPUs

 

Are you sure cause MS Access uses only one core/thread, it wasn't designed to use multi threads.
This is main thing I based my needs, but maybe you're, I don't know.
I'm just trying to find out if I'm going to miss my quad core doing same things on dual core U cpu.

Is there a software that measures cpu usage (per core) during the day?
So I could run it and see how do I use my cores?

 

There's always the XPS 13 if your XPS 15 is too big. However when you get a quad core in that, you're getting an i7 or i5 'm' not 'mq' so that means 2 cores with hyperthreading. They don't put the mq in that range AFAIK.

 

A database software no using multicore surprises me. Well done Microsoft.

 

Well, it's MS Access that uses just one core. MS SQL server uses multi, but as far as I know when running single query it also uses single thread

 

Well, they put HQ in XPS15, 4 core, 8 thread.
XPS13 gets i7 U series - 2 cores, 4 threads.

So ideally I would take XPS13 with this i7-5650U, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

 

Aero14 would be perfect, but it comes with 2560x screen
I need full HD max...

 

^Have you checked out the Gigabyte P34v3? It's the precursor to the Aero14 - with a 1080p screen.

 

I like this one:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/14-...-gtx-965m-8gb-ram-128gb-ssdplus1tb-hdd-usb-31

WHat is the build quality of those Gigabyte laptops?

 

Personally, I find it fine.