<p>I thought I was sure I would get my daughter an i7 laptop for school in the fall, but I am reading a lot of reviews for different i7 brands and a common theme seems to be that they run hot. Now I am looking more seriously at an i5 540M. Does anyone have any experience with this and how much performance loss will there be compared to an i7? Thanks.</p>
<p>In my opinion, a Core i7 is almost always overkill. Even a Core i5-540m is more than your daughter likely needs, unless she plans to run complex calculations all day. My friend has a Core i5-430m in his laptop, and he plays modern games like Call of Duty and Halo 2 just fine – that’s saying something. For normal everyday use (and even typical engineering use), any Core i5 will do the job.</p>
<p>As a couple added benefits – the Core i5 will run cooler than an i7, and will give significantly better battery life.</p>
<p>Thank you for your input. I tend to always go for overkill, but my “addiction” isn’t worth overheating problems.</p>