T420 i5 v i7

[Garth]

I have a Thinkpad T420 with the i7 processor, Windows 10, 1600 x 900 graphics and an SSD. This works really well and is quite speedy for most tasks. I'm now looking for a second T420, mainly for browsing the net and for office-type tasks. There are lots of i5-based T420's for sale with Windows 10 but the i7-processor versions are fetching silly money and are now quite rare. Is there much of a performance difference between the i5 and i7 T420's, all other things being equal?

[Thinkpad4by3]

Depends. All i5s are the i5-2520M Dual Core CPU. Some core i7s like the i7-2640M are just higher clocked dual chips. Some of them are low clocked quadcore chips and some are high clocked quad-core chips. The quad-core CPU's are quite sought after, and often come with the better LCDs, dedicated graphics, and other features that bump the price up. I use an X220 w/ an i7-2640M on a daily basis for web-browsing and it is great and is only 300Mhz faster than the i5.

[theterminator93]

The i7s have more cache and a higher clock, but otherwise don't offer anything over the i5 aside from bragging rights. There was never a quad core T420 of any flavor from the factory, so if you see one it was upgraded by a previous owner.

I bought an i5 equipped T420 and upgraded its CPU to the i7 myself. After selling off the original i5 chip the upgrade only cost me about $40. I've actually been considering selling off that machine as I don't use it a whole lot anymore...

[Thinkbookpro]

The i7s have more cache and a higher clock, but otherwise don't offer anything over the i5 aside from bragging rights. There was never a quad core T420 of any flavor from the factory, so if you see one it was upgraded by a previous owner.

I bought an i5 equipped T420 and upgraded its CPU to the i7 myself. After selling off the original i5 chip the upgrade only cost me about $40. I've actually been considering selling off that machine as I don't use it a whole lot anymore...

Any chance you still have one to sell?