Yesterday Intel launched a new line of mobile CPUs carrying the same Core i7 name as their desktop counterparts. They are in reality very close to the new Core i7 8xx series chips for socket 1156, however they are tuned to produce much less heat and sit in a smaller socket. Instead of talking about how similar they are, I'd rather look at the differences between the two.

First off, despite using the same DDR3 memory controller, mobiles use SO-DIMMs while desktops use standard DIMMs. While I was able to find a single set of Kingston Hyper-X SO-DIMMs with DDR3-1600 C7 speed, it was a 2x 1GB set, and probably isn't supported by any notebooks out there. On the desktop side, we commonly see DDR3-1600 C7 and sometimes see DDR3-2000+ or C6 modules. Keeping those cores fed is paramount to performance, especially in single-threaded workloads where the CPU bumps to over 3ghz.

Second, Turbo Mode. This technology is really great, seriously. The new mobiles can bump all the way to 9 bins higher than they ship at, when under a single-threaded load. Unfortunately, most notebook manufacturers aren't going to do the hard work of keeping these guys cool, and it's doubtful that you'll be able to use Turbo all the way through a video compilation or code compile. For that matter, the three- and four-core Turbo is substantially lower than the single-core, only netting 2.26ghz instead of 3.2ghz for a single or 3.06ghz for two cores. Needless to say, in Anandtech's testing, a desktop Core i7 965 is 50 to 65% faster than the mobile Core i7 920XM, even when crammed into a laptop.

The last big performance difference between desktop and notebook Core i7 is the surrounding components. Back in my CPU vs GPU article, I talked about how the discussion really benefited the rest of the machine. Most of us pick a component right in the middle of the pack when we look at CPUs or GPUs. Not many of us want to plop down an extra $300 - $500 for bragging rights, which is what Extreme Edition CPUs usually amount to. If you look at the components around a desktop Core i7, you'll probably see a GTX 260 Core 216 and a 1TB 7,200 RPM hard drive, or a 300GB 10,000 RPM drive. In the notebook sector, you'll see a GTX 280M (horribly named) with only 128 cores and a 500GB 5,400 RPM hard drive or a 7,200 RPM one. That's similar in specification to a $1,400 Njord, which brings us to the big topic.

For as long as I can remember, laptops have been substantially more expensive than their desktop brethren. I just went to Dell's new Alienware line for a Core i7 CPU-based laptop, and found that for about $2,000 I could take home a machine that's about as fast in gaming as the desktop I built 2 years ago for about the same price. That's right, 2 years.

So if desktops are so much faster, why do I think you should own a laptop? It's an easy answer: portability. I love having my little netbook to surf the web on the couch with, maybe watch a movie on a flight or even quickly touch up a photo out in the field. However, when it comes time to really work on those photos, there's no way I'm using a laptop. When it comes to gaming, it's the same thing. Yeah, I can run around and maybe gather some resources in LOTRO on the netbook, but the real experience is on my big LCD at 1080P with my big speakers. Sure laptops are awesome when you can't get to your desktop, but your desktop is still where you should be spending most of your computing time, so you can get it done quicker and get back outside. There's only a little summer left, after all!

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