The other day I ran down to Best Buy and picked up an i5 laptop thinking that it had 4 cores. Later I found out that it only has 2 cores with hyper threading. So I was wondering should I trade it for a i7 laptop with a worse graphics card or just keep what I have? I should say this is for fsx and blogging, photos, etc. I really don't do any other games.Currently:Dell Studio XPS 16i5 2.26ATI HD 4670 1GB4GB DDR3500GB 7200rpmor get something like this?Toshiba Satallitei7 1.6nVidia 310M (512MB)4GB DDR3500GB 5400rpm

Those two systems aren't very close in terms of graphics performance. The Dell system will absolutely slaughter the Toshiba when it comes to games. The CPU performance for both is good, the i7, despite having a low base clock, should operate under Turbo mode in most situations, so that's basically a draw.

Hi,You might want to look at something with an i7 with better GPU something like the above ATI or if you are not a ATI fan one of Nvidia's cards the i7qm is a quad core chip for mobile machines. Hope this is of some help to you.Dan Martin Flight Ontario

Alright, well I'll forget about the one with the 310M. There is a Sony i7, 330M, 6GB RAM for an extra $350 - it may be a bit expensive for me. They just got a new ASUS one with with the same specs as the DELL but with a 360M for the same price I paid, maybe I'll just trade for that one...

Don't buy a Sony unless you like spending more than the laptop is worth to repair it when it fails.