Hi,
I will need a backup ("safety") laptop to my working EliteBook 8530w with Intel X9100 Core2 Extreme (3.06GHz).
The fastest possible operating frequency (base frequency) is a must, as I use my laptop for real-time (live) audio processing which requires lowest possible round-trip (audio) latency for percussive music. (here's an example)
I doubt that multiple cores will help all that much in this endeavour, though the software I use does make use of them (Ableton Live).
I'm being told that the CPU's cache memory size is also important in regards to real-time audio processing. The X9100 has 6MB L2. How much do you think L2 matters vs. L3, since L3 is slower?
I'm currently looking at custom ordering another EliteBook, but it seems the fastest CPU option I have is the i7-3540M (3.0 GHz) which has only 1MB L2 cache.
How would you say does the i7-3540M stack up against the X9100 for my purposes?
Is there a faster option?