I have experience with the i3 and i5.
I am a student studying business and economics, I also trade FOREX. my computer needs are for school entertainment and business. I recently had to purchase a new pc. I purchased my laptop from tiger direct, after two weeks returned it and tried another. i repeated this process till i found the laptop that was right for me, was very frustrating but my experience can help your decision i think.
I tested two laptops(hp/gateway) equipted with the i3 330m, 64bit windows 7 OS and 4gb ram. I tried each for two weeks before returning them, I settled on an i764 DELL laptop with i5 430m 64bit OS win 7, 4gb ram. After a few minutes multi tasking i could tell the difference between the i3 and i5, my mind was made up.
The difference in the processors are astonishing. I multi task and can be tough on the pc's. often i have ms office. mt4, 3 diff browsers(all 3 browsers on different pages like youtube/google video etc), skype, msn, yahoo, aol and visual studios running all at once, at times even more applications running and the i3 was not suitable for my usage. It was clear i found the limits of the i3, the i5 handles everything i throw at it with ease, I plan on owning this pc for years to come and not having to worry about upgrading.
The i5 is your only choice, even if you dont multi task as much as i do that fact that i found the limits of the i3 so easily is proof enough that the limits are pretty easy to find. Buy a nice looking laptop that is the right size to fit your needs, get at least the i5 430m processor as well, you can be assured that it will be up to every task you use it for.
