Budget laptop Dual core vs Celeron

Sillysod

I'm looking to buy a laptop for basic computing i.e. preferably small and portable, for internet,word processing, excel etc. I've a pretty low budget

I'm thinking of going for a Dell with a 14.1" screen

I wasn't sure whether to go for

Vostro 1400 with Intel® Celeron® Processor 550 (2.00 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2-cache), Genuine Windows® XP Professional

1024 MB 667 MHz Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x 1024MB)
or maybe

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5270 (1.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache)
or even Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5470 (1.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache) [

If I get a more powerful processor I'll have to sacrifice the extras, proabbly go with 1GB ram with XP, as I may upgrade to vista in the future I'm worried about buying a budget processor, would this impact how vista runs or is the main issue with vista a memory one?

I'm unlikely to be gaming or doing any heavy duty graphics work, is processor power a concern for this kind of usage?

Any advice?

chris85

Sillysod wrote: »

I'm looking to buy a laptop for basic computing i.e. preferably small and portable, for internet,word processing, excel etc. I've a pretty low budget

I'm thinking of going for a Dell with a 14.1" screen

I wasn't sure whether to go for

Vostro 1400 with Intel® Celeron® Processor 550 (2.00 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2-cache), Genuine Windows® XP Professional

1024 MB 667 MHz Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x 1024MB)
or maybe

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5270 (1.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache)
or even Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5470 (1.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache) [

If I get a more powerful processor I'll have to sacrifice the extras, proabbly go with 1GB ram with XP, as I may upgrade to vista in the future I'm worried about buying a budget processor, would this impact how vista runs or is the main issue with vista a memory one?

I'm unlikely to be gaming or doing any heavy duty graphics work, is processor power a concern for this kind of usage?

Any advice?

since you will be doing basic tasks would probably go for the vostro with the Celeron processor but upgrade to 2Gb ram. Vista is a bit annoying to be honest. Running XP with 2Gb of ram will be better than running vista on 1Gb ram, even with the dual core processor.

This is coming from experience, have laptop with dual core and vista. My 1Gb of ram is not enough, planning on upgrading.

listermint

Dual Core and grab 2Gb Ram if you can. You will regret the 1 gb in a few months....maybe weeks..

Fnz

Depending on your needs an ASUS Eee PC subnotebook might be worth considering. [Link]

Sillysod

Thanks for all the advice folks!