Processor Vs Hard drive

albob

Which should I get.....(dell inspiron 1525)
Get one with the T5450 1.66GHz, 667Mhz FSB, but with a 7200rpm 160G HD...
...or...
T7250 2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB but with 5400 rpm 250Gb HD

My budget is ~700e
Intended use is mainly internet, downloading, dvd burning, format changing etc. No games. Mobility not a major issue. However, if one option gave a better battery life than the other, it would be an advantage.
My question is really is it better to have better processor with slower HD or slower processor with quicker HD. I cant aford both. People have said that the 7200HD is a major improvement over 5400HD in performance. Thus if I go for quicker processor with slow HD am I losing the processor gain?
Option 1 704euro
BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5450 (1.66 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache) edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
HARD DRIVE 160GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
PRIMARY BATTERY 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion primary battery

Option 2 745euro
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
PRIMARY BATTERY 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion primary battery






Thanks

marco_polo

albob wrote: »

Which should I get.....(dell inspiron 1525)
Get one with the T5450 1.66GHz, 667Mhz FSB, but with a 7200rpm 160G HD...
...or...
T7250 2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB but with 5400 rpm 250Gb HD

Thanks

What do you see yourself using it for? Unless you will be using programs that will need a more powerful cpu, If it is pretty normal usage I would be inclined to for the bigger disk, especially if you see yourself collecting alot of music, movies, photos etc.

Of course the other way of looking at is is to get the bigger CPU now and if you need more space in the future you could always get an external hard drive.

Glad to be of assistance

Tom Dunne

Please read the thread at the top of the forum titled "How to ask for help **READ THIS FIRST **".

Post the details up here and then we will help you.

Tom Dunne

Personally, I would go for the second one with the bigger hard-drive. For what you will be doing, you won't notice the difference between the hard drive speeds.

Alternatively, go for option one with a bigger battery (not sure how much more that will be, but it shouldn't be too much).

Oh, and I am not an admin and I didn't scold you.

albob

Maybe I should go for option 1 with bigger but slower harddrive. Is there much of a difference between processors?

Tom Dunne

albob wrote: »

Is there much of a difference between processors?

For what you will be doing, no.

Voodu Child

If you're burning DVDs, will there be some sort of transcoding involved? (ie converting a divx file to DVD format)

If so, I would definitely go with the faster processor. That kind of stuff can take aaages with a slow processor, and you absolutely will notice a difference between those two processors, could be equivalent to knocking 10+ minutes off a hour-long conversion.

AlmightyCushion

I'd stay with the slower drive if I was you. I'd seriously doubt if you would notice any difference speed wise between the two drives. The slower hard drive should also help prolong battery life.