T8100 vs T8300 vs T9300

Soarer

Morning.
I ordered an XPS 1530 last week with an urgraded T8300 2.4GHz processor, and as of this morning, it's still in pre-production. To purchase this, I used the 10% off coupon doing the rounds and was all smug with myself.
However, after buying it, I learned I could've went through the EPP and gotten another 6% off it!

So I was thinking of cancelling my original order, and putting in a new one for the same machine but with a T9300 2.5GHz processor...the extra discount will take care of a chunk of the extra.

So what I'd like to know is if it's worth upping the processor from the original 2.1 to the 2.4, and now to the 2.5? The 2.5 is only 4% faster than the 2.4. Is that a noticeable difference?

Specs of all 3 processors are:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache) [Included in Price]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache) [add € 49.99 or €2/month1]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 cache) [add € 159.99 or €6/month1]

Thanks.

Dartz

I have the T9300 in mine.... it is good alright.

Don't just look a the Ghz.. Look at the cache. T9300 has double the L2 cache and it does make more of a difference than you might think, even with a modern processor. It makes information passing and sharing between processor cores faster as it doesn't have to go via the bus... though it depends on what applications you're running. I do have some work software that will use it alright

But, cancelling an order just to upgrade the processor wouldn't be the best idea. T8300 will be more than powerful enough, so sit on it. It will do the job quite happily.

Voodu Child

The T8300 looks to be the sweet spot there in terms of price/performance.

As for the T9300, doubling the cache makes a decent enough difference, in the region of 10% afaik In any case, you would probably only appreciate the improvement if you were a power user (video encoding etc). At those prices, i'd be going for the T8300.

Soarer

Thanks Dartz.
Was thinking the same myself. My problem is always wanting "the best", and not being able to settle for "normal".
Comparing the XPS to the desktop it's replacing (1ghz AMD single core, 512mb RAM, 1 x 8gb HDD, 1 x 40gb HDD, 64mb gfx), the 2.4 dual core should be more than capable!

Soarer

Thanks Voodoo.
I might do a bit of video editing (I've hd footage from my camcorder that I'd like to do a job on), but it'll mostly be run-of-the-mill stuff. Won't even be gaming on it I'd imagine.

I'm assuming this will do most things I throw at it.

Dartz

Try comparing:

Toshiba Satellite L10. 1.6GHz Pentium M. 256Mb RAM. 40Gb HDD. Intel integrated graphics. Windows XP Pro +Xubuntu 7.10

Dell XPS1530. 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo T9300. 4Gb of RAM. 320GB HDD. Nivida 8600M GT with 256Mb VRAM. Windows Vista Home Premium+ Xubuntu 8.04

I feel somewhat smug. I went from having the worst Laptop in my society, to the best. I would recommend this machine to anybody. It is powerful as anything, but it still actually portable. And it's cheaper than a similarly specced machine from a botique builder...

Soarer

Gonna bring back up this thread, as I don't want to be starting a new one.

I went for the T8300, and it arrived today.

Now, a couple of questions on what to do from here!:o
I have a link that shows how to un/reinstall Vista, and get rid of all the rubbish they throw onto it. I also have a copy of XP sitting at home that I can use if I want. What's the concensus, Vista without the rubbish, or XP?

I also have a copy of Office 2003 lying around. Surely that's better than the pre-installed Works?

Finally (for now anyway!), I ordered a "Belkin F5D7632-4 ADSL Modem with Wireless G Router" with the machine, as I figured there was no point in getting a laptop and not being wireless. However, a "Belkin F5D7230-4 Wireless G Router" came bundled with the machine.
Do both these Belkins do the same job?
Should I keep one and sell the other?
Or do both need to be used in conjunction with each other?

Thanks guys.

astrofool

Office 2003 is much better than works.

Is the XPS M1530 fully compatible with XP anymore? I know that the M1330 we got a few weeks ago actually had a lot of useful stuff, like the media player, and extra buttons enabled, already installed, I was going to reinstall it with Vista Ultimate from Home Premium, but held off, and am glad I did. Perf wise, the 1530 should handle Vista with aplomb, all you'll be getting from XP will be the familiarity.

Soarer

Thanks Astro'.
To be honest, I havent' even switched the machine on yet! It's sitting in the box here in work!:(
Was thinking I'd give Vista a go. But like you said, XP is very familiar.

So I'll stick with Vista, and throw on Office 2003.
Any ideas on the router(s)?

Dartz

Thought about it meself actually. Thing is, XP won't have the right drivers available for it to run everything on your machine. not necessarily the touch buttons, but other things like the fingerprint reader or integrated webcam.

Dell are pretty good when it comes to bloatware.... there's nothing on my XPS I don't actually use, or won't use. It's not extortionware either; it won't ask for money after 30 days to keep going.

Router should be okay. Should work with the modem you have. I have a wired router that I just plugged in and it worked fine.

pwd

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

--benchmark list for mobile processors

I got this laptop with the 2.4ghz processor. I read up about the processors and it seems that there would generally not be a noticeable difference in speed between the 2.4 and the 2.5. I think the 2.4ghz is far better value, and the 2.5ghz is for those who are willing to pay extra to get the best spec available

Dartz

The cache does make a difference on multithreading processes. Cache on a Dual core Intel is shared between processor cores, and allows both processor cores to traded data without leaving the processor die itself. Having double the cache (6Mb on T9300 compared to 3Mb on T8300) will make these run faster. It depends on the aplication, but there are times you will notice a difference. And why the **** is this board compressing my posts into one big block of text?