Processor question

FishTaco

Looking for a bit of advice here. what are the main differences between these three processors? I'm looking to get a new laptop for college work, web surfing and downloading/watching movies etc. which of these would be most suited?

(cheapest first, most expensive last)

1.) Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T4300 (2.1GHz, 800MHz, 1MB cache)

2.) Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache)

3.) Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.2GHz, 800MHz, 2MB)

leninbenjamin

number 1 is the weakest by far. Pentium Dual Cores are ancient. As for 2 and 3, it's much of a muchness. 3 has the slightly higher clock speed, but 2 has a larger cache which makes up for it in my opinion (although not many would agree).

Tbh, all of them will suit fine for you're purposes, but i'd lean towards #2 over #1 if the price difference isn't to big.

as for watching movies, make sure it has something of a decent GFX solution in there if you're looking to stream HD content.

FishTaco

Thanks for that

Sorry, Im a bit of a technophobe, how do overclocking and cache size fit into a processor's performance?

Also, whats a GFX Solution?

5uspect

GFX = graphics chip. A seperate processor that handles the on screen graphics.
(3D effects in games for example and general rendering of windows, displaying movies, etc)

If you're a technophobe forget about overclocking. Erase the word from your head!
(Its basically making the processor run faster, and hotter, than intel set it.
So you could take that 2.0GHz CPU and run it at 3GHz.)
However if it's a Dell Laptop overclocking is pretty much impossible.

Cache is a small amount of memory on the processor.
This makes it quicker for the PC to fetch important files that can be stored here.
Otherwise the CPU has to wait for the information to be feteched form the RAM.
And if the RAM is all used up from the hard drive.

Each regression from cache to RAM to hard drive slows things down. So you could argue that a super fast processor that can perform calculations at 3Ghz is rubbish if its cache is really small. (This was the case with Pentium 4)

So as leninbenjamin says #2 is probably the best option as it has significantly more cache without significanly slower clock speed of 2.1Ghz.

FishTaco

Brilliant, thanks. #2 is a few quid cheaper as well so thats handy

5uspect

What Graphics options do you have? iirc Dell et al don't provide much of a choice.

FishTaco

Im looking at a Dell Studio and there's three graphics choices;

1.)Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD

2.)256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570

3.)512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570

The second two are quite a bit dearer than the first, and I wouldn't really be into gaming so I'm not sure I could justify spending €200 to upgrade the graphics card

Alanstrainor

FishTaco wrote: »

Im looking at a Dell Studio and there's three graphics choices;

1.)Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD

2.)256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570

3.)512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570

The second two are quite a bit dearer than the first, and I wouldn't really be into gaming so I'm not sure I could justify spending €200 to upgrade the graphics card

Don't bother if that's the case, sometimes Dell will have them included or as a cheap add-on, if it's €200 just stick with the GMA 4500MHD

Voodu Child

T6600 is the most powerful based on specs and benchmarks, but not by a long shot.

The P7350 has a TDP of 25W (versus 35W of the T6600 and T4300) so would run cooler a little cooler and use less power (battery life).

The T4300 is Penryn-based and 45nm, so there is nothing 'ancient' about it. It is the slowest of the three no doubt, but to be honest, for your basic needs im not sure you'd notice or care about the difference.

I would need to see the upgrade cost of each CPU to make a recommendation, but what you are doing is very basic and you'd be happy enough with any of the three. Just depends on price.

leninbenjamin

Voodu Child wrote: »

The T4300 is Penryn-based and 45nm, so there is nothing 'ancient' about it.

It's based on an older architecture, despite utilising newer fabrication processes. Considering we now have the i7's coming to the market, it's a pretty old processor technologically speaking.

edit: or has i got myself confused with the branding? meh... penryn's such a big word.

Voodu Child

It's based on an older architecture

Its based on the same Core microarchitecture as the other processors. Just some features turned off to differentiate it between the higher end models.

Just because it says Pentium doesnt mean it is some ancient thing from the 90s, or is related to the old Pentium M series. It is just a brand name in this case.

leninbenjamin

Voodu Child wrote: »

Its based on the same Core microarchitecture as the other processors. Just some features turned off to differentiate it between the higher end models.

Just because it says Pentium doesnt mean it is some ancient thing from the 90s, or is related to the old Pentium M series. It is just a brand name in this case.

aye, i had had it arseways. anyway, doesn't matter from the OPs point of view, it's still the weakest of the options. Number 2 is to go for if the price isn't too steep.