Which Processor from Dell?

Aidy

Hi

A processor question.

Looking at various Dell deals on their Inspiron 1545 the various processors are:

Intel Celeron 900 (2.2ghz, 800mhz, 1mb)

Intel Celeron Dual Core T3000 (1.8 Ghz, 800 mhz, 1mb) £40 extra

Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 (2.0 ghz, 800mhz, 1mb) £70 extra

My question is will the various speeds of these processors be noticeable, for fairly average usage activity - e-mail, surfing, M S N, etc. (I am not a gamer). The laptop comes with 4GB RAM as standard until 30th Sept so should help generally anyhow.

In my simple view (!) the 900 has the fastest clock speed but is the cheapest, is this beacuse dual core are perceived to be better overall?

All views appreciated - cheers :beer:

John_Gray

Even if you weren't up with the technicalities of CPU chips, I would reckon that the Dell pricing gives you a clue about the relative powers!

Personally I'd go for the Core 2 Duos in preference to all those you quote - but provided you have Windows 7 pre-installed (for which it would be well worth waiting until 22 October), it will make some, but probably not very much, difference in practice which you choose for what you are intending to run.

Aidy

John_Gray wrote: »

Even if you weren't up with the technicalities of CPU chips, I would reckon that the Dell pricing gives you a clue about the relative powers!

Personally I'd go for the Core 2 Duos in preference to all those you quote - but provided you have Windows 7 pre-installed (for which it would be well worth waiting until 22 October), it will make some, but probably not very much, difference in practice which you choose for what you are intending to run.

Thanks.

Thought that was the case - as you say pricing gives you a clue!! I suppose my question was would I notice the difference between say the T3000 and the T4200

Dell are giving the Windows 7 upgrade for free if you buy now, so I guess the T3000 is probably more than acceptable?

The laptop (Inspiron 1545) has 160gb hard drive, 4Gb of RAM, an Intel dual processor, 15.6" screen, Intel 4500mhd video card and Windows 7 for £349 delivered - that does seem a good deal to me.

Battery life seems poor, but it will be plugged in most of the time.

John_Gray

Aidy wrote: »

Dell are giving the Windows 7 upgrade for free if you buy now...

Have you checked that this is really, really free? No 'shipping and handling, plus VAT'? Have a look at this article...

gingerscot

The Celeron 900 is basically the same chip as the T3000 and T4200 but with one of the two cores disabled. So its a single core processer not dual core. It's clocked slightly faster but it should have a better battery life than the other two as only half the chip works.

However the T3000 and T4200 are obviously alot faster if you have lots of tabs or programs running at the same time. Most software takes advantage of dual core processors so i would go with the T3000. You will not notice the difference between the two dual core processors unless you specifically time application loading times:rolleyes:

Yeh the battery life is really poor as its a 4 cell battery. Have a quick check on the specs your buying. The 4 cell will probably only last 2hrs max but if you don't need it then no problem;)

Whatever the cost, make sure you windows 7 upgrade as it will run alot faster than vista and the differences between the above processors will be even less apparent. Hope that helps

familyfitz

Throwing another couple of comparisons into the equation, again Dell laptops that I'm considering.

1. Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300 (2.1Ghz 800Mhz 1 MB cache)
2. Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 (2.2Ghz 800Mhz 2MB cache)

Going with the upgrade to Windows 7 at later stage. Second one is £15 dearer but doesn't have webcam like no.1 but this is a requirement anyway so rather go by processor.

AHAR

Hi Aidy,
I'm not sure if I'm looking at the same deal as you but I'd pay the extra for the T3000 but wouldn't bother stepping up to the T4200 from there - not enough difference.
The system I'm looking at offers a upgrade to 6-cell battery for £15 and LED backlighting for for screen for £10 which should provide more even screen illumination and possibly better battery life. Those upgrades seem reasonably priced to me.

gingerscot

LED backlighting and a battery upgrade are for more noticable and useful upgrades than a slightly better processor for the average consumer. Once you've got the latest range of intel dual core processors, the differences are pretty small except from the very slowest to fastest for web, documents, looking at pics etc. If you do alot of photo editing then it would be best to get the fastest processor you can afford though.

Again the T6600 will be faster obviously than the T4300 and the cache does make a difference but it won't be noticeable in normal tasks. A T3000 against a T6600, would be though.

Aidy

gingerscot wrote: »

LED backlighting and a battery upgrade are for more noticable and useful upgrades than a slightly better processor for the average consumer.

Thanks for all replies to date - really appreciate your input.

LED backlighting is a new one to me!! Is this a bit like the backlight on a Nintendo DS - makes the whoel screen brighter and sharper?

Did consider the 6 cell battery but not sure how much extra life that would give - can anyone help?

cheers again ... :beer: