25W vs 35W CPU on M4400?

Based on reviews, it seems that the M4400 has a good battery life and doesn't have a lot of problems staying fairly quiet... and that's with a 35W processor... Considering that this is a "heavy duty" notebook, how much would a 25W processor (e.g., P9600) increase battery life and decrease heat? In my experience, the difference has been very little for relatively similar notebooks.

Reason for asking: I ordered a refurb'ed M4400 with a crappy processor (P8400), which I would like to change for either a T9900 (3.06GHz / 35W) or P9700 (2.8GHz / 25W), once it's released. As far as I know, there should be no problems with it running either of them, but correct me if I'm wrong, or if I'd at least need to update the BIOS or something.

Thanks!

 

I don't think they would be problems - as you would expect dell to start offering the M4400 with those processors soon after their release.
It depends on your other specs but especially what you're doing. The cooling system on that system is very good, so I don't think exterior heat would change significantly. As for battery life, while doing basic tasks, there would be a very miniscule difference. At max load, you could extend the time by maybe 10%, but that's just an estimate.

 

I'm running on a 10W processor right now, and it's solid performance wise.

No slow downs, relatively cool running, and nice an quiet.

 

Utterly irrelevant post of the day?

 

@shleepy - definitely update the BIOS; either one of your CPU choices are fine - just get the higher clocked one if it's the same price.

 

The power consumption of a P vs. T processor is <1W with minimal usage. However, on battery and at 100% load, then the power consumption is a lot more significant. The P8400 processor is good enough for most programs but if you find yourself hitting max load then consider a higher end T processor for a bigger boost in processing power.

 

Cool, thanks for the info, everyone!