Latitude E6500 vs Precision M4400

I know there is a thread very similar (probably many) but wanted some advice from you all. I have had an E6500 for almost a year I guess and happy with it. It has the P9700 dual core cpu (2.8ghz), with the Nvidia NVS160m video card. I recently took an M4400 in on a trade for something else (not the e6500) and curious if it is that much better. One big difference is the M4400 has a P8600 dual core cpu (2.4Ghz). The Nvidia card looks to be much better Quadro 770 than on the e6500.

So the only thing that appears to be lesser in the M4400 is the cpu. Is it worth swapping it or should I just leave it alone? I am quite capable of doing it (assuming it is compatible and all). I just thought I would get an opinion here first before doing anything.

Thanks!

 

If you need the more powerful CPU and GPU... it's an easy swap. I suppose the main downside is that you might void your warranty. In day to day use, though, I don't think there's going to be a huge difference between P8600 and P9700.

 

Upgrading the P8600 to P9700 will indeed make a difference, mainly because of the larger cache. I would say a swap would be worth it, get some Arctic Silver 5 grease to use with it. A CPU swap won't void your warranty.

 

Unless you use CPU intensive programs, you won't notice any difference in the CPUs. All recent CPUs will undervolt and underclock when not being utilized, and even when they are maxed out, the difference in clockspeed and cache will yield minimal results.

 

While that may be true, there really is no downside or risk to swapping CPUs. If the M4400 will be the primary machine and the E6500 a spare, I can't think of any reason not to swap them (other than maybe the cost of thermal grease, but Arctic Silver 5 on Ebay is only at max $6 or so a tube, and replacing the grease will also reduce temperatures).

 

Definitely do the swap. Better CPU + GPU would make your M4400 experience much better. The only thing left for you to worry about is how to deal with the E6500.