Down to 2 choices for my laptop upgrade

Since I'm upgrading my XPS m1530 CPU, i figured I'd post in this section.

Anyhow currently I'm running the t5750, 2000MHz dual core, with 2mb cache.

Ive got 2 choices for my upgrade (and I know they both will work for sure in the XPS m1530 as I've asked around) and here they are:

The T8300 with 2.4GHz dual core and 3mb cache and 800 bus speed, or
The T9500 with 2.6GHz dual core and 6mb cache and 800 bus speed.

Since I'm in Canada, the only good prices i can find are on eBay (otherwise I'm buying via Canadian newegg and whatnot, and they charge A-LOT for Canadians because of import and CAD currency exchanges).

The T8300 is listed at 173.56 CAD with +25$ Australian for shipping, which ends up being around 24 ish CAD, which means I'm paying roughly 200$ CAD for it.

The t9500 is listed at 253.56 CAD with free shipping to Canada.

In the end, my question is this: is the +0.2GHz/core and the 3mb extra cache worth the 50$ (considering the t9500 can go upwards of 350 on newegg Canadian, or rather used to, its not even listed there anymore). Although it may not be worth the straight upgrade, it may be worth the time i'll put off upgrading or buying a new laptop. What are your opinions?

PS: the t9500 expires in 9 hours, and although I've been tracking the user since September, hes always re-posted the listing, but I don't know if the price will change a lot (its gone up 10$ since the previous re-post) so speedy answers would be .

Thanks in advance!

 

What do you use your notebook for?

 

Gaming .

 

So no insights from anybody i guess?

 

There will be no difference between the two in gaming. Buy the T8300.

 

That's not true.

The extra cache can actually help in gaming. But it depends on what gaming. I know 6MB cache is golden for games like Crysis because the executable can actually fit inside the cache. It won't help overall FPS much, but reduces stutters.

But, most other games aren't nearly as intensive and you won't notice a nick of difference with 3MB vs 6MB.

 

Unless ya play a lot of valve games, like tf2 or left4dead or something. With multicore rendering enabled, the extra cpu power helps in fps. Its awesome on my desktop and theyve gotten better at it, but some setups may still have issues.

 

When giving answers, try to be more specific so that we can give you better advice such as what games you're thinking of playing...

 

yeah ok sry bout that:

L4D2, Cod4, ME, AC2 when it comes out, same for ME2 and the new AVP, dragon age origins, Mortal online when it comes out (mmo pvp based game, ive played darkfall previously and sieges with 100+ people make the game stutter quite a bit, and it promises to be the same with slightly better graphics), borderlands, hl2 when im bored, torchlight, league of legends, BF1943 and BF:BC2 when they both come out, same for the new splinter cell and bioshock 2.

Off the top of my head.

 

I would go with the T9500 since it's not that much more. Do they both support things like virtualization? Some cheaper C2D chips don't support hardware virtualization.

 

http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx