Is it worth the upgrade? T7200 (2ghz c2d) + 2 gigs of ram to P8700 (2.5ghz)? Faster?

Hi,

I currently have a Dell XPS M1210 with a 2ghz 7200 processor, 2 gigs of ram, etc etc.

I was curious in terms of processor power, will I notice a big difference between my M1210 & a new XPS 13?

I assume the SATA 1.5 in mine vs what I would assume is SATA 3.0 is a big plus.

My drive is slowing down in the M1210 so I could spend under $100 for another drive & call it a day or spring for a new laptop.

I like what I have but I cant help but look at newer laptops. I dont mind spending the money if its a big performance increase.

My plan is to have XP Pro on either system.
Thanks,
Rich

 

Performance really depends on what you're doing with the laptop. If it's just browsing and word processing, you won't notice much of a difference.

The move from SATA 1.5Gb/s to SATA 3.0Gb/s is also pretty irrelevant in the grand schemes of things. You won't hit either bandwidth cap with a conventional HDD, and even with an SSD, it's very rare that you hit maximum sequential throughput for long.

That being said, I'd pop an SSD into your M1210. That'll give you the most notable improvement, regardless of what you do with the laptop.

 

Im still trying to figure out what to do. Right now I am doing nothing but still using it as is. I keep wondering if a SSD upgrade is a good thing.

I picked up a Studio 1745 for my mother as a gift & I am so surprised to find there are no XP Drivers for that laptop & no one is looking to put it on.

I bring that up as the 2.8ghz 1745 with windows 7 vs my 3 year old M1210 with XP is about the same speed which doesnt make me look forward to an upgrade of a new laptop.

Then again, I keep reading about all the M1210 failure & wonder if I buy some upgrade parts am I asking for a jinx failure?

Thanks,
Rich

 

Have you looked at this page:

http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=26548

to compare the Core 2 processors? Looks like neither one you mentioned supports the XP virtualization...

I will be waiting until the i7's are more widely available. Like the hyperthreading, hardware virtualization...

On the other hand, I'd settle for an SP model Core Duo for the wife!

 

You won't really notice a difference when replacing the CPU. I would double the Ram to 4GB. This will really help when thinking about Win 7 and the virtualization. (The T7200 supports it).

The 64Bit version of Win 7 should not be run with less than 4GB Ram. The guest OS will take some (virtualized Win XP takes 512MB+X).

 

So if i went with the Corsair 220mb SSD for almost 400 would my system be able to take advantage of the speed or would the 1.5 SATA be the bottleneck?