T8300 vs T9300 in M1530

Hello. Is the upgrade from T8300 to T9300 really worth 100€? (~150$)

I will mainly use the laptop to surf the internet and play games. What do you think? Will I notice the diffence? (0.1 ghz and 3mb caché)

 

Depends on what sort of games you're playing. For the most part, your games will be GPU limited, so you're not too likely too see a difference between the two. For general internet and office usage, you definitely will not see a difference between the two.

 

i also dnt think there will be too much dofference.But if u can then go ahead.

 

If it helps, I have a T9300 on my HP DV9700T. I have a T8100 on my Vostro 1700 (to go to a T9300 was going to be $300 more from Dell).

Anyway, I don't notice a difference between the two systems even with them running the same apps, games and video editing side by side.

The only real difference I noticed was in video editing when the T8100 took 7 seconds longer than the T9300 on a video project. Not worth a $300 difference in price (for me) but if you have the extra $150 and want to spend it for a T8300, you might as well go for it, depending on your needs and future plans for the computer.

 

I don't know. I thought the 9300 would suppose a very noticeable difference from the 8300, but after reading you I don't know what to do...

I was thinking in this config:

XPS M1530 CORE 2 DUO T9300 2.50GHz,800,6M
Display 15.4" WXGA+ Widescreen (1440x900) TFT with Truelife
Memoria canal dual 4.0GB (2x204 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive 320GB SATA (5400rpm)
Battery XPS Primary 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion
European - Dell TrueMobile 355 internal Bluetooth Module
Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-PCI Card, EUR

Which will cost me 1001€ , WITHOUT VAT (I don't pay european VAT as I live in a city Africa) BUT with 150€ in Shipping (incomprehensible, because the normal difference from sending to Spanish mainland or my city is about 4-6€, shipping to spain is only 25€ and they have "free shiping" this month, but it isn't applicable to my city.)

What do you think?

 

T9300, 4GB, 8600 GT, 200gb 7200rpm, bluetooth, wireless-n, 4 year complete care with $70 gift card = 1399.14 plus tax. Free shipping. =D

Might as well get the T9300 for me at that price.

 

I have the T8300 in my setup and it's great, you won't regret it if you just get the T8300 vs. T9300. But if you have the money to spend then having a T9300 for the rest of the life of your laptop for only $150 US is worth it. It's not so much money that you will be kicking yourself if you don't feel that it was worth it. But if money is an issue then T8300 is plenty for what you are planning to do

 

Mmm... well, I'll probably pick the 9300... I have until the 16th to decide.

Anyway, I am still very angry because of the 150€ shipping (235$ ) while the rest of the country gets free shipping.

It isn't fair.

Thanks

 

After thinking, maybe I should pick the 8300 (if there isn't any "noticeable" differnece really) and spend the extra 100€ in... for example, the logitech mouse/keyboard cordless set and the bluetooth headphones...

What do you think? Im still looking for more opiniones

Thanks

 

I will tell you that I struggled, I mean struggled with this decision myself. I already had the T9300 on my DV9700T when I bought the T8100. The T8300 wasn't an option on the Vostro 1700 I bought or I would have probably opted for it if it was only $100-150 difference just because.

I thought about splurging for the T9300 in the end (even though it was a $300 difference) and even asked everyone's opinion here just like you're doing. That was too steep in my opinion and everyone here said I wouldn't notice a difference between the two. I figure in 3 years when my warranty runs out if not sooner, I'll probably get antsy and want another computer anyway.

For me, with the coupon Dell had running, $300 for the processor would mean the processor was a 1/4 of the price I paid. I thought I'd give the T8100 a try and take advantage of the Vostro's 30 day return policy if it didn't work out. I have no regrets.

FWIW, if it was just $100-150, I would probably have gone for the T9300. Simply -- just because. I'm the kind of sucker computer manufacturers love, though having no real bases for wanting one but just simply wanting it. LOL

 

I struggled with the same thing - I can't find any good reviews comparing two processers differences. You might try looking on a site called "Tom's Hardware", I forgot to check there. But aside from that, my decision came down to the fact that I plan to make money doing motion graphics, and I know that Adobe After Effects eats up CPU usage, so I decided it was worth it as a business expense. Sorry I can't be more help.

 

I had to make same choice and went for T9300 because I could afford it and it has more L2 cache

Penryn Review: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Core-2-Duo-Penryn-CPUs.7876.0.html

Benchmarks:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

Man that's a good deal. Those of you who live in the states get it lucky.

For me, T9300, 2GB, 8600GT, 160G 7200RPM, bluethooth, wireless N, standard warranty cost me CAD$1603.8 after discount, everything included. This deal, however, is not valid anymore (expired on the 10th), I was able to get my order in just before it expired.

The price difference between T8300 and T9300 is $100 here in Canada so I went for the latter. Of course the advertised price ($999 I think) is based on a T5250, so there is a $350 spike for the T9300.

 

don't worry as soon as the motevina comes out.. T9300 will drop..and thats when its worth buying

 

Well... I'll probably stick to the 9300 then... It's my first laptop

This is a bit offtopic but as I don't want to open a new thread...

As I said, there's free shipping (25€ if there wasn't) to all Spain, excluden some islands and some... cities (like mine), where they charge 150€ for shipping (!!).

The interesting thing is that if I try to buy online at dell.es (spanish dell) I can go through the entire process, including selecting my address, pay method, etc, and it IS showing the "free shipping" text, and the system is not charging me those 150€.

If I paid, do you think dell would cancel my order?

 

If you're going to order your system anyway and the free shipping on the dell site makes it cheaper I would say go ahead.

I don't think they would cancel your order but who knows for sure. What do you have to loose except for a little time...

 

Maybe I'll try, but I am scared because maybe they will cancel the order, for example, 10 days after I pay, and there are a -100€ and a 10% discount right now, ending in a week...

It would cost me 914,73 € paying in the online store (eventhough I "should" add 150€ for shipping), while I got a 1001€ price (including shipping and everything, from a "comercial" (I don't know what word do you use in English... a "comercial" in Spain is a man working for Dell who makes you offers, and if you buy the laptop to him directly he will earn a % of the total price...)

So, there's a 85€ difference. I could use those 85€ to buy some bluetooth keyboard/mouse and headphones. The problem is that maybe Dell may tell me after I pay that I must pay them the 150€ for shipping... (so it would be 914+150=1064, 50€ over what the "comercial" is offering)

Oh, decisions ... I am a student (17 years old for 5 more days) and this laptop will be a present from my parents for my birthday, so I want it to be as cheap as possible...

 

If dell came back and said you need to pay for shipping then you should be able to cancel your order. 10 days is a long time, quite likely your order would be shipped in 3-4 days...

 

get the t8300 if your parents are paying for it.

 

Yes, I'll probably do that.

Anyway, I'm still looking for more opinions (I could put the extra cash myself to get a 9300).

Has anyone tried both 8300 and 9300? Is there really a difference? (when playing games , specially)

 

Have you seen the review that DarkSide posted a link to above?

According to that, the speed difference between the T8300 and T9300 is at most 5%. You will most certainly not notice any difference between the two.

 

Didn't notice them. Checked them now and well, eventhough there isn't really a difference, I think I'll pay the extra difference, despite not having any real benefits (as you did, I see )

Thanks

 

definitely go for the T8300 you will definitely not notice a difference between the two. ~5% performance diff. will only be for cpu limited tasks; 99% of the time it will be a 0% performance diff.

 

Are you sure? Those benchmarks were made in programs like "SuperPi", but I am not sure if there won't be real differences in games.

Aren't the +3mb cache supposed to "help" in gaming?

 

I think I didn't explained very well in the last message:

I have read those benchmarks and reviews of both processors.

I will use my computer mainly for internet/office/gaming. Is there any difference between playing with a 8300 and with a 9300? I mean, those +3mb cache improve anything while playing games?

If not, what does it exactly improve? I will have to decive whether to pick the 9300 or... extra guarantee time (but I am not very sure about whether the 9300 is better in gaming or not).

Thanks for all your replies.

 

If you do alot of photoshop, multitasking or video encoding go with the T9300. Otherwise you'd be wasting your money (can upgrade ram and hard drive instead).

T8300 performs quite similar to T9300 in games but most games are graphics intensive. Even a T5550 (1.6ghz) can have similar gaming performance to a T9300 with an 8600m GT equipped to both cpu's

 

Well, since no one said it, you'll probably be buying a new computer in 3 years (or less) anyway. Especially, the way technology moves today. SSD will be the norm probably and other things we don't even know about now.

If you're the kind of person who obsesses over every little detail and isn't the happiest with anything but the "best" go for the T9300.

For everyone else the T8300 is probably more bang for the buck considering the tiny performance gain which no one can really notice anyway.

 

No !

just 0.1 ghz for gaming and 3MB cach for app. ?

 

Oh... decisions... I have been offered a 1030€ (shipping and everything included) configuration with 9300 and the same with 8300 would be 940€

I have read every single reply in this thread but I am still unsure.

I need to decide for tomorrow, where the promotions end, so I am still looking for opinions.

I know... maybe I am being stupid and I wouldn't really notice the differnece but.... It's a 9!! 9>8

Oh... what do you think? I still have 1 more day do decide.

Thanks

 

Agent Zero, can I inquire as to where you got such an awesome deal?! I would love to order one. Thanks.

 

One other difference in penryn you guys should consider that makes the 9300 worth every penny, is that it is a .45nm part and will run COOLER and save battery life compared to the 8300. to me that alone is worth the money, the performance is just icing on the cake.

 

Hey thought I would input as I was one of the first people to have a Dell XPS 1530 with T8300-Penryn.

I idle at 40 degrees.. And at heavy gaming, and I mean heavy gaming, unloading buckshots, heavy graphics, im running at a max of 60-70 degrees, but I did opt for the 9cell which raises the lappy, and also I game on a solid wood surface which helps as well.

Im am so chuffed with the T8300 could not ask for better, I even have a AMD 4400+ x64 DESKTOP and it does not even touch my laptop for performance.

I have always been a fan of AMD but these new Penryn's, I can tell the difference.

 

I did not get your post, you said the 9300 runs cooler than the 8300, both are Penryn, I cant see how you would see a massive difference especialy for the price,

The T8300 and the T9300 have the same processor but One is a higher GHZ.

 

Yeah, the 8300 and 9300 are both penryns. The ONLY diff is the 9300 is clocked higher and has more L2 cache....

 

my mistake, i stand corrected

However i'm still happy with my purchase and as others have said, $150 over the minimum 2-3 years of owning the laptop isnt much money.

 

so allow me to ask, do the penryn's all start at 8000 series? or are there some 7000 series that are also penryn chips?

 

No. The penryns are the T8xxx and T9xxx series chips.

 

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_2_Duo#Penryn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...#.22Penryn.22_.28standard-voltage.2C_45_nm.29

 

Haha! it's funny that you're still stressing about this, buying laptops is exciting because of these little decisions. I agree with the previous poster that said (basically) the T8300 for cheaper is the logical (best) decision but if you're the kind of guy that must have the best then go for the T9300 and sleep more satisfied. Both are absolutely awesome procs.

 

Get the T9300 and you'll sleep better at night coz if you get the T8300 you'll be wondering everynight if you should've spent that lil bit of extra money for the T9300...

 

Just go for the T9500, it'll make you even more comfortable to sleep at night.

 

The T9500?! That's £180 more than the T9300... You mean the T9300 right?

Anyways, OP, I had the same choice as you, I went with the T9300, if it gives the laptop even a few more months onto the end of its useful life then it's worth it.

 

And can people stop talking about how easy it will be for him to sleep at night, jeez, thats of little relevance to the subject, just stick to the hard facts about the two choices .

 

Heh, I'm asking myself this same question. I decided to go with the 9300, because in the end, you might end up regretting the 8300, and also because Dell took away the T8300 deal `-`

 

I already bought my XPS M1530, with the T9300

Thanks

 

I bought the 9300 for the same reasons...! And I'm happy that I made that decision.

 

Ehm, yes, I also got the T9300. Why? Hmmm... Because I like the number "9300" better than "8300"? Because I'm going to run a 64-bit OS on it and thought that it would be especially beneficial in that case to have 6MB instead of 3MB L2 cache (even though I really don't know if that's a valid argument)? Because I wanted the best processor for the budget that I had in mind? I don't have a really valid rational reason for it.

 

Same old dilemma.... I am in a similar situation... But I'll frame the question differently: Are there any applications/OS's (64 bit) which need more L2 caches or is it just a psychological thingy or the 'bigger number syndrome'? Guys, is the Juice really worth the squeeze??

 

Nope. All you get is a 100 mhz boost, you can overclock to high clocks, you get about 3 fps faster in gaming.

Its not really worth it imo.

 

I actually had to make this decision as a aftermarket upgrade for my M1530. Had a T7250 in it, and decided to upgrade the CPU. Why? I don't know.... Maybe because I got a pretty loaded outlet M1530 for really really cheap

Anyways, I decided to go with the T8300, and I am glad I did. It is freaking FAST! I can say with all the confidence in the world, that you will never regret buying the T8300. Well maybe until the new line of CPU's/Chipset comes out