some quick questions

Hey all, first post so be easy

- what's the difference between 2MB Cache and 4MB Cache for the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU's? is it a big difference?

- 5400RPM compared to 7200RPM... once again how much of a difference between those?

- how long on average should a 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery last? what about a 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery?

- what does a Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal Module do exactly? I've heard of "Bluetooth" before but have never actually known what is does.

- is now a good time to buy a Dell Laptop? I read about how "Santa Rosa" might be coming out for Dell sometime soon... would it be a good idea to wait for that? would the prices go down or up?

thx a lot for the help, appreciate it

 

all depends on what you do. If it's video encoding or cpu intensive tasks, then yes. Otherwise, no

You have to factor in speed as well as density. For simple conversion: 100GB 7200rpm=160GB 5400rpm.

What notebook are you referring to? Theoretically, the 9 cell should be 1.5x battery life of the 6 cell.

Bluetooth lets you connect to many things, including cellphone, headphones, pda, keyboard, mouse, etc

Wait until mid-june to early july when the santa rosa laptops actually hit the market

 

1. More cache will allow you to run the programs more quickly and efficiently, but really depends on the purpose of your use.

Everything else hehe299792458 pretty much answered it; just on a side note Bluetooth is one of the best feature out there for notebooks.

 

1. The difference is not that big. According to this article, it is on average 3.5% for same clock speed. Not many applications benefit from the extra 2MB, therefore if the price is too steep I’d say get the 2MB one.

2. If you look at this and plenty of other benchmarks out there, you’d see that there is a difference. However the difference in real life performance is not as significant as you might think, especially with the newer larger 5400 disks. Again it comes down to the price. If you can buy an 80GB 7200 for the price of a 120GB 5400 then 7200 is a good buy. But I wouldn’t sacrifice a 160GB or larger 5400 disk for an 80GB 7200.

3. Battery life depends on the notebook model. In theory the battery life should be proportional to the WHr rating if you consider the same notebook model.

4. Bluetooth is a wireless data transfer technology utilized in a number of devices like mobile phones, PDAs, notebooks, music players, Headsets, even in keyboards & mice among many others devices. The 355 BT module will let you connect any such BT device to your PC. Since it is relatively cheap, I would recommend buying it, cos you never know when you need to pair up a BT device. These days they are everywhere.

5. I’d say wait for it. It has several improvements over the existing notebooks, like a better processor, a better graphics card and a better wireless adapter.

EDIT : I didn't see hehe299792458's post when I posted mine... looks like we both said the same thing.

 

i'll be using the computer for mainly schoolwork, but in my spare time i'd like to be able to watch videos on youtube, play some games (not any of the advanced ones like WoW... just games like StarCraft, WCIII, webbased games, etc) and chat on MSN and stuff... nothing really advanced I think

atm i'm considering buying a 6400, I think i'll probably just go with the 6-cell battery too

thanks for the bluetooth tip, i'll go ahead and buy it even though I don't really have any plans on using bluetooth mice/keyboard/headset or w/e... but it wouldn't hurt to have it just incase I do change my mind or something

how much more am I looking it if I were to buy a laptop with Santa Rosa in it? and let's say I didn't buy one with it, how much more would I save?