Budget constraints- sacrifice processor or ram?

hello anyone who finds this thread amongst the plethora on this site. i am a first time poster as you can see.

i signed up to the website because i am buying a laptop in about a months time with a budget of around £1200 (and that is pushing it). obviously i will be performing simple tasks like office etc, but i want a good laptop for gaming. i have pretty much settled on a laptop with a go7600 or x1600 because they are in my price range and there is little to choose between them, i also want to go for a dual core. but i keep finding deals with a 1.83 dual core and 1gb of ddr2 ram, and deals with 1.66 dual core and 2gb ddr2 ram. which of these combinations will be better for gaming? is there much difference between the two processors? is 1gb of ddr2 enough? incase anyone is thinking of recommending a specific laptop i am dead set on 15inch.

please help me because this is a big purchase for me and i dont want to get it wrong.

 

i'll take the ram over the processor

 

yes i realise that this might not be in the correct section because the question is not about graphics cards, but i do need to know about other hardware affects on gaming.

thx

 

thx for the comment. i was also wondering wat ddr2 brings to the table, ive seen article saying that 1gb of ddr2 is almost as good as 2gb of ddr.

 

Well, that's a tough one. See, the ram will benefit you MUCH more in games. So if you never have any intentions to upgrade, get that. However, ram can bet upgraded in all of 2 minutes, and you only need to remove 2 screws in most cases. So if upgrading IS a possibility in the near future, you may want the CPU

 

Get the 1.83 with the 2 GB DDR2 ram if you can. However, the 1.66 should be sufficient for your needs, and you can upgrade when you would like (especially in a year considering merom is coming out). Get the ram if you have to choose between the two, I'm sure many will back me on this because the 1.66 can handle many tasks thrown at it. Yes, it is harder to upgrade it over the ram, but you will most likely not notice a huge difference between the two processors, but will notice a bigger difference (over the processor difference) with the ram. However, if you do not plan on upgrading the processor, get the faster one. Then later just pop another 1gb stick of ram in.
Also DDR2 is just faster ram.

 

how much does it generally cost to upgrade ram by a gb, im guessing around £100. also, arent laptops very fussy about the ram you put in?

 

Fussy?? Don't think so. You should go with the beter processor, and upgrade your ram later. In lots of cases you may not be able to upgrade your procesor yourself. Ram you can just pop in, and is cheaper if you do it yourself.

 

i'de say get BOTH...take a look at zepto...u can get both (and stay within ure budget)
speced one out for u:

Zepto Znote 6615WD ( GPU: nVidia Geforce Go 7600 512MB graphics card )
100265 15.4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 (6615WD)
120606 1.83 GHz Intel® Core™ Duo T2400
130121 2048MB (2x1024) DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ
140020 100GB 7200omdr. SATA Hitachi
150121 DVD-RW Dual Layer burner Slot-in (Sony)
260025 Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 54Mbit
200200 No operating system
270010 Built-in bluetooth
170050 UK (United Kingdom) 6515WD Keyboard
300200 1 year warr. (6 mths on battery)

those specs came to 1024 pounds sterling (incl. VAT), i dont know about the quality of the notebook but like alot of ppl have said in the forums it looks like a compal (dont think it is though) u can ask around and find out about it (and plz post if u find out anything...alot of ppl would like to know).

here's a link:
http://uk.zepto.com/Default.aspx?page=NotebookSummaryPage&notebookid=O6P2jpCGK2

Enjoy!!

I'de go with the proccessor upgrade though....1 GB of RAM is more than enough to get most games going...and it's a peice of cake to put another gig in there when u need it, performance-wise ide definitly recommend the RAM over proccessor but like alot of ppl have mentioned it's harder to upgrade ure processor.

 

What I'm saying has already been said, but take the faster processor if you plan to upgrade the RAM later.
2GB of RAM comes in handy for the latest games. 1GB is the bare minimum.

 

Take a look at this.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/86217/evesham-voyager-c550-rd.html

 

thx alot everyone, especially scubadoc for the recommendation. the deals zepto offer are almost too good to be true. how did you find out about them because i have never heard of them?

 

Yeah the Zepto sounds like a really good deal. Also when configuring upgrades they don't charge a bomb like other manufacturers do.

If you do end up getting samw1se let us know all how it is.

 

i would go with the better cpu, because as said above, it is easier to replace ram later. just a note though, when you order your machine, makesure you order 1 x 1gb of ram, not 2x512mb of ram.
If you decide to upgrade later, and you have 2x512, you will have to buy 2 sticks 1gb ram to get to 2gbs (because the 512s are taking up both slots), where as if you get 1x1gb then you just have to buy one more and plop it in.

Check online hardware sites for the types of ram that are supported by the laptop you are getting. I know that laptop manufacturers often charge much more for ram than it would cost to buy it online from somewhere else.


edit: if the Zepto is for real, that sounds like a great deal!

 

i sure will let you know cos i am getting one, an unbelievable price, in fact i cant wait to see whats wrong with it at that price, . but i wont be getting for about a month. i will post thread on it when i get it if you will still be interested.