Question about T5000 series vs. T7000 series

How much is gaming performance affected by CPU speed? I do realize that 99%, the bottleneck is the GPU.

More specifically, I want to run WoW smoothly with a 1.4 GHz T5270, 128MB 8400GS. I'm not upping the graphics card because of $$$, but I'm wondering if upgrading to Santa Rosa (T7000+) will make the gaming improvement worth the extra $130 bucks.

Thanks.

 

The $100 to go to the 8600m GT would make a bigger diff.

 

I'm configuring Dell Vostro 1400, which unfortunately, doesn't come with anything higher than the 8400 GS. I could go Vostro 1500, but that means 15.4'' (too big) and probably more expensive just cuz the screen's bigger.

 

The biggest bottle neck will be the 8400GS but that should run WOW just fine. The cpu wont make that much if a difference in games like WOW, but it will a little bit in overall system performance. I went from a 2300 @ 1.67 to my current CPU and Im very happy with the overall increase in speed. Start up, encoding, unpacking files, and everything else is just quicker. If you have the money, try and spring for it; CPUs are important. If you dont upgrade the CPU, make sure you have 2 gigs of memory. Hope this helps.

 

By the way, Santa Rosa is only odd numbered T7000s, -- T7100, T7300, T7500, and T7700

 

Thanks for the help. Just placed the order (shown in sig).

 

Looks good. I'm thinking of doing the same thing myself, but I'll probably upgrade the RAM myself. I'm still looking into the possibilities of upgrading the CPU myself too (after the warranty expires).