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    CPU Upgrade from P8600 to P9600 Worth it?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by niwatori, Apr 2, 2009.

  1. niwatori

    niwatori Newbie

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    Hey guys! Ive been googling this for an hour now and i cant seem to find the answer so I decided to ask all of you lovely people who are more computer savy than me. Thanks in advance!

    Im looking to buy a new laptop and was wondering if the P8600 was worth upgrading to the P9600 for $165. Basically I will be doing some video editing, gaming and your typical multitasking of applications. What i wanted to keep was the 25 watt output. Is the $165 worth the 6mb Cache + .26 GHz speed? Battery life should also be about the same too correct? Thanks again!
     
    niwatori, Apr 2, 2009
    #1
  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    Battery life should be identical. Performance boost will be negligible (you won't feel it at all in normal use), so I would say it's not worth it. A more worth-while upgrade would be to add RAM (to 4GB) or buy a faster hard drive (because the HDD is often the bottleneck).
     
    MidnightSun, Apr 2, 2009
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  3. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    For that price difference I think sticking with the P8600 is the better choice. Video editing will use 100% cpu power, but the difference of 260Mhz isnt all that much. Battery life will be similar between the P and T series chips because when you are on battery, the processor is forced to its lowest multiplier, which is usually the lowest voltage, the cpu can go, which is around 0.950V
    This value should be the same for both P and T series processors. You will see a difference in battery life only when both cpu's are running at full load. If thats the case the P series processor will yield more battery life.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Apr 2, 2009
    #3
  4. niwatori

    niwatori Newbie

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    so the added 3mb cache doesnt matter?
     
    niwatori, Apr 2, 2009
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  5. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    In most cases the extra 3MB of cache won't offer significantly improved performance and, as K-TRON stated, neither will that extra 260MHz. The general gist is that the P9600 is a better processor, just not a $165 better processor.
     
    Commander Wolf, Apr 2, 2009
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  6. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    If you're running Handbrake 24/7, then maybe. If you're just coding the occasional video, then I think not. Given the usage, a faster hard drive and more memory is probably money better spent.
     
    ZaZ, Apr 2, 2009
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  7. stevezachtech

    stevezachtech Notebook Evangelist

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    The models are not very different in terms of performance improvements... I suggest you save more for a more promising product.
     
    stevezachtech, Apr 6, 2009
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  8. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

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    So what notebook are you looking into purchasing?
     
    Kevin, Apr 7, 2009
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