CPU and RAM: what will it improve?

I am running a C2D t5450 clocked at 1.66ghz and 2gb ram on my Inspiron 1525. I have been running Photoshop and Vegas Pro as well as my Game recording software and needless to say, it can't keep up. I can get a T9300 2.5 ghz and 4gb Ram and since I can't play games, what will that improve?

 

ALL. 10 char

 

i have a t9300 on my old laptop as well, i have to say its been very capable, its the 3650m with the DDR2 RAM that eventually became too old and cant play games anymore

 

I do game on mine (first in sig). I can run almost any first-person shooter game at 1024x768 at medium settings, so I cant say that I cant play games on it anymore.

 

The T9300 is twice as good as the processor listed above. It will be a big improvement. The T9300 is roughly as good as the last gen AMD A6. At what price does the upgrade come? It might be worth getting a total new system.

 

The RAM upgrade alone will make a huge difference in PS (especially for bang-for-the-buck) and even more so on a modern O/S (Win7/8 64bit). The CPU upgrade will offer up to 85% more raw performance. Together, the system should make you twice as productive in your tasks listed (gaming ignored...).

See PM score '923':
PassMark - Intel Core2 Duo T5450 @ 1.66GHz - Price performance comparison

See PM score '1720':
PassMark - Intel Core2 Duo T9300 @ 2.50GHz - Price performance comparison


But danielschoon is right - it depends on what this upgrade will cost you in time and money (and... is this 100% guaranteed to work if you do this yourself...).


For example, almost any system based on an i5 Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge platform like the example below can give you performance like below:

See example $500 i5 2450m Sandy Bridge based system:
Acer Aspire V3-571-6422 w/ Core i5-2450M, 6GB, 750GB, DVD+/-RW, 15.6in HD, Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit at Memory Express


See PM score '3549':
PassMark - Intel Core i5-2450M @ 2.50GHz - Price performance comparison


See example $550 i5 3210 Ivy Bridge based system:
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530 3259-AC5 w/ Core i5-3210M, 6GB, 500GB, DVD+/-RW, 15.6in HD, Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit at Memory Express


See PM score '3852':
PassMark - Intel Core i5-3210M @ 2.50GHz - Price performance comparison



Note too that both 'example' systems above come with 6GB RAM which you can easily upgrade to 16GB RAM (~$80 2x 8GB SoDIMMs) to further increase your productivity by 80% or more (over an identical 4GB or 6GB setup in your workflows). This could translate to almost 6x faster than what you currently have for around the $600 range (including warranty, a better video card, better battery life and an O/S and hardware that is really 64bit ready (and capable of being upgraded to the even better Win8x64 when you need it).


While upgrading older systems can be fun, entertaining and a learning experience - in the end you'll just end up spending more because the up to 4x increase in performance is hard to ignore (and the possibility to go to 16GB RAM and the additional increase in productivity is one more reason to be tempted by a new platform/system rather than throwing money away at an outdated platform - 'outdated' for your current usage).


Hope this helps? Good luck with your decision.

Happy Holidays to one and All!

 

Thanks, all in all the upgrade will be about $100, and since I CAN'T get a new computer until college, its my only option.

 

Well I can atest T9300 or T9500 will work as I already tried a T9300 in my 1525 and expanded Ram to 4Gigs. I run Windows7x64sp1 on it right now and it works great. I currently have a T8100 cpu as it cost less then getting a T9300 for the time being. Going from T5450 to T9300 will definitely improve I had my 1525 2.2 celeron and going to T8100 improve computing power of the laptop to play video and not bog down from heavy application usage. Your ram expansion for the 1525 will only go from my test using 2Gig DDR2 will only handle 4Gigs I tried 8Gigs and it didn't like that and didn't boot. So there is a limitation there.