The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    CPU speed and Wireless card choice

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Mathias, Apr 24, 2006.

  1. Mathias

    Mathias Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    55
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Hi all,

    My first question:

    I think I might get a Toshiba M100, but I'm deciding whether to get the 1.66 or the 1.83 Ghz CPU. The price difference is $70. The bump up to 2.00 Ghz is another $160 (70+160 total), so I can easily rule out that upgrade. But what are the thoughts on the 1.66 vs 1.83 difference?

    The way I see it, that $70 is almost another gig of RAM (I plan to buy 1 GB RAM to start). Although I plan to do some light gaming (and will be getting the x1400 card), I wonder if the CPU bump will help much in any domain, or if another GB of RAM is a better spending of money. (or neither)


    My second question:

    Which wireless card should I get?

    Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g)
    Atheros® wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g)

    They are both the same price.


    Thanks!

    -Mat
     
    Mathias, Apr 24, 2006
    #1
  2. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

    Reputations:
    436
    Messages:
    3,651
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    if you can only get one; upgrading the RAM is the way better choice. you will be able to see it's effects in your day to day, a bump from .66 to .86 is not something you're going to notice as a user.
     
    drumfu, Apr 24, 2006
    #2
  3. qwester

    qwester Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    366
    Messages:
    2,755
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    If you believe you will use 2GB of RAM, then the RAM upgrade is better. Otherwise get the CPU upgrade. Currently the 1.83 is the best price to performance ratio.

    As for the WIFI card. Atheros tend to be better. They have a slightly larger range, and have less incompatibility problems with access points. Although the last generation of intels seems to have improved with regards to incompatibility.
     
    qwester, Apr 24, 2006
    #3
  4. Mathias

    Mathias Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    55
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Since my post somewhat duplicates others, here is another relevant thread

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=50691

    And here is an interesting comparison between different CPUs:
    http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html
    (for this link I was curious to see how a 1.66 Core Duo would stack up against my experience with my desktop, a P4-3.0 Ghz chip).. i was pleasantly surprised at the information! But, it somewhat accounts for the claims (see forgetregret's review of the Satellite M100) that Oblivion can run decently on the Core Duo even with only an x1400 GPU, even though it runs not so well on P4/Geforce 6800.
     
    Mathias, Apr 24, 2006
    #4
  5. boon27

    boon27 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    340
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    is the comparison accurate though...cause it says pentium 755 (2.4 ghz) which suppose to be 2.0 Ghz
     
    boon27, Apr 25, 2006
    #5
  6. miner

    miner Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    1,326
    Messages:
    7,137
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    There are 2 resukts for the PM 755, one at 2.0GHz(its default speed) and the other is probably an overclocked 755 running at 2.4GHz.
     
    miner, Apr 25, 2006
    #6