Core 2 Duo recs/help for longtime P4 user

Hi I'm interested in buying a new laptop for college (under 2.2k) and need help in choosing which processor to buy:

Intel T7600
Intel T7200
Intel T5600
Intel T5500

I'm upgrading (damn all you that laugh but I paid this with my own $) from my 2002 hp pavilion 9995 desktop w/a 1.5GB & 2GH P4 - 400Mhz; as you can see, this worked well enough for simple word processing tasks/music/email/etc. But now with the advent of Vista and what not, it can't keep up (I ran the Pi-calc program for 2M digits and it came to about 4 min...)

I want to continue doing the above stuff as well as dvd ripping/burning, seldom gaming like WoW/AoE III/etc, and photoshop now and then. I go to computer stores and fiddle with these new machines but can't make an honest assessment of just how much faster they are than my ancient behemoth now. I mean, all I remember as fast before the p4 demise was my bro's 3.2 GHz p4 w/HT.

Like, how fast to convert a 3 min 128kbps mp3 in itunes or virus scan/spyware scan for 80GB HD with your core 2's nowdays?

 

On Turion 64 X2 TL-60 like 2-3 mins for a whole 80min CD into MP3.

ANY new c2d will destroy your P4. like most c2d can calculate 2M digits of pi in about ~1 min.

as to say HOW much faster: A LOT.

 

hmm for the mp3... ~30 seconds... for at least 5 of them. the virus scan depends more on the speed of your hard drive with todays processors.

Dont buy a new lappy yet, a brand new processor technology is just around the corner (i.e. a month or less. or maybe already out and I'm just not aware of it...) considering how long you held onto that old laptop, you'll want it as 'futureproof' as possible, and getting this new processor technology will help with that.

 

I think Santa Rosa is released May 9 (tomorrow) can anyone confirm that?

 

thx yall lol those numbers yall gave me scared me!

I've been hearing a lot about this Santa Rosa platform as well as D10 graphic chipsets coming in Q2 07 models, I'll wait a bit more then.

 

Keep in mind that the most current, leading/"BLEEDING" edge hardware will always command a premium over just a generation back (which may only be a 1/2 generation). If you look at the T2500 instead of the T7200 as an example you may find yourself saving a few hundred bucks or more. What's the difference; 4 MB cache instead of 2 and 64 bit processing capability. Do you need it, probably not (right now at least).

Figure out what your primary tasks are and match up the specs to that. Don't blow the bank unless you have to or want to. AND have fun shopping for the new machine, of course.

 

One core of the T7200 is approximately equivalent to a 3.8GHz P4 and you have two cores to share the work. The T5600 and T2500 are about 10-25% slower than the T7200 depending how much the performance of an individual application is boosted by the extra cache of the T7200 (Super Pi shows a big performance difference 1m 02s vs 1m 16s).

The great benefit of dual core is that the computer is still usable while running a heavy task.

John

 

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

thats a CPU comparison thingy with a few benchmarks that tell ya just how two CPUs compare performance-wise

 

Unfortunately, the mobile CPU chart has a limited selection and doesn't include the slower C2Ds.

John