Intel C2D- P7350 vs. P8400 performance

I'm planning to buy a 17" notebook in the next few days. I've narrowed it down to a few models, one that is configure-to-order (CTO) and a couple that are pre-configured models only.

Building my CTO system, I chose the 2.26GHz P8400 processor ($35 upgrade from standard P7350). I've found a good deal from an online retailer for one of the pre-configured models, but it has the 2.0GHz P7350 processor. I'm thinking that the P7350 is probably more than adequate for my needs. Choosing the P8400 on the CTO model was likely more out of habit than actual need? Much like my dad, when buying a car, always wants a V6 when the 4-cylinder would easily suffice. =)

Anyone care to offer any input or advice? FYI- the system will also have a discrete graphics card and at least 3GB of RAM, which will contribute to overall system performance.

Thanks!

 

I don't know what you do with your system so real comment on CPU's is difficult. That said for over 95% of users difference in those CPU's makes no difference.

If DDR2 You might be able to save upgrading RAM yourself. 2GB DIMM under $40.

 

Exactly as powerpack has said, it really depends on what you're using it for.

If playing games is a buying feature than you should actually concentrate on the graphics card instead as it would be a greater bottleneck, but if you're only using the system as a surfing/entertainment/office workstation then either processors would do fine.

 

A P7350 should be good enough even for gaming, the performance hasnt really been benchmarked but its only about 10% slower than the P8400. The rest of the specs are the same - 3MB l2 cache, 45nm, 1066Mhz FSB.. its actually quite a good processor.

Although thats 10% slower, is that even slow? The P8400 is a really fast processor - the dv5t review on NBR.com had the P8400 doing wPrime at 34.52 seconds. At 2.0 ghz it might do 37-38 sec, which is about the same as a T7500 or T8100 - both of which are great processors

 

You can overclock it right?

 

Look at you task manager and watch the cpu usage bar. Does it often spike to 100% ?

 

Thanks for all the input. It is appreciated! =)

My initial apprehension to the P7350 was just a knee-jerk reaction because it's the "base" model of the latest round of releases from Intel. Most of the benchmark scores for systems using the older 2.0GHz T7250 (800MHz FSB) or even the T5750 (667MHz FSB) are more than sufficient, especially when combined with a decent graphics card.

I was debating between an HP dv7t that I could configure and a pre-configured Toshiba Satellite P305. If I had went with the HP, I would have paid $35 for the upgrade from the P7350 to the P8400. I think I've finally settled on the Toshiba P305-S8844, though.

These are the primary performance-related specs-

Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
2.0GHz Intel P7350
3GB of DDR2-800 (PC6400)
512mb ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3650

I'm not planning to use it for gaming, but I think it'll be plenty powerful for a multimedia/entertainment setup.