Intel Core 2 Duo situation...

Today I found a great deal on an Inspiron 1720 on Dell.ca. Only though, when I calculate upgrades along with it, it reaches my max. spending amount. Yet, this notebook comes with Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz when I had been thinking about having one with 2.0GHz. Is Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz still good enough though? For gaming too? And would this be well future-proof? (may have PC for 3-5 years)

P.S. I plan on playing FPS games, which are usually pretty high spec, maybe Far Cry and Crysis (DON'T CARE IF I HAVE TO PLAY ON MEDIUM) with a 256MB Nvidia 8600M GT. I just thought this may have something to do with this whole processor thing. If not, FORGET THIS THAN AND GO WITH WHAT I JUST SAID ABOVE...

 

FPS games rely on the GPU not CPU.

 

I would go to the Dell Outles online store and get a refurb. You get the same warranty and you can upgrade the warranty if need be. there are great deals to be had on the outlet site.

 

very good deals can also be found on the IBM Leveno outlet.

 

I would recommend spending as much money on a top-tier GPU for that model rather than a stronger CPU. As Lithus said, FPSs rely heavily on graphics power, and your graphics card will be the first part to become "outdated."

 

Ok, fine, I'm just curious if Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz is enough power for being future proof and running games? I want either "yes", or "no, you should try to go with 2.0GHz" or something like that. If you REALLY have to mention my GPU, go ahaed, I just hope that it'll be a good gaming card for at least 3-4years. Sure, it may not be able to play high spec games with exactly med/high in a couple of years, but I'm hoping it'll play standard-spec games in great res for years, as for high spec games, I'm hoping that at least by the time they're barely unplayable on it, that'll be a long while for now...

But, plz at least answer my question about the processor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

no. 1.83 ghz should be fine for your needs. upgrading to 2.0 will most likely not increase your gaming ability by more than a few fps.

 

The answer is yes. As you've already indicated you're willing to make sacrifices if need be. By realizing now that you're willing to make those sacrifices (and will most likely have to) it will last.

My current desktop is 3-5 years old. It is still very usable but was hardly "futureproof". I'm not even trying to play Crysis on it but many other fps work quite well.

 

i play crysis on low with an 8700M gt...averages about 35 fps on this machine. see sig.
but thats because i play it at 1440 x 900 resolution. could get higher framerates if i dropped the resolution down.