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    Is the CPU upgrade worth it?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Chiddy, Jul 23, 2009.

  1. Chiddy

    Chiddy Newbie

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    Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 (3.06 GHz, 6MB L2 Cache. 1066MHz FSB)

    or

    Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8800 (2.66 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)

    for a laptop with these specs:

    1gb Nvidia GeForce 130M
    500 gb 7200 rpm with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
    16" HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
    4gb DDR2 (2 Dimm)

    The price difference is $300.
     
    Chiddy, Jul 23, 2009
    #1
  2. Nixus

    Nixus Notebook Geek

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    For my use I'd say no (Light games)

    depends on how you use your pc
     
    Nixus, Jul 23, 2009
    #2
  3. ortegaluis

    ortegaluis Notebook Consultant

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    What do you intend to use your laptop for? Web surfing, gaming, video editing, etc., etc.?
     
    ortegaluis, Jul 23, 2009
    #3
  4. Kallogan

    Kallogan Notebook Deity

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    Take the P8800 without any hesitation.
     
    Kallogan, Jul 23, 2009
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  5. Chiddy

    Chiddy Newbie

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    I intend to use the laptop for moderate gaming and for engineering in college.
     
    Chiddy, Jul 23, 2009
    #5
  6. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Are you going to use programs such as MATLAB and such? Personally, I still feel $300 is too much for an upgrade.
     
    sgogeta4, Jul 23, 2009
    #6
  7. Euquility

    Euquility Notebook Deity

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    agreed with sgogeta, $300 for that upgrade is a bit high. If there is a middle ground between those it may be worth considering but thats not a good deal.
     
    Euquility, Jul 23, 2009
    #7
  8. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    Serg, Jul 23, 2009
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  9. nu_D

    nu_D Notebook Deity

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    Yup.

    It will run cooler and give you better battery life and I will bet you a silver dollar you won't notice the performance difference.

    Want to see a huge performance difference? Take that $300 you would save and get yourself an Intel X25m SSD for $230. Then sit back and watch your laptop fly.
     
    nu_D, Jul 23, 2009
    #9
  10. Fragilexx

    Fragilexx Get'cha head in the game

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    The performance boost for the T9900 is going to be relatively large for some programs, not really because of the increase in CPU frequency but due to the increased cache. It's been said before that with a dual core processor, you'd have less of performance hit by disabling one of the cores than by disabling the cache.

    However, for other programs the performance increase is going to either be non existent or barely noticable.

    Unless you are doing work with large chunks of data, or lots and lots of different data, you would probably not see much difference. Also, although CPU frequency plays a large part in pretty much everything your machine does, you really need to try to balance that out against price.

    Do you know what software packages you will be using in college?

    To be fair, it doesn't matter if you don't. Keep in mind that the college / university will always need to cater for people who haven't spent tons on their machines, so there will be lower spec'd machines than your lowest option anyway. So my 2 cents is that you'd be fine with the P8800.
     
    Fragilexx, Jul 23, 2009
    #10
  11. Kallogan

    Kallogan Notebook Deity

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    I so agree !!!!!! You've got the truth in you man ;-)
     
    Kallogan, Jul 24, 2009
    #11