More RAM or Better Processor?

Question for someone smarter than I am about computers.

I am buying a new laptop and, for reasons that I won't bore you with, I am faced with the choice of getting one with a slightly better processor or one with more RAM.

So, which is better for performance? A slightly better processor (T7500 2.2 GHz vs T7300 2.0 GHz) or a bit more RAM (3GB vs 2GB)?

Which would give more bang for the buck when it comes to gaming and normal work (multi-tasking Powerpoint, Word, and Excel at the same time).

The system will be running Vista.

Thanks for any help!

 

Processor, since it's not easily upgradeable like RAM.

 

Yeah, I'd get the T7500 with 2GB, if everything else was the same. The T7300 + 3GB would actually probably be more powerful for the money, but RAM is cheap and easy to upgrade, unlike the CPU.

 

If you can update both, then max them out, but if budget is limited, get more ram instead. Like Lithus said, CPU is not easily upgradeable.

If the price difference is only $50-$100 for CPU upgrade, I'll go for the CPU upgrade instead.

 

Toss up! Some say Vista runs fine on 2GB others say faster on 3GB, CPU's will show no difference with most applications, on the most demanding tasks maybe 10%. It is splitting hairs, I would get the 3GB's if the 2GB's comes as 2 sticks because if I needed to go 3GB's it would cost about $100 to get a 2GB stick and I would have to pull a 1GB stick out and sell or use as a paper weight. Then again easier to change RAM than CPU. Sorry no easy answer but you can't make a bad choice if that helps.

Edit:In this case I think more RAM is going to help When keeping all those office apps open at the same time, I am certain of that, when you have them all open you only process one at a time but all have to stay in memory. I changed my mind, RAM for what you need no doubt!

 

Thanks for all the help. And so qiuckly!

So, again, all things being equal, would it be better to build a system with the better processor but only one 1GB chip and then install a 2GB chip that I buy separately? Taking a quick tour around the web, I see that I can do that for about half the cost it would be if I built it directly from Dell or HP with the 2 or 3 GB.

See, one system I could build, the other comes ready made.

 

Yes, the better processor + a single 1GB or single 2GB chip would be best.

 

faster HD. 2G is already enough, so is the CPU. Best bang for the buck is a fast HD.

 

Am I missing something? 2nd time in as many days, how do we know what HDD he has? Am I missing something? So if we don't know how can we recommend?

 

It's pretty much assumed that most people have/will opt for the 5400 RPM HDD. Recommending the 7200 RPMs is fine, since we're not forcing it on them, it's just as valid of a recommendation as anything else.

 

T7300 to T7500 is quite a leap in processor performance, while 2GB to 3GB of RAM is certainly not a substantial change. 2GB will suffice for about everything. Enough said.

 

T7300 to T7500 has a maximum performance difference of 10%. In some games 2GB to 3GB has been shown to double performance.

 

Thanks for the input but I think now I might be more confused. I always thought that a HD was about fourth in the priority for speed (Processor, Video Card, Memory, and then HD). I can't upgrade the video card, so I was thinking processor was the way to go.

However, for the record, the systems both have 5400 RPM. I can upgrade one but not the other.

 

Also consider that you can do aftermarket upgrades on HDD and RAM fairly simply.

For overall system performance, processor, RAM, and hard drive all play very important roles, and in most laptops the HDD is the slowest part of the overall system performance.

 

A 5400 rpm is fine. Most people don't notice much of a difference between a 5400 and a 7200 rpm HD. There is a big leap from a 4200 rpm. Even though the performance difference is small, I'd go with a processor upgrade. As others have mentioned, upgrading a processor is much more difficult than RAM. True you won't see a huge difference in performance, but most of the time neither will a change in ram from 2 to 3. There are games which run better with 3 gb ram. Just upgrade the processor now, then upgrade the ram later.

 

Except for very specific tasks, say number crunching with small memory footprint(where the CPU trumps), or generic task with very large memory footprint(say photoshop on digital photo where memory + CPU trumps), or games(where graphic card trumps, may be all 3), your system is as fast as the slowest component which is the HD where no matter what you do would eventually go to.

In fact, the most likely upgrade I would have would be a SSD when its price drop by 50% or so. That I believe would give me the best overall usage experience.

Of course, if you have specific task in mind, that is another story.