Processor differences--speed question

I'm hoping to find the most versatile laptop in my price range and the addition of a somewhat good graphic card by Dell while staying in my price range may be the deciding factor. About $1000 (Can) is my ceiling so I am already a bit past that with one of the machines Iam considering, but will pay it if it is worth it.

I am looking at two different versions of a Dell Inspiron with substantial cost differences. I am wondering if it is worth the difference in price. The main thing here is the processor.

How important is the processor speed for gaming and basic audio recording ( me and my guitar--I have an external 'sound card' so not an issue with specs)? Will a slower processor make a difference?

The graphic card is the same in both (Radeon x1400) and both have 2GB of RAM.

Set-up 1:
--$1139
--6400 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5300 (2MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
--160GB hard drive (not imporant as the 80 GB offered in the next machine is enough for me)

Set-up 2.
--$859
--Intel® Pentium® dual-core T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB
--80GB hard drive (more than enough)

Any thoughts? They would surely be appreciated.

Jeff

 

The processor is not slower, it has less memory on the actual die (the T2080). Cache is important for 3D rendering and server processing, so you will not notice the difference. Does Set-up #1 have a better video card? For that price I would expect it to.

 

Holy moly. Both have a Radeon X1400, so the graphics card isn't a real issue here. But almost $300 for just a processor upgrade, what's going on there?

Pentium Dual-Core is a cut-down version of either Core Duo or Core 2 Duo. Regardless of its budget nature, it still packs a pretty large punch, especially compared to the single-core Pentium M's of the previous generation. As always, the main bottleneck in any laptop is the graphics card. The X1400 is pretty midrange and is the best you can get on the Inspiron E1505, so I don't think the processor will bottleneck your system. And the performance gain of the T5300 versus the Pentium dual-core is not worth $300.

 

Thanks for the responses. Sometimes it is pretty tough to navigate this ever changing hardware environment!

 

Note that the T2080 is NOT a 64 bit CPU, whereas the T5300 is. This will really only affect you if you might want to run 64bit in the future on this machine.

On the other hand, the 1MB vs. 2MB of cache will affect you very much. Contrary to what was said above, doubling the cache will provide a good bit of speed-up (around 10%, from most testing I've seen) on games and other applications.

That said, if you're looking to save some cash, you won't be disappointed with the second machine. But the first one will be faster because of the CPU, and the hard drive. The 160GB hard drive will transfer data faster than the 80GB, if they're the same RPM. Either way, make sure you get at least 1GB of memory, and ideally, 2GB. That will affect your performance more than anything else.

 

If I had to choose between the two, I'd go for setup 1 (C2D). Just upgrading setup 2's hard drive alone could push the price up another $160 anyway, and the C2D would still handle processor intensive tasks a bit better. IMO

 

For your needs, you may be better off going with the cheaper deal.

 

A 300 CDN for the core 2 duo is a rip off.