RAM vs. CPU

I tried searching through the forums for this topic but was unable to find threads that addressed this exact topic.

Here's my question: What is more important? A ~300 Mhz upgrade in CPU or a doubling of RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB?

For about the same price (~$1050 shipped) I can get one of the following systems:

Dell 630m (XPS M140)
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 - 1.73GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB
2GB Shared DDR2 SDRAM
40GB 5400rpm Hard Drive (I have a 300 GB external)
DVD burner
9-cell upgraded battery
etc. etc.

OR

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 - 2GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB
1GB Shared DDR2 SDRAM
80GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
DVD burner
9-cell upgraded battery
etc. etc.

So which one will most improve my system performance, the upgraded CPU or the RAM?

Thanks.

Also, if you have any comments on whether these systems are a good deal, I would appreciate that as well.

 

Depends on what you're doing. Generally I'd say RAM though, hte only down side is that it's very easy to add RAM, much more difficult and warranty voiding to upgrade the CPU.

 

I agree with Brian. Seeing as you have an external hard drive, I would get the one with the more RAM. But if you didn't have the external drive, I would go with the 80GB hard drive. RAM is super easy and fairly cheap to upgrade aftermarket.

Matt

 

it has an integrated card, so you wont be gaming. If you use autocad, or ps, or any heavy 3d modeling software i'd suggest 2 gigs. going from 1 gig to 2 gigs wont be noticed, unless you run those programs. keep the 1.73 mhz and 1 gig and upgrade something else like the hd or dvd burner

 

For the regular user 1GB of ram is enough. Anything above that will go unused, except if you have any special needs. I hover at ~400MB ram usage most of the time, and don't use my entire 1GB except when I am doing some programming/modeling.

I would go with extra CPU. Ram can always be upgraded if you develop the need down the road

 

Thanks for all of the replies so far.

Here's a quick run-down of what I plan on using this laptop for.

-Word processing/web browsing.
-Photo editing and video conversion.
-Watching video
-Old (i.e.: 3 or 4 years ago) games, etc.

Any more comments?

P.S. Maybe I think I need so much RAM because I'm currently using a P4 1.8 Ghz desktop with 256 MB RAM and it's slow as molasses!!

 

I believe 1GB ram will be plenty, some will even run such apps on 512MB, but better stick with 1GB ... that's my recommendation

Edit: I guess video converstion can make use of the extra CPU speed