T5550 vs T7250

My girlfriend is looking into a computer for college for this fall and has been putting models togethor.

I steered them away from the older Core Duo's and to the newer Core 2 Duos.

My question is.

The system will more than likely be a 3gb ddr2, vista premium, intel x3100, 320gb 5400rpm... So would this set-up achieve any noticeable performance gain by going from a 5550 to a 7250? The 90$ mark-up doesn't make me think it's worth it.

I honestly think the t5550 should be more than adequate in any situation, am I right?

EDIT: And on this note again... does the T5550 have signifigant performance gains over the T2370? I would think it does.

 

For $90, the upgrade to the T7250 is not really worth it. If it were the T7300, then I would say yes the upgrade will be worth it.

You made a wise idea getting the 320gb 5400rpm drive, that will surely speed things up a lot.

Also get the smallet amount of memory from the manufacturer, cause they usually rip one off in the memory department.
You can get 4Gb of ddr2 laptop memory for $60, so if it is like $100+ to upgrade to 3Gb of memory, just get the smallest amount and upgrade with aftermarket memory.

The configs are good.
If your friend is going to be doing any emac or media studies, I recommend getting a better gpu.

K-TRON

 

She's pretty dead set on a Inspiron 1525.

So dedicated graphics is out the window.

And the only reason 3gb of ram is included is because her dad is wary of user upgrades to something brand new, and plus..

Dell allows you to get all the things togethor for a decent amount I believe.

1000-1100$ seems fair to me for the crap load of nicenesses she is getting.

(configured with t5550)

 

I agree with K-TRON on all points, save for the GPU.

In general, I'm all for "if you don't need it, don't get it". If she isn't going to do much more than basic office/school work and multimedia, she isn't going to need more than a T5550 or an X3100; the aforementioned configuration should be more than enough.

Either way, the difference between the T5550 and the T7250 isn't great and probably not worth 90 dollars. The difference between the T2370 and the T5550 isn't great either, but I think the difference between the T2370 and the T7250 starts becoming significant.

As for the memory: yes, Dell is a rip off in the memory department; yes, you should upgrade the memory on your own if possible. If external factors don't allow for a user memory upgrade, well, what can you do?

 

To be honest, it comes out to be cheaper to get the better pre-configs of memory than to try and start with a lower pre-build and then add mem later.

Not sure why... but it comes out as like 1080 with 3gb ram and like 1200 with 1gb ram.

I was messin with it all night :|

 

I think she should get the 1420 with the 8400 card... but she likes the cool patterns on the 1525... lul

 

Paying too much for memory is cheaper than making GF or her father mad?