Upgrading from a T5550 T9300

First of all, is this possible?
Both are socket P, The T5550 is a Merom. The T9300 a Penryn.

My chipset is an intel PM965, so it should support up to a 800mhz processor like the T9300. Right?

Is the swap worth doing? 1.83ghz(2mb cache) vs 2.5ghz(6mb) I play a few games and would like better performance, but don't want to spend as much to get a desktop.

On the laptop I have 4 gigs of ram and a 512mb Nvidia 8600M GS.

 

It'll work. The PM965 supports both the 1st Gen Penryn and Merom processors.

 

Thank you. Do you think I'll notice a big jump considering performance? Better or worse battery life?

 

yes you should get a fairly noticeable jump in performance

 

Hmm, I'm thinking slightly better battery life. Both have the same TDP, but Penryns are supposed to be slightly more efficient.

 

If you want to save some money you could go down to a T8300. The performance difference will be minimal but the $$$ you save won't.

 

So i won't notice the difference between 3mb and 6mb of cache? If not, i think this would be the better option. Thanks

 

You won't *notice* the difference. But there is a difference.

 

But from testing 2 vs 4 MB and speculating from 3 vs 6 it's about 3% IIRC.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cache-size-matter,1709.html