1.5 vs. 1.6 in ZT3000?

I am buying an HP ZT3000 laptop, but am stuck on whether I should upgrade to 1.6 ghz for $75 or just keep the 1.5 ghz. I've read on other posts how upgrading from 3.0 to 3.2 ghz isn't a big deal, but since this is kind of cut in half, I'm not sure if it's needed or not. Also, I do not understand how/why the ZT is only 1.5-2.0 ghz when the P4's are 2.8-3.4 ghz. Is a 1.5 ghz centrino equal to a 2.8 ghz P4? Lots of questions, please post, thanks.

 

Personally I'd just upgrade to the 1.6GHz at $75 if it's a machine you'll be using for 3-years, if it cost $100+ to upgrade I'd actually say who-cares and not do the upgrade. You won't notice a huge performance difference by any means in upgrading by .1 GHz, but $75 isn't too much to add to a machine if it'll be a mainstay in your life for a few years...if you're on a budget and extremely sensitive to price then don't be disappointed to go with the 1.5GHz though.

You can't compare processor performance on Pentium M chips to Pentium 4 chips based on processor speed, you're not comparing apples to apples with these two chips. There have been many, many questions in the forums regarding this issue so fish around and you'll find posts related to comparing the speed of P4 chips to PM chips. In your case a 1.6 Pentium M chip could likely keep pace with a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz processor (assuming your laptop is plugged in, you must understand that a Pentium M chip works by cutting back on power usage and therefore performance when the laptop is unplugged and on battery).

 

According to the More Info thing on HP's site, the 1.6 they offer is a Dothan chip (I gather this from the 2 megs of L2 cache) and the 1.5 is a Banias. There would be a significant performance improvement going to Dothan over Banias, but it seems a little sketch to me. I would personally call HP and ask, 'Is the 1.6 offered a Dothan chip? Is the 1.5 a Banias?' to figure it out.

 

hey thanks a lot for all of the input!