DV8000t: Which processor to get?

Hi,

I've been in the market now for a Core Duo laptop and have decided on the DV8000t. I am originally coming from an AMD laptop and was looking forward to the Turion X2's, but their performance thus far hasn't been encouraging. I'm looking to get the laptop before or at the beginning of the school year, and I was wondering what processor I should get. I have been teetering on three processors, the t2250, t2400, and the t2500. I like the price on the t2250, and I, like others, like the idea of there being "2" in front of my decimal place. I was wondering though, is there any significant difference in performance between the t2250 and the t2500? And if there is, is the $150 price gap particularly worth it? Or would I be better off with the t2400? I am a pretty casual gamer, but I like to play recent games like Star Wars: Empire at War. Also, I plan to do some video encoding as well as work in photoshop. I know that the video card has the most to do with stuff like this, so would my choice in processor not even matter?

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Thanks!

 

The main disadvantage of the t2250 is it works on a slower 533mhz FSB and is generally paired with equally slow memory. The 2400, 2500, etc all work on a 667mhz FSB. I seem to remember reading somewhere that a new budget core-duo chip was being released that had half the L2 memory cache too, but I don't think the t2250 is it. I'm pretty sure it retains the beefy 2mb L2 cache.

Other than the slower FSB being a bit of a bottle-neck, I believe it's still a very solid processor. With casual gaming and photo-editing, I think you'll be fine. Also, even a modest video card can handle photo-editing and video-encoding. Your processor will come more into play in video-encoding, along with your hard drive..however, I believe the t2250 should fulfill your needs in that area.

 

Good point about the hard drive. If this is going to be your main machine I would suggest getting a 7200 RPM drive. I bought the Seagate 100GB 7200 RPM hard drive and it is nice and fast. I bought it from somewhere else. I've ordered the drive bracket and screws and when the screws come in I'll post my experience in the bracket thread. But do not order it from HP. They want way too much.

When I bought dv8000t the CPU options started at the 2300 and went up. Now it isn't even available. I chose the 2400 for fun and the price difference wasn't that much.

The video card doesn't matter one bit for video encoding but for photoshop it will be nice. Since you mention Photoshop, which screen are you considering? I went with the Ultra Brightview and it is bright. Battery time suffers because of the extra lamp but you can always turn down the brightness. Colors are beautiful and so is the 17" screen. Your friends will have screen envy.

If you can some how get into the EPP store you can save even more. I called and was quoted the same price as the EPP store so calling in your order may save you some cash.

It all boils down to your budget, usage requirements, and how long you plan on owning the laptop.

As for the Turion X2 (TX2), they will be pricy when they debut. I did a comparison pricing and the 15.4" model was about $300 more for the TX2.

I forgot to mention, be sure and order the OS reinstall CD now. If you try after the purchase from tech support it will cost you $75.
And HP offers a 21 day return policy (starting from the date of delivery) and a 30 day pricematch policy. I used the pricematch policy and saved $92.66.

 

Hi guys, thanks for your responses. Well, I had the extra money to go for the T2500 so I went for that even though I will probably barely notice the difference, but with all this Merom talk going on, I want to feel like I made the most out of this run with Core Duo and I'm holding out hope that there is at least a possibility that we might get a BIOS update for Merom once it's released. I actually thought about waiting for Merom to be released in the HP dv9000, but in all honesty, I like the design of the dv8000 more. I don't know what it is, but I just like it more, which is strange because I saw a dv2000 in person and really liked the new case designs. I think it might be because I'm drawn to the all black interior...Anyway, I also went with the lowest dual harddrive option because I didn't want to deal with ordering the bracket and such. Well here's what I pulled the trigger on:

- FREE Upgrade to Genuine Windows XP Media Center
- Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo processor T2500 (2.0 GHz)
- 17.0" WSXGA+ BrightView Widescreen (1680x1050)
- 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600
- FREE Upgrade to 1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM (2x512MB)!!
- 160 GB 5400 RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (80 GB x 2)
- LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network w/Bluetooth
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Works/Money
- Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition Backup CD
- HP Mobile Remote Control

Overall, I'm happy with the total with my APP discount and feel that I got a tremendous deal for the parts I am getting. All in all, it came out to about 1400 plus I went with the free printer which is great! I noticed on the APP website that it said there was a free Lightscribe upgrade, so hopefully I'll be able to get a credit for that back. Here's hoping to having a problem-free keyboard! I have a few more questions though. Is the 7600 video card 256mb dedicated? I've looked around and I'm confused especially with nVidia's tricky turbocache. One other thing, do you think it's possible to get back the taxes charged on my order if I call in sometime during my state's education tax free weekend? Again, thanks for all your guys' help, and I hope to become a more active part of this community!

Thanks,

Justin

 

Great machine. Hope it serves you well. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

just got mine two days i go Im heavy into maya(3d) and visual effects i settled with the t2400 for money reason and im very very happy so far yeah it could always be faster but im in bliss. I can run oblivion almost maxed out with 7600 I just have to reduce the draw distance some but other than it smokes.