More RAM or Better Processor?

I am looking at the Dv5z and with my student discount i can get a better computer for the same price as i would have without the discount. So i am deciding of whether or not i should go up to 3GB of RAM or if i should upgrade to from:

AMD Athlon(TM) X2 Dual-Core Processor for Notebook PCs QL-60 (1.9GHz)
to
AMD Turion(TM) X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-70 (2.0GHz)

I do not know how much more impressive the second processor is to the first considering it is only a tenth of a ghz faster but the processor is also apparently different.

So more RAM or more Processor speed?

 

RAM.

.1 more GHz isn't very noticeable. RAM however is.

 

i would get the processor because that's harder to upgrade.the memory you can buy online and change it yourself

 

I say better processor, because you can always buy ram later when you have more money. now I understand that being a college student we dont have money, I'm going to be a college freshman next year also. I would wait until monday if I were you. Lots of companies are about to release their new notebooks with Centrino 2, and this will undoubtally push the prices down of the rest. I would go with dv5t if I were you, intel is my preferance. personally i'm going with the dv7t I hope, if it has everything I want.

 

but for the here and now I would go RAM because Vista eats it up.

 

HP and many overcharge for RAM. Get the processor, and hop over to NewEgg to get cheaper RAM. Or, get neither from HP...upgrade the RAM anyway via NewEgg...and save a little money.

 

aggreed!!! I saw 4GB of RAM at newegg for like $80

 

RAm is so easy to install just unscrew a screw and plug and go. nothing to be afraid of.

 

Ok it looks like i am going to go for the increased processor speed. Also does any brand of RAM work in any laptop?? Like there are 40 dollar sticks on newegg for 40 bucks but i don't want to end up buying RAM that doesn't work.

 

Actually, if I were you, I'd go one step higher on the processor to the ZM-80 (2.10GHz) because it has an extra 1MB of cache memory (an extra 512KB per core) for a total of 2MB of cache memory.

It could be worth going up to 3GB of RAM, also. But definitely consider the ZM-80. It's a newer processor whereas the others are a little older.

 

Most ram comes with a lifetime warranty...or at least a 5 year warranty.

 

Yea I was thinking of going up 75$ for the extra cache as well as the newer CPU and .2 Ghz

 

I'd say you're better off doing that. 2GB of RAM is plenty of Vista to run decently (if you do a clean install of Vista without all the bloatware). And when you decide you need more, the RAM will be much easier to upgrade/replace.

 

I am used to dealing with desktops PCs but do laptops have open RAM slots or can old RAM only be replaced with new ram?

Thanks for the help from everyone.

 

It depends on whether HP chooses to populate both slots in your machine or not (most laptops have two slots for RAM). Most of the time, they will populate both slots (so if you get 2GB, they will put 1GB in each slot). If you get 1GB, they will probably put 512MB in each slot.