T400 build, discreet graphics or faster processor?

I'm buying my Mom a T400. She does not play games other than freecell and minesweeper. But she does surf the web a lot, and use outlook etc. If the machine were for me I would absolutely get the discreet graphics, but I don't know if there will be any benefit to her (speed wise).

If I had to choose between going from integrated graphics:
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD with vPro
to
ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB
for
~$55

OR
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600
to
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor P8700
for
$40

Does anyone have an idea of which is going to give the biggest performance increase for desktop apps, surfing, bootup? Thanks for the help.

 

Get the P8600 and the X4500. Put the money into buying more RAM and a faster HDD. Those will help in improving general performance of the system than the faster processor or the discrete GPU.

 

Slower processor and better GPU. The processor, HDD, RAM, etc can all be upgraded later at your convienience (or when you have the funds)... The GPU OTOH I don't think you can.

 

I tend to side with this opinion, but then again the intel IGP will be more then enough for her. Plus even the most barbones t400 configuration possible can zip through basic tasks with great aplomb. So really for her tasks a base model will do everything she needs easily. Not to mention the base discrete graphics model for the t400 comes with a better base CPU then the base model.

 

I think the integrated GPU will be more than fine for her needs. The Radeon card is really only a help for gaming and other 3D accelerated applications.

Max out the RAM, consider an SSD [by far the biggest felt improvement], or possibly improve the CPU (although I think the P8600 or even P8400 would be more than adequate).