T400 configuration: P8600 or T9400?

Hi I'm new to this forum. Been hanging around here since I decided to buy a thinkpad, all the information I found here have been really really useful

So I was trying to customize a T400 on lenovo website. By playing with Enhanced and Elite T400 configuration, I realized that even with different CPU (P8600 vs T9400) and other same hardware, the price difference is only $7. I tried to google the performance and battery difference between these two models (which most of the time have referred back to this forum), and people don't mainly recommend T9400 because of minimal performance boost and high upgrade price. But now with the $7 difference, is it justified to get the T9400?

Personally I would do quite some photoshop and games on this laptop, but at the same time I care about battery performance as well. If the battery time difference is only approx. 5%, I probably wouldn't care and go for the slightly more powerful cpu instead. But if we are talking about 10-20% difference, I will gladly ditch T9400 and go for P8600.

Does anyone have knowledge on this kind of matter? Appreciate everyone's help!

 

I do not have solid data as to just how much of an impact it may be, but you should also consider the heat aspect - the T series processors (max 35W) consume more power and generate more heat than the P series (max 25W).

 

In theory... in practical use you won't notice a big difference and the T9400 gives you 6MB L2-Cache.

 

My own personal philosphy of buying CPUs is to get the slowest of the best class of CPUs. In this case it would be the P8400. You get all the benefits of the newer tech, but don't have to overpay for a small increase in performance. Plus the P CPUs as noted get better battery life. Most everyday tasks are not very CPU intensive. Photoshop can be, but it depends on what you're doing and it's not like it won't work on the slower CPU. It'll just take slightly longer.

 

While I concur with the opinions of others when it comes to battery life, also know that the T series only uses 35W when it has very high utilization. IMHO, for only seven bucks, it might be better to get the speedier processor and future proof your new notebook just that much more.

 

If this is your only workstation then the extra performance might be warranted for you. Did we ever figure out the speedstep issues with the T series? I know users with the x200 couldn't always get their T series to throttle to 800mhz like the P series.

 

The P8600 will get better battery performance, but the difference is not that substantial. Additionally, I think the gains are mostly when running in max performance mode as that is when you will max out the TDP. Both the P8600, T9400 (and even the low voltage SL9400) downclock to 800 MHz when you aren't doing CPU intensive tasks to reduce energy usage/heat.

I don't think the T9400 is worth much more money, but the extra 5% MHz and double the L2 cache should improve performance by about 8-12% in CPU intensive tasks.

The P8600 should also run a little quieter (although both are very quiet) because it produces less heat (especially under load) than the T9400 and the fan can stay at a lower RPM. I don't know how important this is to you, but it is something else to consider.

Either one will work fine, its just a question of your relative preference for speed, noise and battery life.

 

The p8600 is 2.4ghz while the T9400 is 2.53ghz.
http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/expert/centrino2.aspx?page=2

Personally, I would choose the p8600.

 

Thanks for the input everyone!

Man this is a really tough choice, but guess I will pick P8600

Nice graph Intoxicate! Unfortunately my foreign language is really bad and I have a hard time understanding what the legend means =[