Which config would be faster?

Which of these would be faster: faster CPU with less memory and slower hard drive, or slower CPU with more memory and faster hard drive?

- T43 2686M7U, Pentium M 760 2Ghz 2MB L2 Cache 533Mhz FSB
- 1.5GB RAM
- 80GB 5400 RPM hard drive
- $2169

OR

- T43 2686EGU, Pentium M 750 1.86Ghz 2MB L2 Cache 533Mhz FSB
- 2GB RAM
- 60GB 7200 RPM hard drive
- $2284

Or, suggest a better price/performance config? Mostly business, e-mail, web surfing, programming/compiling (all of which I can do just fine on my existing Pentium 3 Thinkpad with 128MB), but the kicker is digital photography on the road, downloading CF cards from USB reader, processing in Photoshop (which needs min. 1GB for acceptable performance).

Any advice appreciated...

 

Both are good configurations. But the second option will be slightly faster. The difference in processor performance will be negligible. 0.14GHz extra speed on the 760 will not yield any significant improvents. But the 7200rpm HDD and the 2GB RAM should yield some performance improvements. The difference should be around a 3-5% improvement over config 1 depending on the applications you run.

 

Thanks, Miner. That's sort of what I was thinking.

 

It mostly depends on what you are using it for.
-Rams won't make a difference unless you need more than 1.5GB which isn't something usual.
-the difference in CPU won't show up except under intensive CPU usage. P-Ms scale up their speed from 800MHz till the max speed, so if you don't have anything that will be CPU intensive enough, it won't make a difference. Plus it is only around a 7% increase in max speed.
-HDD this is a more all around upgrade. It will benifit you in boot up times, application load times, transfers (copy/paste).

So if you have nothing that is ram or cpu requiring, let the HDD speed be the decider.

 

IMO, you're better off spending you money on the higher CPU than the more ram.
Reason being because RAM is an easier and cheaper upgrade later.
It's also much cheapter for you to buy more ram from newegg and then put it in yourself than to buy it from them.

Also, the T43 has one dimm inside the machine and one dimm accessible from the outside.
If you get the 2GB model, you will have one stick in each hole. If you get the 1.5 model, you will have the 1GB inside and the 512 outside. This means that if you upgrade the ram later, you will have an extra 512 stick for nothing.

I would suggest just buying a 1GB of ram in the computer and then adding a second GB yourself later.

I happen to know a friend with the employee purchase plan. I was able to purchase a T43P with a 780 and 7200 rpm drive for $2500, PM me if you want the info.

 

I agree with the monkey.

 

If only talk about the performance, I totally agree with miner. But when the money has been considered as an important factor, monkey's opinion is very resonable.