core 2 duo: 1.66 or 2.0ghz?

Is it worth the upgrade? does anyone know any benchmark websites or tests regarding the two? the upgrade is $150, I plan on some gaming, but mostly for school, which means a lot of multitasking. I just want to know whether to bite the bullet and get the 2.0.

Btw, vista express upgrade is out, free vista upgrade when you buy a lenovo laptop/pc!

 

Gaming performance is governed mainly by the amount of RAM and the type/speed of the dedicated graphics card. There will not be a huge performance increase from the 1.66 to the 2.0.

 

I agree with jetstar. For gaming, the upgraded processor will not make a huge impact. Money would be better spent on RAM and video card upgrades. However, the upgraded processor would show improvement with heavy multitasking and CPU-intensive applications.


Matt

 

a 1.66 ghz processor will consume significatly less power than the 2.0ghz, therby extending battery life. Something to ponder

 

No not really true Teo, processors in the same family usually are built to the same specifications, meaning the power & heat charecteristics will be very similar. Any differences in battery life will be negligible. One more thing to remember is that the mobile processors have Speedstep which allows them to run at 1GHz(for CoreDuo)
when idle, so the power soncumption will be the same. Any difference which is still negligible will be only when you run the processors at full utilization.

I agree with what others have said, the $150 is better spent on upgrades like a faster HDD, more RAM or a better video card. The video card is important especially if you are into newer games. If you still have $$$ left over after all these upgrades, then think about the processor.

 

Get more RAM/faster hard disk.

 

also, the 2.0 should have twice the cache as the 1.66, if we're talking about core 2

 

I'm going to go against the crowd here and say get the 2.0ghz. It won't make a difference with the gaming, and it probably won't make a huge difference in your daily usage. However, it's only $150, and you're going to use this computer everyday for at least a couple years. If it was between a 1.6 and 1.8, or a 1.8 and 2.0, I'd say eh, but for the ~400mhz jump, I say splurge and go for it. If that's going to break the bank, it's not a huge deal, but if you got it, do it.

 

psukim,

are all lenovo laptops covered in the vista upgrade? i just ordered my t60 T5500 (1.66GHz) with XP Home and Intel AMG 950

 

I believe so. Here's a link that should tell you more about the program.

http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/microsoft/vista/upgrade.html

 

Thanks psukim...actually feel much better now with my laptop choice!

 

Mturko11x, the specs you have on your T60 is what I am looking for on the website. (Using Lenovo Canada webpage). Where can I type in a part number (as the one you have listed). I tried a search and nothing came up.

 

Are you looking for a price quote or a review? I'm not sure that I understand your question. I don't know of a website that offers reviews that are model number specific. Also, on the Lenovo website, you can type in the model number to receive the price.

Matt