Critique my M860TU preorder

im fixing the screw ups i made before, does this look good?


15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) Glossy LCD
nVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT 512MB
Intel® Core™2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz Processor w/3MB L2 On-die cache (25W) - 1066MHz FSB
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
2GB (1 SODIMM) DDR3/1066 Memory
320GB SATA II 3GB/s Hard Drive at 5,400 RPM 8MB cache buffer
Combo Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
Windows Vista Premium - (64-Bit installed - 64 and 32-bit CD included)

what would be the bottleneck in this system? is it balanced? is the 2GB with vista + gaming going to choke it?
is the P9300 2.53 GHz 6MB cache a noticeable performance improvement over the cpu i have?

 

i would upgrade the memory( now or later?) everything else looks good

 

I'd get the next processor up for the 6MB cache, but that's my semi-casual knowledge of all things technical doing the talking. I just have a vague feeling that it's a significant improvement.

I seem to recall a debate between the T9500 and T8500 for the Gateway 6860's CPU upgrade. Let's wait for someone who knows what he's talking about to correct me.

 

probably get 4 GB of ram and you should be good to go.

 

If you need to get 2 gigs get 2 dimms for dual .

 

I think it's good as is as long as you plan on upgrading the RAM at a later time (maybe a year or so when prices go down). The P8600 is definitely enough. Even the P8400 is enough. The difference in games between the P8400 or P9500 will most likely be minimal as the difference between T8100 and T9300 were minimal.

 

True enough, but correct me if I'm wrong: Doesn't the 6MB cache offer better RAM management?

 

^anyone know where i could find benchmarks of the processors?

i only did 1 DIMM so i could upgrade later. would it be a noticeable performance hit to just use one DIMM?

im mostly concerned about the ability to run vista and games with this since i hear vista uses 1.5gb...

 

It will be harder to upgrade later, cause rams need to be exactly alike for it to register.

 

Nice system, I'm about to order mine as well. Can't decide between 200GB 7200RPM 16mb cache HD or 320GB 7200RPM 8mb cache HD?

 

are you sure? i thought you could mix and match ram and they just get downclocked to the slower stick

 

i remember hearing with a different model (so dont know if its the same hdd config) that the 320GB 5400 is as fast as the 7200 because the 320 has more platters and is denser

 

Yes you can mix and match, but you will not get Dual Channel if the RAM doesn't EXACTLY match. But Dual Channel offers little to no performance boost so don't worry about it.

 

Really? I mean of course that's not quite across the board as some games are more optimized towards the CPU, but I thought that there was a bit of a bigger difference between the P8600 and the T9400.

 

Sorry, I meant to say the difference between P8600 and T9400 would be the same as the difference between T8300 and T9300.

Edit: Basically my point is that it is probably not worth the extra $130 to get the T9400 for its 6MB Cache and .13 Ghz over the P8600.

 

yes but thats was when comparing to the 200gb 7200rpm drive.

with the 320gb drive, you have the dense multiple platters of a 320gb, with the rotation speed of the 200gb, so you have the advantages of both worlds.