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New laptop specifications - is this enough?


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#1
nell68crab

nell68crab

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I have been suffering with my current laptop which is an old Dell with 30GB, 17" widescreen Intel Pentium M Processor 599MHz, 1.00GB of Ram with Windows XP.

I am about to buy a new Dell laptop and just want to make sure it's going to be what I need for internet and light gaming. I am worried about Windows 7 as I know nothing about it and because it's new. I want a fast processor because I have several browser tabs open at once as well as email, photo library, music library and Microsoft Word!

My budget only covers the following: 15.6", Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6600 2.2GHz/800FSB/2MB Cache, 4GB Dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM, 500GB SATA Hard Drive, 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330, Dell Wireless 1397 802.11b/g Half Mini Card, Freecom Mobile Drive XXS 250GB. Is this enough? Can I eliminate something? Or do I need to include something?

Also as a side, I have 2 other questions:

What is the difference between Dell Wireless 1397 802.11b/g Half Mini Card and Dell Wireless 1510 802.11n Half Mini-Card? Should I get the 2nd one?

Also what does 2.2GHz/800FSB/2MB Cache mean? Will it affect sound/display/gaming quality?

Thanking you in advance.
Nell
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#2
Neil Jones

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The speed of the processor makes no difference to the internet browsability of the machine. Realistically compared to any desktop machine it'll always be slower. I wouldn't worry about it.

The difference between the wireless cards only wireless connectivity specifications and if you don't have a wireless N router then you don't need a wireless N wireless card. The 1397 should be fine.

The 2.2Ghz is the processor speed (higher the better though it doesn't mean anything on its own any longer), the 800 is the front side bus (FSB), the "train" if you like that carries data between the processor and the board - again the higher the better in theory. The 2Mb cache - A CPU cache is a "storage area" used by the processor to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used areas.

To illustrate, you have a wardrobe in a bedroom. Imagine you're the processor, the wardrobe is the memory and the floor is the cache. You want something out the wardrobe, you tip everything else on the floor to get it. Later if you want another item of clothing, because you've "cached" it by dropping it in the middle of the floor, you can get it much quicker rather than having to empty the wardrobe again.
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#3
Spyderturbo007

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You might also want to consider an upgraded battery for the laptop. Most Dell computer come with the crappy 6 cell battery and offer an upgrade to a 9 cell. This is going to increase the time you can spend on the laptop without the need to recharge. I just hate being in the middle of something and having to find the power adapter and plug it in. It really sucks when you're outside surfing the net with a nice cold beer on a summer day and have to run inside to charge the darn thing. :)
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