Core 2 Duo T5600 vs Core 2 Duo T7200

I ordered with the T7200.

When you make the jump to the T7xxx models, you get 4MB of cache which is advantageous, not to mention the clock speed difference. The 140 mhz clock difference may not seem like a lot, but anything you can get in terms of clock speed translates into more power considering it's a Core 2 (140 mhz difference in a P4 3.0 ghz makes basically little to no difference.)

HOWEVER, that in mind, there are going to be other limiting factors on your machine slowing your performance. I ordered the 5400 rpm drive, but I've heard people say that the other drive (that comes as an option and is super expensive) is noticeably faster, (although it does suck up more power as well). Moreover, a T7200 won't be noticeably faster than the T5600 in a lot of applications, but you will definitely get an increase in others...read some benchmark threads... just search

I really wanted the nice round 2.0 ghz and definitely was interested in the full 4MB L2 cache.

read specs for more info.
http://processorfinder.intel.com/Lis...sSpec=&OrdCode=

Also, i'd say check merom benchmarks to see exactly how much faster/slower the chip is in your specific area of interest.

In terms of gaming, don't expect a huge difference between the 2.0ghz and the 1.86ghz. For games, again, it's a bottleneck issue. The 2.0ghz 4MB merom has LOADS of power for physics & gameplay processing... But the video card (yes, the nvidia one, not the shitty intel one that comes stock) is still nowhere near up to spec in terms of performance. If you could integrate the T7200 with a really high end video card you'd see *excellent* gaming performance. (not that gaming is bad with m1210... read some threads on that, its a different issue) actually, the benchmarks where the core 2 is not much better core duo, or where the t7200 is not much better than the t5600 are the benchmarks were the CPU has minimal effect on gameplay processing. the problem is getting big, powerful video cards that have high space, heat, and power requirements into a laptop.

I think it's safe for me to assume you're not talking about the 7900gs.

Of course, the M1210 is offered only with the Intel GMA 950 and the 256mb Nvidia 7400 go turbocache.

I mean that it is relatively insufficient for gaming when juxstaposed to the T7200.

as we've discussed it still plays hl2 well and everything blah blah... i'm just saying that the T7200 is a hell of a lot of processor and the 7400 is a modest vid card

For everyday tasks such as web surfing, word processing and things, you wouldn't notice any difference between the T5600 and T7200. Of course the T7200 has extra 2mb of L2 cache however, that doesn't mean that the processor is going to be twice as fast either.

According to this site, there is only 3-5% increase in performance between 2mb and 4mb L2 cache.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...cessors/5.html

now it's up to you to decide whether extra $125 is worth that performance increase. if you edit video, or play games, it might be worth it, however, I bought a M1210 and just went with the T5600. I already have a desktop I use for gaming and video editing and that extra $125 can be used for something else.

well if your gonna game on this laptop, I would get the T7200 for the extra $125-150. That might be alot of money but at least you won't regret it down the road.

As a side note, you also have to realize that gaming doesnt only require processing power but alot of GPU power and the Geforce 7400 is only moderate at best for video games. it can play most of the graphic demanding games but not at its full resolution. You also have the slow 5400 rpm HDD that will hold you back from gaming. 5400 rpm HDD can be easily upgraded but not the video card. However, from what I have been noticing, people on this forum has been buying alot of T7xx series processor for gaming purpose.

So i don't know how tight you are on money, but with a laptop that already cost $1700.. i dont think adding extra $150 to make it $1850 gonna hurt. At least you wont regret not buying T7200 down the road.

I have to agree with nitewolf this is an good notebook for surfing, documents and other multitasking needs, but for gaming you will have to up your price range if gaming is truly what you want.

This is not really accurate. The 5400 rpm HDD will have an impact on your load times, but in terms of in-game play there will be little to no difference. All the textures and other material are going to be loaded into ram. There basically isn't any game that is actively loading material from the hdd during in-game play... (unless it's like diablo or hl2 where there are loading breaks in between game-play) Unless, you have a ridiculously low amount of ram in which case a swap file might be used. There are exceptions to what I'm saying, and the 7200 is great for increasing software/application load times which are in essence data being read from the disk and fed into ram.

if you're gonna splurge, then splurge... i was gonna get the dell 640m for about 1200, then i said "f*** it" and got the 2.0 core 2 duo m1210 w/ AV + 2gb ram + nvidia card... only thing i didnt opt for was the 7200 hard drive because:

a) its expensive
b) it increases heat of laptop
c) it uses more power
d) i didnt know it would give any major increase in performance (although since i ordered i've read lots of posts from ppl saying the 7200 rpm drive makes the comp. a lot faster so i would have ordered it despite its drawbacks had i know about the apparent performance increase)

Here is my buying strategy. The core duo and core duo2, you can swap a core duo 2 in your laptop to replace the core duo. I bought the cheapest core duo I could find, and got complete care. Once core duo2 starts getting close to the 3.0 speed, I will pick up a reasonably priced 2.5 or so abouts, to drop in.

I do have to agree with sublime, when I used to own i8600c, I had the 7200rpm HDD and it kept my palms pretty warm and swetty. Of course having the HDD on the palm rest wasnt the smartest thing to do but 7200rpm will increase the heat of your laptop. The performance gain from 5400rpm was noticable compared to my cousin's i5050 laptop.

Hmm. This is something I have never heard before. Do you really think Intel will make core 2 duo chips above the 2.33ghz for laptops? If so, its not anywhere in their roadmaps. It would be quite cool, but what makes you think it will happen?

This would be mere speculation at best... C2D in the Merom flavor, will more than likely stay as what you see is what you get. Intel wants to give its users a taste of what the Santa Rosa platform will be all about. Santa Rosa will bring forth a new chipset that will support 800Mhz FSB speeds. Now, as I said before, Intel is giving you a taste of the rainbow with Merom... most sites would agree at this point that the Merom we see now and the future Merom may not even be pin compatible with each other. This sucks pretty bad for early adopters, but so goes the cycle of upgrades for a techie.

Once again, everything said here is pure speculation, and may not reflect the future for Intel. Santa Rosa is just around the corner (early next year), and you know Intel will be shoveling money into that fire until the next big thing comes along...

Now you didn't hear this from me, but the current clock speeds are going to rise about 10% over current technology before going to EOL, and the next big bang coming down the road will be the quad core CPU (I never did hear the release name but my speculation is that it'll show up as a Core 3 Duo, as it is the next generation of the core-duo line).

If you're on the fence and might be purchasing a new desktop or laptop in the next 3-6 months) I would strongly suggest to wait it out at least the 3-6 month window (yes, procrastination is good at times). There was talk about possibly changing the socket type (I know how much we all love love it when this happens) but it is because of current limitations with the current socket design. They are apparently very FAST in the test labs.

Don't ask...