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T4500 to T9300 upgrade - worth it?

post #1 of 9
10/8/11 at 8:09am
Thread Starter 

Hi,

 

Considering replacing my T4500 with a T9300 - do you think it would be worth paying ~$60 for the extra 5mb L2 and 200mhz? How much difference in performance could I expect?

 

 

Cheers,

amp

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post #2 of 9
10/8/11 at 9:13am
Hello Ampoule,

Assuming your motherboard supports the upgrade (which, given the fact that the C2D T9300 is apparantly OLDER than the PDC T4500, I would expect it will), it really comes down to what you're doing with the system as to whether or not you'd notice the difference.

There are other differences besides the speed difference and L2 Cache:

*SSE 4.1 instructions
*Intel VT-x instructions
*According to CPU-World.com, Dynamic Acceleration Technology (early form of Turbo-Boost)
*Several different power-saving features not apparantly present in the PDC T4500

One would expect, given the difference in release dates, that the T4500 would include all those by virtue of them being "old" by that point. However, given the PDC's positioning as an "entry-level" type CPU, I suppose it's not all that surprising.

I recently (read: last night) upgraded my HP DV9700 from a C2D T7250 to the T9300, and there was some notable boost for me. However, I went from a .065 micron chip to a .045 (cooler running) and gained 500 MHz, which is a bit more of a boost than you're looking at.

Ultimately, as I said it really comes down to what you're doing with it. If you're browsing, chatting, and light gaming, it probably won't give you a huge step up. If, on the other hand, you're doing work with Virtual Machines and some higher end stuff you may very well notice the step up. Given the addition of power control features, you may also notice some battery life improvement. If you're heavy into gaming, none of the additions above would seem to offer a HUGE boost for you. I'd be more interested in newer video in that case.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps some.

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O
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post #3 of 9
10/8/11 at 9:59am
Thread Starter 

Hey ShadowFox,

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

It is indeed mostly used for general browsing/chatting/videos etc but I also regularly have it running stuff like Chemdraw and eNotebook (this means I have sql server running all the time also).

 

I also do work in Photoshop and in Cubase, while I save this for the desktop pc generally, there are times when I like to do this stuff on the lappy.

 

Didn't realise the T9300 may be better with power usage, that would indeed be a big plus.

 

The big question though is whether that + possible performance increase is worth the ~$60 upgrade..

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post #4 of 9
10/8/11 at 10:29am
Hi Ampoule,

You may very well notice the boost then, whether great or small, with some of that.

Also, the big thing is you're talking for only $60. I paid $140 for mine and I consider it worthwhile going from a T7250 to a T9300, which in some ways is NOT as big a jump as going from a T4500 to a T9300. So, on the whole, if the REST of the system is satisfactory (video, RAM, HD, etc.), then I'd say yeah it's worth while. Besides, if you find it's NOT and you need a new machine, you may be able to sell it with a slightly boosted value and recoup some of the cost anyway.

What kind of machine is it, out of curiosity? I popped the T9300 into my DV9700 and the gain wasn't HUGE but it was notable. The only thing I really could use would be a new video card, and I already have the best that was offered in the DV9xxx series.

Glad the information was useful for you, either way!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O
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post #5 of 9
10/8/11 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 

Hey,

 

It's a HP Compaq 621 -> http://apcmag.com/notebookhunter/compaq-presario-621-xy413pa.htm

 

Picked it up earlier in the year on special for about $480 (with bag), needed something for uni and didn't wanna spend alot of money so it was perfect. I put 8gb of DDR3 1333mhz in there for $64 a couple of months ago and that made a world of difference, I've got the upgrade bug now so am looking at cpu hehe. Obviously the gpu sucks but I don't think I need any better for what I do..

 

Sounding like the upgrade is worth it. The chips go for about $85 second hand off ebay (delivered to Aus, much less to US), and second hand T4500s go for about $25 so if I sell my old one that makes a ~$60 upgrade.. Giving me a 15.6" lappy with 8gb DDR3 1333, 2.5GHz 6mb L2 C2D and dedicated 512mb gpu for about $600 - not bad I think biggrin.gif

 

Thanks for your feedback. If anyone else has any comments please add them.

 

 

Cheers,

amp

 

 

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post #6 of 9
10/8/11 at 11:04am
Ampoule,

Yeah, it definitely sounds worth it, then. As far as machines go that and my DV9700 are pretty comparable, and really video aside I could live on it for another year or so probably. I popped 8 GB of DDR2 in it a few months ago, not even sure it would work, but that plus the other upgrades are definitely worth it.

I'm a big fan of using hardware as long as it's useful and does what you need it to. The only reason I bought a new DV7 a few days ago was because I needed to upgrade my work laptop and my C500 wasn't able to do some things I needed.

Good luck with your upgrade then! Glad I could help you out. Let us know how it goes!

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O
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post #7 of 9
10/8/11 at 11:48am
Thread Starter 

Cheers.. Shall do! :)

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post #8 of 9
10/25/11 at 1:03am
Thread Starter 

Arrived today and I've just put it in - installation was a breeze it's running great! cool.gif

 

Things are looking good; temps are 36-37 idle and 68 load (prime95 small FFTs) before the thermal compound's even started to break in. I haven't had a chance to assess any performance increase, but boot time seemed a little faster biggrin.gif

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post #9 of 9
10/25/11 at 4:44pm
Hi Ampoule,

That's great news! I'm glad it worked without a hitch for you.

As for performance, definitely let us know if you gained or lost or anything of the kind (though I don't expect the latter to be the case). Even if you didn't, you get to list a bunch of upgraded specs you didn't have before! Heheh

Congratulations! I look forward to hearing any further information on it.

Regards,
O Shadow Fox O
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