Exactly, Stoffy, as the Wise Owls of TC have advised,stuff has moved on,and so should we.
I’ve been looking at upgrading the PC and from this thread,with advice I’m going dual core with XP (black)
My lappy I’m happy with…

Haha, was unaware I had that much sway in the matter…

Much appreciation.

Back at you DTX

Well if any of you helpfull people notice this, how does this look?
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-4485.aspx

It’d be fine, just kind of pricy, I think.  It really depends.  It’s a good mid-range laptop for a fair mid-range price.  If you’re going to be gaming, you need a better video-card, which will cost extra.  If you’re mostly surfing the internet and doing workplace-type things, you don’t need quite as nice a laptop, and can find something cheaper.  It all depends on your needs.

Actually, that’s a good place to start:

What do you intend to do with this laptop?  What programs do you hope to run?

How much media do you intend to store?  What type of media do you intend to watch/listen to?

How much raw data processing do you need it to be able to do?

What preferences have you with relation to manufacturer?

Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core
Processor Bus 533MHz
Processor Cache 1MB
Processor Model Number T2330
Processor Speed 1.6GHz

sounded kinda lame. hehe 1,6 Ghz and 1MB L2 cache? isn`t this little, or am I thinking too much on homecomputers etc:P

Actually, Stoffy, you’re right to call out the processor.  It’s not the L2 cache or the speed I’d worry about, but upon further review, Pentium Dual Core processors are only 32 bit processors.  Not a huge deal now, but ultimately could cause some issues with further development of software.

A better deal on a laptop in a similar price range is this sucker here.  It’s only got a 1.5GHz processor, but it’s a Core Two Duo processor, so dual-core and 64bit.  What makes this particular system rock is that it’s got a dedicated graphics card with 256MB of dedicated graphics RAM.  The system RAM is a bit low, though, only has 1GB.  But… this can be upgraded for relatively inexpensive.  I think the going price for 2GB of SO-DIMM DDR RAM in two modules is $45 or so?

Dunno for sure.  Take a look at it.  Remember, while the processor is important, what kills most laptops is the fact that the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is integrated on the motherboard, and so the two processors have to share the RAM on the motherboard.  Worse, still, is the fact that they both have to access the same RAM through the same BUS.  Do the math and you’ll see that it bottlenecks pretty quickly.  With the computer in the link above, that wouldn’t be an issue.

Ok, well thank you both.  I’m slighly re-evaluating based on what you said.
Never really heard of Acer before, but thought I’d give them a look.

I don’t really want to go over £500 as I’ll be buying two of them - for me and my wife.
What about these two - both the same price, but to me the second of the two appears better.
http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_9303WSMi_LX.AWZ0X.109/version-1.asp
http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_9423WSMi_LX.AWZ0U.001/version-1.asp

Thanks again you fine people.

Without a doubt, I’d go for the latter.  Twice as much RAM, and similar specs.  Read up on the Acer laptops… never had trouble with their desktops, but their laptops could be different beasts altogether.

Just do research.  Otherwise, I say go for it.

You’re all gonna have to move to Vista eventually…

DB

DTXBrian - 13 January 2008 10:36 PM

It’s all pretty complicated, really.  When you actually bought your Pentium, AMD was the superior processor.  Now, the tide has turned, and the Intel processors are superior.  As far as the single-core/dual-core processor debate goes, dual-core processors are better able to cope with heavy multi-tasking than single-core processors.  They cannot process a single thread any faster than a single-core, but they can process two threads at the same time as fast as an older CPU at the same speed could process one.  The most recent single-processor CPU’s had higher clock speeds than the dual-core models, as heat was too much of an issue with dual-core high-clock-speed processors, so at single-threaded applications, they’re still a little faster, but for most applications, dual-core is the way to go.

The other big benefit is that processors are now 64-bit as opposed to 32-bit.  This used to only mean that the processors could handle larger numbers (anyone remember the floating point processing back with the 486/DX?), and as a 64-bit number was unimaginably huge, it was pointless… but technology has been developed which allows a 64-bit processor to combine calculations into a single clock cycle, so the wasted “space” is filled up because processes are condensed.

It’s a lot to grasp… but the Core2Duo mobile processors are way better than what you have now.

Have you been talking to our mate Tom “rhubarb” Cruise

Acer’s make pretty good laptops - we’ve got quite a few at work and have had no problems. As DTX said, the specs are similar with the latter having a double the ram. The NVidia Go 7300 is better then an onboard card - though it is at the bottom range of dedicated laptops graphics - so don’t expect it to run modern games…

Still worth looking at the Dell Vostro’s - they’re pretty hard to beat from a price to performance point of view. As I said earlier, bought a 17” with a core2duo 2ghz, 2GB ram, 160 GB HDD and a GeForce 8600mGT card of just over £600 for my sun for xmas and it flies…

Cheers,
SD