I need someone who actually knows computers to break this down. Which is probably faster? Option 1: 1.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 MB cache, 2 GB memory, 128 MB Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS graphics card Option 2: 1.9 Turion 64 X2 dual core with 1MB cache, 2 GB memory, Nvidia GeForce Go 7150M graphics card I'm not sure how much the slower processing speed is helped by an extra 1 MB cache and the "better" graphics card. Also, can you add an extra MB of cache to #2 if it would make a significant difference in speed? Also, #1 is about $200 cheaper than #2. In case you're wondering what kind of applications I'm looking at, I'm most interested in speeding up the interweb / Hornfans, running a few games, and watching videos through Netflix, etc. Both come with Vista, but I guess I could move back to XP if it sucks. Thanks y'all.
Cache size is important, but its difficult to compare AMD to Intel. A 1.6 Ghz Intel does not equal a 1.6 Ghz AMD performance wise. Just b/c a chip has a higher clock rate (1.6 Ghz, 2.0 Ghz, whatever) doesn't mean its a "faster" chip. Clock rate just dictates how often a new process step occurs. How much occurs during one process step is another matter. Imagine shoveling dirt, you can either shovel a lot of dirt at a slow speed or a small amount of dirt at high speed. Which is "faster"? Same goes with CPU's, some shovel a lot slowly, some shovel a little really fast. As for your question, I'm not privy to the details of those two processors. I'm sure there is some report out there that benchmarked the two though. I'll add that processor speed is becoming less and less important. Front side bus speed, I/O bridge speed, memory bus speed, etc etc is the new bottleneck of a PC. I'd go for the cheaper option so long as all else is equal.
The graphics card on #1 is significantly better than #2. The 8400M GS on #1 meets the minimum specs to be able to expect to play modern games on at least the lowest settings on a laptop. The 7150M on #2 does not. You won't notice a difference between the two in surfing the web and watching movies.
