Computer experts anyone?

[silversolitaire]

I'm thinking about buying a new laptop. It's going to be a Dell. Given the nature of Dell, I have many options to customize my computer. Since I do want a nice machine, but not necessarily spend a fortune, I'm trying to cut back on unnecessary spending. What I basically want is a laptop that'll allow me to do graphics processing reasonably well. I don't worry about that. But I also want to be able to play a couple of games I couldn't play just yet due to requirement limitations (namely Gothic 3 and future Sims 3). I'm not a core gamer, I don't need to run FPS at maximum frame rate or anything like that. Of course I would get a kick out of playing Sims at hires, but it's not totally necessary.

So, question is, with this set-up which is pretty much set:

4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3450 graphics card

I know the graphics card could be better, but 256MB dedicated RAM is all I could get for any of those systems without paying through my nose. The other one would offer a GeForce, but the drawbacks for that system are just too great.

Now I wonder which processor would be best. Naturally, the better the processor the better in general, right? However, the better option adds 200 EUR, so I'm wondering whether this is worth it or not. I mean, if all a 2nd level cache twice the size does is give me one frame more per second or something, then screw it. But if the improvement would be noticeable, I'd kinda like it. However, neither I, nor Tom, nor bro really know for sure.

Anyway, these are the options:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8400 (2.20GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9400 (2.530GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6MB cache)

So, as you can see, more gigahertz, same front side bus, double 2nd lvl cache. Any input?

Comments

[eaeelil.livejournal.com]

Well, the video card would be the only issue really, either would do you, it's more of a questoin can you safely afford the extra cash?

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

Too bad I can't influence the graphics card >.<;. Oh well, it'll have to do.

I probably could afford the extra cash, since I'm paying in installments, but I'm not keen on wasting it. Apparently the smaller one is more efficient and overall a better deal, so I went for that.

Thanks for the input!