T5300?

[silentverdict]

I'm picking out a laptop for college, and want something that can keep me going through, and handle some nice gaming. I'm very limited by my budget (1200 is the max that i can go) so I had picked out the new Dell e1705. I upgraded the vid card to the Geforce 7900gs, since the radeon x1450 isn't anything special for gaming. Thing is, i wanted to upgrade the processor to a 5300 and thats ok, but to upgrade to the 7200 would be an extra 150, bringing me 100 bucks over my limit (normally i wouldn't care but I have to get this past the parents).

My Question is, will the t5300 processor (Core 2 duo, 1.73 ghz, 2mb Cache) slow me down in games? I really just want to avoid a bottleneck with that and the Vid card.

Thanks

 

[lostandwandering]

No, it shouldn't be a big problem. It's a dual core based on the Core2, albeit not a great one, that should be fine for games. Bottlenecking with the CPU only tends to happen at low resolutions (1280x800 or less I believe). Stick with the the Core 2 and not the Core Duo option because by sticking with the Core2 you can always upgrade the CPU on your own if you get the money.

 

[silentverdict]

So i have to run things at higher resolutions to get the CPU to not work as hard? Sounds good.

Also, I thought you couldnt upgrade the CPU on a Laptop..

 

[lostandwandering]

Nope, everything in a laptop (minus the GPU in most cases) is user upgradeable. Some things are more difficult to get to and with laptops it takes a little more finesse, but you can do it.

Even if you game at lower res' that CPU shouldn't have too much of a problem since it's a Core2. It's not the best but you can still game on it. Heck, my brother play games (C&C3 and COD2) on his Inspiron 9300 with a Pentium M and Geforce 6800.