Intel T6500 vs P7350

[Pragmatic]

Hello,

Since my laptop of several years has finally decided to call it quits (I suspect motherboard failure or some sort of power failure), I've decided to start shopping for a new one.

One set of laptops in particular have caught my eye - the Sony Vaio NW series. They have two models available from the Sony site, the NW 180J and the NW 130J. The 180 is about $150 more expensive, with a few differences: it has a blu ray player (which I won't use), a slightly larger hard drive (I have several external ones already, space isn't an issue), and a different CPU.

The 180 has an Intel P7350, which has a clock speed of 2.0GHz, a front side bus speed of 1066 MHz, and a L2 cache size of 3MB. The 130 has an Intel T6500, which has a clock speed of 2.1GHz, a front side bus speed of 800 MHz, and a L2 cache size of 2MB.

Both are dual core with a 64-bit instruction set.

I intend to use the laptop to play some games (though I'm not a hardcore PC gamer). I will also be doing a lot of programming on it, so being able to handle an IDE plus a browser is important, primarily IntelliJ IDEA, which can be pretty intense on resources sometimes.

I am curious to know how big a difference a slightly slower clock speed but faster bus speed and larger cache will make, and if it's worth the extra money just for that difference. Also, as a purely aesthetic note, the 180 only comes in silver, which I don't like that much.

As a point of reference, here are the Intel pages for the two processors:
P7350 : http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=36750&code=p7350

T6500 : http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=39311&code=t6500


Thanks for your help.

edit:
Here is a cnet side-by-side comparison of the two laptops, just for reference:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4504-4_7-0.html?id=33705760&id=33705746&&tag=boxcoco

 

[Pragmatic]

Quick bump.

Hate to be annoying like that, but I'm hoping to get a response before I go home, since I won't, well, have a computer at home.

Thanks again.

 

[thepieman]

I'd go with the one with a clock speed of 2.0Ghz since a drop of 100Mhz isn't going to be enough to have adverse consequences because you do have a higher FSB speed and more cache.

 

[dna708]

I'd go with the 180 since:

1. it comes with a laptop blu ray player which already makes the difference in price

2. I'm pretty sure the P7350 is faster since it has more cache and a faster FSB which probably means faster RAM (the .1ghz shouldn't make a difference since it has the cache advantage)

3. Since the P7350 is based off a 45nm architecture, it probably consumes less power (versus the T6500 65nm)

4. Larger harddrive (another advance in the price)

5. Since it comes with a blu ray drive, I'm going to assume it has a better integrated/discrete graphics solution and therefore will probably play games better

 

[dna708]

didn't realize your comparison link... the 180 should still play games better though -- since it has a better CPU

 

[cjl]

I'd go with the P7350 for one simple reason - all T series CPUs have a 35W TDP, and all P series have a 25W. In a laptop, this is a significant difference.

 

[gkay09]

+1 for the P7350...As others have pointed out, the clock difference is easily compensated by the extra cache and FSB...And like cjl pointed out, has a lower TDP too...

 

[david31058]

this benchmark site has the T6500 above the P7350...

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

is this a reliable site to use for such comparisons??