Right now I am helping a friend purchase a new computer. Right now all things including hdd, 6gb ram, 512mb video mem are all better in this new computer. however to keep cost as minimal as possible we have chosen an i3 330m processor. It runs at 2.13ghz and the duo of the old computer runs at 2.33. As a benchmark I beleive it would run better, but am not completely sure. Can you help answer this please?
Why would you buy a new PC and go with a CPU that's not much better than the old one? The i3 330 is faster, but barely. I imagine it's going to be about a 20-25% upgrade. If you're not bothering to upgrade the CPU then you may as well just buy some more memory and a new graphics card for the old PC instead.
If you MUST get an i3, get a 5xx, not a 3xx...the 5xx uses the same mainboard as the i5 and the low-end i7s, so starting with a 5xx gives you a lot of upgrade headroom. That said, JUST GET AN I5, and save the trouble of upgrading in a month.
I've only just noticed it's a laptop we're talking about. Upgrades are therefore going to be pretty hard.
Me feel stupid...I never even checked if they were making µPGA-989 microatx mainboards! I would not recommend the upgrade, it is so minor that it would be a waist. Odds are you can get almost as much of a performance boost just replacing vista with windows 7.
I realize im replying way aways later but I just wanted to say thanks. I had not realized this was updated. We ended up getting a laptop with a core i5 with a max clock of 2.9ghz 1gb vid ram, 4gb ddr3, hd display at 670$. Thanks to the dell outlet.
