Ask me anything about computers

College Life
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<p>this thread is old as hell hombre. the guy who started it is probably long dead by now.</p>

<p><em>spits chewing tobacco & adjusts cowboy hat</em></p>

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<p>Hi! Soo my question…
What are the pros and cons of the following two processors? I don’t really know how the differences between them affect performance, or what the differences mean for that matter</p>

<p>Intel(R) Core™ i5-450M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz</p>

<p>Intel(R) Core™ i5-520M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz </p>

<p>The latter costs $100 more.
And also, is an i5 a good enough processor for an engineering student who will use a laptop for mostly multimedia and light gaming? My guess is yes
Thank you!!</p>

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<p>The 450m is good enough if you don’t plan on running two different OS at the same time. The 520m helps with that and a bit extra but you probably won’t use it. </p>

<p>The difference in speed only helps if you’re using a program that uses one core. Which programs does that I have no idea.</p>

<p>When I purchased my laptop, I just went with the 450m.</p>

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<p>IMO, the I5-450M is better, unless you need/want Intel VT-d, TXT, or AES instruction set. They’re pretty useless, except for very specific tasks. Both support hardware virtualization; I’m not sure what VT-d is for though, it’s probably just an extension for hardware virtualization.</p>

<p>Performance wise, they’re approximately equivalent. The 450M has a wider system bus (DMI = 4.8 GT/s) than the 520M’s bus (DMI = 2.5 GT/s), but the 520M has higher turboboosted clockspeed. Bottomline, if you need those features listed above (most people dont need them), then get i5 520m. If not, then get i5-450M and save $100. according to benchmarks, they’re very similar. </p>

<p>Benchmark: [PassMark</a> - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs](<a href=“http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php]PassMark”>PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs)
Graph: [PassMark</a> CPU Lookup](<a href=“http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5+450M+%40+2.40GHz]PassMark”>http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5+450M+%40+2.40GHz)</p>

<p>More info, go here: [i5&lt;/a&gt; 450 -VS- i5 520?](<a href=“TechnologyGuide - TechTarget”>TechnologyGuide - TechTarget)</p>

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<p>How/where do you physically install RAM in a Dell desktop?</p>

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<ol>
<li>Pop open the side panel.</li>
<li>Find the DIMM slots on the motherboard. Picture: <a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Mainboard_with_DDR2-RAM.JPG[/url]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Mainboard_with_DDR2-RAM.JPG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li>Find an open DIMM slot and open the retaining clips.</li>
<li>Slide in the RAM until you it fits nicely and the retaining clips fully close.</li>
<li>???</li>
<li>PROFIT!!!</li>
</ol>

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<p>Interesting thread and arguments/discussions.</p>

<p>I think the top question for most students and parents would be “what’s the best computer for my kid to have at college?”.</p>

<p>Assuming, if the computer is working and serving its purpose, it doesn’t really matter until it breaks. Then the question becomes “which computer can be most quickly and easily fixed when something goes wrong?”.</p>

<p>First, I’d rule out anything that requires calling a national support line and possibly waiting for a shipping box within which to send the computer away in the mail for 3-7 days. That’s just not going to be a good setup for a frshman living in a college dorm, possibly with no car.</p>

<p>Instead, I think most cities have really good refurb notebook stores near campuses, and I think a student will be best serviced by purchasing a used laptop from such an establishment.</p>

<p>I’ll use my city of Austin as an example. We have a “Mr. Notebook” 1 block from UT. They sell decent refurb laptops, starting at $300. When you buy a laptop there, you get FREE lifetime labor along with the 90 day hardware warranty. Have a problem? Just carry it in and they open it up on the bench, right there, while you wait, and either fix it and give it back in less than 30 minutes, or check it in for further diagnostics. Out of about a half dozen repairs, I’ve only had to leave my laptop overnight there once. The staff is smart, fast, and they crank out a bunch of small fixes every hour. It’s all they do.</p>

<p>So, I want my kid to have a laptop (instead of a desktop) and an easy place to walk it into when it goes haywire. I think this is a superior setup for a college kid. And if they are using Google Docs and/or keeping proper backups in the cloud, they can get to their docs and files from any computer even if they have to do without their own for a few days while being repaired.</p>

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<p>I’m back and still alive, people.</p>

<p>Fire away!</p>