which one?

hey everyone, i decided not to post this in actual forum for wt laptop to buy because i know that im going to be buying a macbook. i just need to decide which one. 2.0 or 2.4?

i use my laptop for basic stuff, (surf net, email ,msn), however, i hv my dell xps m1330 which i bought last year, i just got the basic processor, (t5450, 1.6 ghz), as i thought it would be enough for my basic needs. But lately i have noticed that when im on a video chat on msn, and i try to do other stuff like opening up itunes, or even when i open firefox , the voice of the other person im talking to, would get cut off, and would keep doing that until the webpage is loaded, and while doing that i look at task manager , and it shows CPU usage 100%, so obv this is a processor issue.

so i want to get a processor which would run fine when im multitasking while on a video chat. Also im going to install windows xp through parallel desktop (only to run windows live messenger). So basically i would be chatting, and doing video chats on windows live messenger installed on windows xp, and rest of stuff (websurfing, itunes, email) will be on leopard.

i know theres a quite a big difference between 1.6 ghz and 2.0 ghz, but im still not sure if it would handle my needs.

Also i might upgrade RAM to 4gb, but i hv noticed that i dont really use RAM this much. I have windows vista rite now, and most of times, RAM usage is under 1 Gb ( I hv 2 Gb of RAM rite now).

Any help would be greatly appreciated

And other stuff , like larger hard drive, illuminated keyboard in 2.4 macbook dont really matter to me.
Im a kind of person who would want to upgrade laptop about every 1-2 years. So im thinking of getting 2.0, but i dont want to spend more money on a laptop with same processor problem.

 

I think the video chat has more to do with the internet connection. I have no idea why a processor would have to do with that. I really doubt the processor is the problem, but it could be.

If you are going to do parallels, it'd be best to get 4 GB of ram so you'd have to upgrade that anyway. I think the 2.0 would be good enough.

Or maybe you don't have enough RAm in your 1330? Vista + all those things you mentioned would need quite a bit of ram. Maybe it's RAM?

 

No its not the internet connection, bc its not just when i open web site, but also when the itunes is loading up or when im syncing my iphone. And when the itunes loads up, it becomes fine. And while thats happening i look at task manager, and it shows CPU usage 100%. And no its not RAM either, bc like i said i also check the RAM usage, and most of the times its under 1Gb, like 9XX Mb.

And when i look at processes in task manager, and it says windows live messenger is taking like 46% of CPU. so im thinking it does have to do something with processor

 

Well, theres no harm in getting the 2.4.

 

In that case I don't really know. The CPU spike could be due to come underlying process running in the back ground or something. Before you buy a Macbook you should try reformatting the 1330 and start fresh. If that doesn't fix the video issues...then it has to be the connection.

How can you be using less than 1 GB of ram?? I thought Vista needed at least 1.5 -2 for the OS alone?

 

hmm ok ill try that.

And no vista doesnt need 1.5 - 2 GB, when you load up windows, the RAM usage is about 600 MB, as apposed to OS X, which is only ~300 MB ( correct me if im wrong), then when you open up some apps it goes up to ~900 MB.

And normally i would have MSN open and a couple web sites only.

 

I am not sure how surf net, email , and msn can make your CPU goes up to 100% usage. You may want to check if some unwanted programs are running underground. Regarding the 2.0 and 2.4, they don't have much noticeable difference if only for surfing, emailing and msn.

 

im nt just talking abt chatting on msn, just doing chat is fine, its the video chat or video call that give problems. i think i read somewhere that video chatting takes a lot of processor. And like i mentioned before, when im doing video chat, i look at processes in task manager, and it showed that processor usage of MSN is like 46%. ill take a snap shot later tonite.

And i dont think theres anything running in background. Bc rite now im not on msn, and when i look at CPU usage its like 6-10 %

 

Well zunairryk, I agree with canadiandude that your 1.6Ghz C2D should be fine with video chat on MSN plus a couple of other non demanding tasks and I would look at software fixes within vista for a solution(you should not be at 6-10% just idling).
So going back to to your question if you don't care about the illuminated keyboard and larger HDD then just go for the base model with 4Gb of RAM since you are going to use a VM.
Good luck.

 

I would go with the 2.0 if i were on a tight budget. Now if i had money, i would go with the 2.4 because it offers backlit keyboard!!!

 

The only app that ever bottlenecks my cpu is handbrake.