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    Celeron M 550 2.0Ghz with 3gb ram + Vista Ultimate?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by jonguyen11, Oct 6, 2008.

  1. jonguyen11

    jonguyen11 Notebook Enthusiast

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    How will this run performance wise doing basic things like web browsing, photoshop, watchin dvds, using Word. And some multitasking.
     
    jonguyen11, Oct 6, 2008
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  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    1. Web Browsing - Good
    2. Photoshop - No so good because of the Celeron M 550, esp when manipulating images, applying filters, etc
    3. Watchin DVDs - Good
    4. Using Word - Good
    5. Mulitasking - Depends upon the task. RAM is fine, though.

    Get a fast HDD, it will boost the overall performance of windows, and comes in handy in photoshop as well, to quickly load large images.

    And you can probably upgrade the Celeron M 550 to any Socket P (FSB: 800MHz) Core 2 Duo. It'll help improve performance in intensive tasks, and battery life as well (+ giving you the ability to undervolt the CPU).
     
    Andy, Oct 6, 2008
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  3. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    welcome to nbr,

    it will run basic software fine, it will stumble with photoshop, because of the processor. The lag will only be present if you are doing complex photoshop. If your doing basic stuff than it will be okay.
    You may want to find a core 2 based laptop or an amd turion based system. They will be faster, and will be able to underclock, when the processor is not being used, increasing battery life and decreasing temperatures.
    The celeron processors do not have speedstep technology which is what I decribed above.

    Do you know what harddrive and graphics card it has?

    If speedstep doesnt matter to you, the system will be fine.
    just get a decent warranty with it and you will be set.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Oct 6, 2008
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  4. jonguyen11

    jonguyen11 Notebook Enthusiast

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    The video card is an integrated Intel GMA X3100 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0

    and the hdd it has is a 120 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm

    should i notice any slow down running one program at a time. And should it be able to do SOME mulitasking?
     
    jonguyen11, Oct 6, 2008
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  5. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    You'll probably notice slow performance when running intensive tasks, such as Photoshop, and during Video-Encoding, but not slow-downs. You could upgrade the HDD to a better, faster one. And don't think about gaming with the X3100.

    Which Notebook is it ?
     
    Andy, Oct 6, 2008
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  6. jonguyen11

    jonguyen11 Notebook Enthusiast

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    yeah deff not gaming or video encoding on this, i'll be only using this for school work, typing up papers and web browsing. It's the Inspiron 1525. If i were to have a choice should i go with XP home or Vista Ultimate?
     
    jonguyen11, Oct 6, 2008
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  7. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Go for Vista. If possible, go for XP Pro, or Vista HP/Business.

    You could upgrade the HDD to a slighly faster one, which will make windows more responsive. You can also upgrade the CPU to a low-end Core 2 Duo (T5x50/T5x70), which will help you improve the battery life, as compared to the Celeron. Both upgrades will be cheap, but upgrading the CPU might void the warranty.
     
    Andy, Oct 6, 2008
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  8. jonguyen11

    jonguyen11 Notebook Enthusiast

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    what harddrive would you recommend for an upgrade?

    I'm not sure if im looking at the right CPU's for the 1525 all the one's i see are $200+ which is way too expensive for an upgrade.
     
    jonguyen11, Oct 6, 2008
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  9. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Depends upon your budget, and how fast you want windows to be.

    The new 320GB 7200RPM HDDs are going for under $100. You could also look at the 320GB 5400RPMs, i.e. Hitachi 5K320, WD3200BEVT, which are slightly on the quiet side.
    You could also look at their 160GB and 250GB versions, which will give similar performance, and will be slightly cheaper.

    I would recommend you to have a look at the Hitachi 5K320 and 7K320 Series, and also the Seagate 7200.3 Series, and see if you can find a good deal for yourself. :)
     
    Andy, Oct 6, 2008
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  10. jonguyen11

    jonguyen11 Notebook Enthusiast

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    jonguyen11, Oct 6, 2008
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  11. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Andy, Oct 6, 2008
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  12. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    if you want that seagate at zipzoomfly, you better act quick, cause that drive is probably going to be sold out soon with prices that low.

    I have the Hitachi 7K320 series drives, and I could not be more pleased with them. Super quiet, fast and they run cool.
    The seagate is also a good drive, you should definitely look into getting it.
    It will have about 2x the data throughput as the 120gb 7200rpm drive, if the stock drive is from two generation's ago.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Oct 6, 2008
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  13. jonguyen11

    jonguyen11 Notebook Enthusiast

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    ok thanks! much apprecated :)
     
    jonguyen11, Oct 6, 2008
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  14. The Intimidator

    The Intimidator Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have about the same setup but 1.73ghz celeron, 2 gig's ram and a 80gb 5400 rpm hd running vista home premium. The laptop works well for most general uses I have yet to have a problem multitasking ie. running firefox, Itunes, messenger, open office ect run good at the same time. I do notice lag when opening larger programs or files such as limewire or windows media center but they run well once open I'm pretty sure the faster hd would sort that out though. my main issue with that set up is battery life sucks 1.5 hours max while my 15.4" c2d with dedicated graphics will run for an avrg of 3.5 hours on performance mode, I don't notice a difference between battery saver and perf on the celeron machine except it runs slower.
     
    The Intimidator, Oct 7, 2008
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  15. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    you can try undervolting your processor with cpu rightmark, but it may not work because you have a celeron processor.
    You should try and pick up a cheap core 2 laptop processor. It will run cooler because if Intel speedstep technology, a more efficient core architecture and the ability to undervolt.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Oct 9, 2008
    #15