Can someone explain these differences to me?

[maryshome8]

I am considering purchasing a new Dell computer.

I am torn between the Dell Inspiron 1525 and the XPS 1530.

This is one of the specs that I am considering:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5550 (1.83GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)

I am going to notice any REAL speed differences between not going with a 2.0 GHz.  I do not use this system for gaming.

The other question I have is regarding the video card.

The sales rep said that the Inspiron has an integrated video card which pulled power from a place that the XPS does not...does anyone know what this means or can clarify?

THANKS!!!!

[michaewlewis]

If you're not going to use it for gaming, you're probably not going to notice any kind of difference between the two processor speeds. If the difference in price is more than $30-$50, go with the slower/cheaper one. You may, however, notice a difference if you don't have enough RAM. Try to get at least 2GB RAM in your computer.
As for the other question..... I'm not sure what the sales rep was talking about. Can you clarify any? or is that exactly what he said? I'm wondering if he was trying to scare you into buying something more expensive.

[Calum]

The difference on the graphics card is that the XPS has an 8400 or 8600 card, whereas the Inspiron system has an integrated X3100 chip.
The integrated chip will use system RAM, and will perform extremely badly in 3D applications - you can forget gaming on that chip.
As you're not gaming the X3100 will actually do fine, however you may find performance in Vista sluggish at times if you use the 3D effects such as Aero and 3D Flip.  You'll get better battery life with integrated vs. dedicated too.
As said above, the difference between a 1.83 and 2GHz Core 2 Duo will not be noticeable if you don't use your system for intensive tasks.

[maryshome8]

Thanks for explaining the difference between the dedicated vs integrated card...yes, the sales rep did explain it in detail...I'm just not up on computer lingo to remember the details.

Ok...that solves the operating system issue.  Both computers I am looking at will have the following Memory:

2 GB Shared Duel Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz (2 Dimms)

Of course..I have no idea of what that means other than the 2 GB's. I wished I knew what the duel channel option was supposed to do.

Hard drive on both is going to be:

160 GB 5400 rpm SATA Hard Drive
The graphics are like this:

XPS model:  128 MB NVIDIA  GeForce 8400M GS
Inspiron: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 and a Intel Graphics Medica Accelerator x3100

[michaewlewis]

you will probably want to see if you can upgrade the hard drive to 7200 rpm. 5400rpm is quite slow.

the "2 GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz (2 Dimms)" just means that there will be two 1gb sticks of RAM installed, totaling 2gb RAM.