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Suitable Processor Speeds

The little sister is off to college next year, and is looking to buy a new laptop. The two that are being offered by her college have 1.60 or 1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M processors.

Here are more details: http://premier.dell.com/portal/standardconfig.aspx?c=US&l=en&s=eep&cs=RC1000272

I know that desktop Intel processors have reached speeds of 3Ghz+ these days, and we of course want to buy a laptop that will last me sister through all four years of college. So, will a 1.60 or 1.73 GHz laptop processor still be considered adequately fast four years from now?

My sister doesn't necessarily have to buy from the school if you think we should go with a better machine. We were just leaning towards one of these two laptops because they would come campus network-friendly right out of the box. But, we're open to suggestions.

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Callandor

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Lee W, MVP

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ITHELP25

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JohnK813

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I was aware of the whole "Megahertz Myth" (or is it the "Gigahertz Myth" now?) thing. I haven't been keeping up on my tech reading lately, so I wasn't aware that Pentium-M's performed differently.

My sister may have to do some video editing as part of her major. But, since it is for her major, there may be a computer lab set up for that somewhere. We'll have to ask someone at the school about that before we buy her a computer.

Matt - I agree that there are cheaper equivalents elsewhere. We'll have to look at on-campus IT's policies when we make our decision.

Thanks to all, I should have all the information I need now.