X41-1.5GHz vs. 1.6GHz?

[ZAGNUT]

shopping around for a decent X41 and i see the market is pretty much flooded with the 1.5GHz version while the 1.6GHz model is hard to come by and always commands a significantly higher price. so with all other specs being equal how much difference in performance does 100MHz really make? should i hold out for the right 1.6? whichever model i do get will have the RAM maxed out and a SATA SSD somehow stuffed into it if that makes any difference. i'm currently using a T30 with the 2GHz P4 and 1GB of ram and don't want to go down in performance if it can be helped. all advice is welcome.

thanks,
dave

[Harryc]

A 1.6 GHz Pentium M can typically attain or even surpass the performance of a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4-M, so figure that a 1.5Ghz Pentium M beats a 2.2Ghz Pentium 4-M.

[ZAGNUT]

oh yeah, i forgot the P-M was that much better than the P-4, for some reason i had the P-3 to P-4 ratio stuck in my head. so i should be better off either way.

just looking for some reassurance that i'm not going to regret going with the 1.5 unless somehow that piddly 100MHz really does make some kind of meaningful difference.


dave

[Harryc]

Dave, the 1.5 is faster than what you have, and with an SSD it will be a screamer .

[ZAGNUT]

ok, enough procrastinating, time to order something. thanks!

[astroidea]

Do the math. 1.5/1.6 = 93.75%
So you lose about 6.25% performance going 1.5 over 1.6. Hardly a noticeable difference. The 1.5GHz probably could undervolt more so you can save more battery life.
Also if you're actually saving money, spending it on a memory upgrade could produce a far more noticeable difference. Running out of ram means you have to resort to using the unbearably slow 1.8" drive as virtual ram which will make your computer.. about 10000% slower, not even an exaggeration there btw. We're talking about 20MB/s hard drive transfer vs 2000MB/s DDR2 transfer rate.

Or you could spend the money on a SSD(which may be less reliable, so make sure you have good warranty and keep backups).
Going SSD doesn't actually cost that much if you sell your old 1.8" PATA drive which actually goes for exorbitant prices on ebay given its rarity. I sold my 40GB for $70, and picked up a 64GB SSD for $160 shipped. So the SSD upgrade only costed me $90.

EDIT: It looks like you are doing both, I just reread your OP after typing this out
Anyways, the difference is negligible.

[ZAGNUT]

in the end i went for cosmetics and got a machine that is just about "as new" as is possible and it's a 1.6GHz.

the 60GB HDD doesn't really seem slow to me (even with win7) but since i love to tinker i'll still be going with the SSD.

[nchall]

which ssd are you going with? i am looking for one as well.