Which is Fastest? (Another Computer Question)

[MichaelM]

I had previously made a poll on aspect ratio when I was deciding on what laptop to get. I've had mine for about a month and a half now and have found the same laptop with a few differences. and am not sure whether I should return mine for the new one. Heres the question:

Which would be faster, asuming shared memory is expanded to its max?
1) a laptop with processor speed of 1.83 GHz and 1280 MB of shared memory
2) a laptop with processor speed of 2.00 GHz and 768 MB of shared memory

I don't really know a whole lot on exactly how computers actually work, so basically my question is which has more an effect on your computer's speed/performance, Processor Speed or Memory? I currently have computer 1) as described above, but I could get computer 2) for the same price.

Another question, just out of curiosity and nothing to do with computer speed, would you rather have a laptop with Dolby Home Theatre or Blu-ray?

[Tony]

I would say that this depends on what you do with your computer (what kind of applications, what kind of load, etc)

I'd stress-test the current system with system monitoring on, and see which resource bottle-necks first.

[wtd]

Memory is important, but so is processor speed. One can be easily upgraded. The other... not as much.

I would not bother for 1.83GHz vs. 2GHz, but if it's going from a 5xxx series Core 2 Duo to a 7xxx series with non-gimped cache, then it might be worthwhile.

[Zeroth]

Find out the exact processor model, and look it up. If they have HyperTransport enabled, get it. Hypertransport speeds up the memory bus between the cpu and the memory. And it does it quickly(3.2Gb/s). That is where your biggest speed benefits will be.

[MichaelM]

Thanks for all the input.