Hi,

Just looking for some guidance about cpu speeds and performance.

I'm considering changing my 2 year old Toshiba SA40-151 for something new.
Obviously, I'm hoping for better performance, not that I've had any
performance problems with the Tosh. The Tosh has a 2.6GHz Celeron, most
budget / medium laptops these days seem to have something rather slower,
1.8GHz seems typical. I know that it's not all about CPU speed, but is a
modern 1.8GHz machine really going to be as quick as the older tosh with a
2.6?

For example, PC World are doing an AMD Sempron 3000+ (actually 1.8Ghz?)
processor laptop at the moment with what seems like a good spec, at £449.
How would this compare?

Any other guidance on offer or recommendations?

Many thanks.

Check the specs on your processor at Intel
Things that affect performance are:
Amount of Cache Ram (L1 andL2)
Number of pipelines (amount of processing that can be performed per clock
cycle)
Front side Bus speed and clock multiplier

After checking out your specs then check out the specs in the chips you want
to replace that one with. You will find that the AMD chips are much better
at performance with lower "speed" than the Celeron That is why the Semperon
is rated at 3GHz when it is really running at 1.8Ghz. This feature also
allows teh chips to run cooler than Intel.
You also have to have the correct motherboard if you are swapping chips. You
cannot put an AMD chip on an Intel motherboard, the pin configuration is
different

There are other things that affect your computer speed as well. Your CPU may
not be the culprit.

Check your startup programs (usually have icons by the clock) If you have
everything starting at startup then all those programs (waiting in standby)
are sucking up the memory that could be used to run your active programs,
thus making them faster and more efficient (run msconfig, if you are not
familiar find someone who is)

How fast is your harddrive? The rpm can range anywhere from 5400-10K and
also the access time varies as well. Faster speed and acess time will make a
vast improvement on how your programs respond Defragmenting the drive
periodically will help somewhat s well. (accessories/system tools on start
menu)

Video plays an importamt role as well for graphics intensive programs
(games, photo editing, etc) The more video ram your card has, the less your
processor has to do for rendering..leaving more power to run your programs.

Hope this helps answer your question..The best thing to do is get informed
on what you have, what you need/want and what you want to spend to get
there. Then upgrade. Most expensive is not always better
Driving a Ferrari between stoplights is no better than a Yugo, but it looks
cool!!!