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Geek Culture / Need a quick expert opinion

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dark donkey
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 21:45
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Hey, ive been looking for a cheep laptop i can use for working on and the odd spot of programing. And i think ive found a cheep solution. Although ive never bought a laptop so im a bit nervouse. £400 is my max limit. But this is the laptop ive been looking at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01509130&lc=en&dlc=tr&cc=tr&product=3758194&lang=tr.

It has:
2 GHz AMD Sempron Processor for Notebook PCs SI-40
512 KB Level 2 cache
2048 MB (2 x 1024 MB)
NVIDIA GeForce 8200M
160 GB (5400 rpm)

The only part that worrys me is the 512 kb of level 2 cache. I have no idea if its alot or not.

Please help i need to know by tonight
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Mahoney
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 21:50
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Quote: "The only part that worrys me is the 512 kb of level 2 cache. I have no idea if its alot or not."


Although it won't have a huge effect, that is fairly low by current standards. But, I'm on 1MB and doing fine. Everything else looks good, though.

Windows Vista Home Premium Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.6 Ghz 1GB DDR2 RAM GeForce 8600GT Twin Turbo
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dark donkey
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 21:52
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Stupid question but, Whats this cache do?. I mean the procesor allready has 2.0ghz or procesing power
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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:17
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cache is mainly used for web browsing. A cache is basically a big bucket that holds your web history, and stores those pages. For example, if you visit http://www.threeswordsproductions.com for the first time today, it will have to load all the images, and other stuff from the server. THEN it will store it in the cache. SO, if you go back the next day, it won't have to re-download all the site information, because its stored in the cache. The only downside to this is that, if you visit the site, then the site is updated, you will have to refresh the page, or else it will load the cached version, not the updated version.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
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dark donkey
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:18
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Plus any body here used vista basic?. Im not gonna bash it just wanna know if its really as bad as its made out to be.
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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:19
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I use vista, it works fine. I have zero problems with it.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
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dark donkey
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:19
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Thanks Omega Gamer, what version of vista do you have?.
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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:20
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32 bit home premium, I believe. (I'm at school, so I can't check right now.)

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
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dark donkey
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:23
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Okay thanks for all the info, really helpfull
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Samoz83
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:23 Edited at: 27th Aug 2008 22:25
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Quote: "cache is mainly used for web browsing. A cache is basically a big bucket that holds your web history, and stores those pages."


thats a browser cache not a processor one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache thats what a CPU cache does.

Help create the FPSC Wiki at [href]www.flaminggames.co.uk/fps2[/href]
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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:24
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oops, sorry. Didn't read the first post carefully enough. My bad.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
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Mahoney
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:26
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Yeah, 512 L2 cache should be more than enough (I think the Pentium III I use for NES games has 128 KB's. ).

Also, if you can get Home Premium, I recommend it. That is assuming it's not much extra.

Windows Vista Home Premium Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.6 Ghz 1GB DDR2 RAM GeForce 8600GT Twin Turbo
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dark donkey
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:39
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So the cache is just to speed stuff up so it dosent have to go throught the hard drive?. The harddrive itself is 5200rpg wich is surly enough for quick searching. So as long as i dont put loads of crap on it it shouldent make a difrence
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Mahoney
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:42 Edited at: 27th Aug 2008 22:42
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Quote: "So the cache is just to speed stuff up so it dosent have to go throught the hard drive?"


Not quite. The CPU pre-loads certain valuess from memory into the L1 Cache when the registers are full. The L1 cache is far faster than RAM. When L1 is full, it loads into L2, which is not as fast as L1, but still much faster than RAM. So, having a lot of L1 and L2 cache makes applications that heavily load variables from RAM run faster. But, 512 - 1024 KB is enough for the average user.

Windows Vista Home Premium Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.6 Ghz 1GB DDR2 RAM GeForce 8600GT Twin Turbo
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Benjamin
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Posted: 27th Aug 2008 22:42 Edited at: 27th Aug 2008 22:43
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No, the cache is there so that frequently accessed data doesn't have to be constantly fetched from main memory.

[edit] Posted at the same time.

Multisync - TCP Server/Client Multiplayer Plugin (DBP/DBCe)
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