Upgrading T2300 to T7200, how much better?

[Emlyn_Dewar]

The money will soon start trickling in from this Summer's Temp job... I'm really bored of desktop though, there's no space and it just inconvenient.

Was thinking about scraping the pennies together and buying a T7200 to replace the T2300 in my laptop. Was just wondering if anyone had made a similar move or if you think the move would even be worth while.
The laptop is the only system I use now, the T2300 is perfect for the day to day stuff but it's the gaming performance increase I'm interested in.
Games I play would mainly be, Guild Wars, Half Life 2 (Gary's Mod) C&C Series and Armed Assault.

A move from a 1.66ghz CoreDuo with 2mb shared L2 to a 2.0ghz C2D with 4mb... How do you see that working out?

Other specs, 2x1gb PC5300, 256mb 7800go, 80gb sata.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Yeah, on the one hand I think "it's an extra 300 odd mhz and 2mb L2" but on the other hand I think "it's only an extra 300 odd mhz and 2mb L2..." Just can't win.
I suppose keeping my eye out for the fast CoreDuo's on auctions/deals could be another option. The GPU is capable of reasonable overclocks when needed so I feel the only thing bogging me down is CPU.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

GPU is a 7800go, it's still alright and can handle the newer stuff.
I've no problems opening up laptops either have changed cpu's in them before, looking at the service manual from dell it doesn't look too taxing for this one.
I imagine heat output will be very similar to the current CPU. The TDP is slightly higher, but the Inspiron 9400 is available with the faster C2D's so I can't see there being much issue. Bios updates allow for the changeover, so I'll just make sure I get a decent application of AS5 and dust out the fans, etc.

In games you probably won't see much difference at all, the 7800 while a decent GPU is getting on a bit and will struggle with new games, which a new CPU won't help you with. You'd be better off selling the whole thing and getting something with a 7950GTX or 8700m.

I can also see this as a reasonable arguement, I'm not too sure I'd be able to afford moving to a new laptop at the moment. Got this one off MM a couple of months back for a good price. I guess it will just come down to how strapped I'll be for cash over the next while, certainly another road to consider though.