The core wars - Pentium dual core or Core 2 Duo

I've been getting some queries from my friends on what I consider to be a good middle-of-the-road laptop purchase. I did some research and came to the following conclusions. Hope this helps you in your next purchase.

Intel hasn't made anyone's life easier by providing a range of processors to choose from (I keep getting reminded of Barry Schwartz's Paradox of Choice). If you are in the market for a decent laptop, you are faced with a number of options. For my scenario, I am limiting my choice to just Intel processors. Within Intel, there are two popular camps - Pentium Dual Core and Pentium Core 2 Duo.

You can read an excellent technical article on the difference between Pentium Dual Core and Core 2 Duo. I have attempted to give a gist of the article along with my impressions here.

Pentium Dual Core: This is a 65nm based chip that is considered as slightly 'old' school, or more accurately 'current' school. This is a very competent chip that has two processors and performs quite well. Being a 65nm chip, it generates a decent amount of heat, but not as much as the previous models.

Pentium Core 2 Duo: This comes in two flavors - 65nm and 45nm (and that's the catch!). The 45nm is considered 'future' generation and generates much less heat and is more powerful with a different architecture.

What the marketing fluff does not tell you is that the 65nm Core 2 Duo chips (T4200/T6400) are 95% similar in performance/architecture as the Pentium Dual Core and hence don't really buy you anything (except for an additional 1MB cache). The 45nm Core 2 Duo chips are T9xxx series or P series chips.

The price is where you'll notice the main difference. Pentium Dual Core systems sell for around $500, Pentium Core 2 Duo 65nm for around $550 - $600, and Pentium Core 2 Duo 45nm for around $800 - $900.

So, now comes the main question - what to choose? I normally answer this by asking for the buyer's need. At the end of the day, that's what determines the selection.

If you are planning to use the laptop for standard use, such as for checking email, using Microsoft Office, browsing the net, and even for some low-medium weight programming, I'd suggest going with a Pentium Dual Core (or the low end Core 2 Duo if the price is same).

On the other hand, if you are a hard-core 3D gamer, work a lot with video editing software, or do a lot of graphic manipulation, then Core 2 Duo higher end would be a better option with its increase cache and lower power consumption.