Maximum PC

I need some help understanding mobile processor models. I've gone to Intel's site, I've searched high and low for comparison charts and have been pretty much unsuccessful.

I know that there are T2xxx T5xxx T7xxx and I think T9xxx do these also signify technology age (as in Pentium4 vs Pentium D vs Core 2 Duo.

What's what? Is there something I should stay away from (ie battery consumption)

The laptop will be used for playing media, surfing, email, wireless, maybe some DVD creations of home videos or DVD picture slide shows to music, downloads, burning ... maybe encoding.

Can anyone point me to any material or give me a basic run down.

An Example is a Dell 17" Studio with a T2390 1.86 GHz for $749 vs a Compaq 17" with a T5550 at 1.83 GHz for $799. No clue which is a better proc for those needs (or if one is a new or older technology).

A good way to compare the mobile processors is to head over to the egg and look up their mobile core 2 duos. That should give you enough info on speed/cache/fsb/generation/power consumption/etc. The problem is that they only have the higher end procs there. Link

BTW, do not get anything that is less than a 7xxx. The 7xxx is the high end of the old conroe/merom procs. If you want the latest and greatest, get a 8xxx or 9xxx They are the new penryn/wolfdale CPU's. The difference? 8xxx has only 3mb of cache, while the 9xxx has 6mb of cache.
There is also a letter code before them to describe the amount of power used. The T means that it is a standard power consumption model, or it uses 35 watts. P means that it's low power consumtion, using 25 watts. U is ultra low power consumtion. It takes just 5-10 watts. X is for the extreme edition. the old merom extreme procs used 44 watts, and the new penryn ones use 35 just like the T series. Q is for the upcoming mobile quad cores. They will use 45 watts.

i know the t2390 is not a core2duo, it is a pentium dual core, thus using having 1 mb cache and a 533mhz fsb. the t5500 is a standard lower-end core2duo using if im not mistakend 2mbcache and a 667mhz fsb.

remember, its not all about core clock speed, the t5500 is ur better bet

definitely (note that it is spelled correctly) agree with avanish on this

8xxx or 9xxx series of Intel processors are going to grant best performance

as far as Intel's naming scheme. It is more or less to confuse people, and as soon as people figure out how that naming scheme works... the move to something different, but most manufacturers change the naming scheme. so specs are going to tell more than the model number.

the lowest thing i would look at from Intel right now would be the 8100 (at least for what you are wanting to do right now) anything on up from there would be a plus.