Anyone know about these Acer laptops?

I'm trying to decide between an Acer Aspire 5332 and 5735 and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the issue.

Primary usage will be playing music, browsing and watching DVDs, odd compilation of source code, e.g. mplayer.

Both have 3GB RAM and ample hard disc space, same size screen.

Raw processing power isn't a primary concern but neither do I want to pick one that's significantly slower. I think the quicker is going to depend on application:

i) T3000, 1.8GHz Celeron dual-core, 800 MHz FSB, 1MB L2 cache

ii) T3400, 2.16GHz Pentium dual-core, 667MHz FSB, 1MB L2 cache

I'm swayed by the faster FSB but to be honest I don't know in which situations which chip would be faster. Can the T3400 still have faster memory throughput because of the CPU speed? Are the architectures significantly different enough to matter?

All I know is that the T3000 is probably from ~2009 and the T3400 ~2008.

Last thing on the chips, AFAIK, the T3000 does not have Intel Enhanced Speedstep. Does this mean that it doesn't have throttling at all? One of the bugbears of my last laptop was the fan always coming on. Both chips have a TDP of 35W, so I don't know if one will run cooler.

Chips aside, anyone know a reason to pick one laptop model over the other? All I've got is the 5332 should be a newer model but that doesn't make it better! Both come with Vista, though one is Home Basic, the other Home Premium. I'll probably run linux most of the time anyway :-)

Unless you know of a significantly better machine for < £250 in the UK, these are the two it's between.

I fully appreciate that a computer forum would be a better place to ask but there are enough techies around here who can help, I'm sure and I need a quick answer (I want to buy before weekend).

Phew, lots of confusion, thanks for reading.

Thanks for the reply. I'd largely come to the same conclusion but probably by faulty logic or a lack of information. I may try to put some sensible arguments together for my understanding, if nothing else.

Unfortunately the equation has changed.

I am now faced with T3000 and 3GB RAM vs T7500 (Core 2 Duo) with 2GB RAM. So now we are into amount of RAM vs clock speed and architecture. I highly suspect for my main usage that CPU speed will make little difference. I suspect the T7500 will run cooler.

The T7500 option is slightly more expensive but not by much. I just don't like the idea of less RAM, though it's not like 2GB is small. It's certainly the more future proof option.

Indeed, although I'm almost certain that there are no free memory slots, so obviously it's a more expensive job to upgrade.

The last sticking point is fan noise. I'm probably just horrendously out of touch here with my impressions formed from an Athlon XP-M that was always turning on the fan and was always loud. This is why I'm tempted by having the speedstep. However, if (celeron) laptops are generally quiet now anyway I'm worrying about nothing. I suppose they run a lot cooler. Also, the speedstep is obviously only an advantage if the load is low enough to keep the fan off. I'm assuming that playing wavs and browsing will be low enough!

If anyone could shed light on how often fans kick in and whether it's an issue, I'd appreciate it.

Bump for info on noisy celerons.

Thanks for the replies but this is online only, so no testing. :-(

Just doing a bit of thread tidying. I eventually went for the celeron T3000. The celeron is based on a newer Core2Duo and given that, some of the previous benchmark results looked a bit dubious. The fan does quieten down for decent periods and isn't loud on full, so it's all good.