We're purchasing a laptop for our kids, and is it worth the $100 up charge to get the Intel M 1.73 GHz and 2M cache chip verus the Celeron M 1.40 Ghz and 1M cache chip? For a $50 up charge we can upgrade the Memory on the lower priced laptop from 256 SDRAM 1Dimm to 512 SDRAM 2 Dimm. The kids will use the laptop for web based school work and gaming with programs like Simms and ZooTycoon. We do not anticipate using the computer as a video player. For this type of use is the Celeron with increased Memory to 512 adequate?

Laptops are not designed for playing games unless you buy a Gaming Laptop. Have you not looked a AMD Sempron Based Laptops ?

Simms runs fine on a 256Mb Celeron 800 I have here (the game would bore me rigid, but then so do all games). On the assumption that the machine will have XP on it I would go for the memory upgrade, but I doubt if you could tell the difference between the processors for the use you propose - most of the time it won't be doing anything!

A "Centrino" laptop with Pentium-M processor is the better route to take. The P-M is more powerful, yet is much better on battery life. 512MB RAM is recommended. The integrated graphics on most laptops is very poor for gaming...as plainandsimple said, if you want a laptop for games, you need a gaming laptop, & they ain't cheap! That being said, I don't think the system requirements for the SIMS & ZOO TYCOON are all that intense, but if you move up to SIMS 2 you'll be in trouble...it requires a video card that supports T&L. It will work with Intel Extreme graphics, but a 2.0GHz CPU is required http://thesims2.ea.com/help/detail.php?help_id=21 R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero "Viva La Raza"

Good information from everyone. Thanks -I'm now trying to balance the advice with the pricing I'm considering!

Jam, A pentium M running at 1.73ghz is equivalent to something like a 2.8ghz P4. They do more work/clock tick. FX-57 @ 3.1ghz 4GB of OCZ PC-4200 500GBx4 drive array Sapphire X850 XT-PE Fujitsu 1920x1080 projector