2450M/2520M - Virtualization Technology?? What is it??

[mattlorimer94]

I'm looking at a laptop and I thought that there was a lagre price difference ( £38 ) between the i5 2450M and 2520M, and that the 2520M had to have something more than just an extra 70MHz. So I did some research and came across something called Virtualization Technology that apparently comes with the 2520M. Is this correct???
Is there any other reason for the price difference??

What does this 'VT' do if the 2520M has it??

I'm using my laptop for gaming, not serious hardcore gaming, but I want to be able to run games well for some time. Otherwise I'm just using it for Web Browsing, Word prossesing etc. Is 'VT' beneficial for gaming??

What does it do basically ??

 

[Big_Rich]

VT basically allows your computer to trick a piece of software into thinking it is running on a different spec system or different OS by inventing Virtual Machines, mainly for the purposes of program testing.

For example, say you wanted to trial a new OS. Fire up a virtual machine, "install" the OS to that "machine", try it, don't like it, bin it, nothing has changed. You still have your PC how it was.

Unless you are a programmer or hardcore nerd, you are never going to use VT and shouldn't allow it to influence your choice of CPU.

That said, the turbo-boost feature on the 2520M allows it to clock from 2.5Ghz to either 3.0Ghz on 2 cores or to 3.2Ghz on a single core.

The 2450M only clocks from 2.5Ghz to 2.8Ghz on 2 cores or 3.1Ghz on a single core.

If it were my money, for the sake of 38 quid, I would get the 2520M.

It is worth mentioning though, that despite being "the best" of the two, the 2520M is still firmly at the lower end of mid-range when it comes to CPUs. I realise you say you're not going to be doing any hardcore gaming, but you also say you want to run games "for some time"... which this chip may not do.

 

[mattlorimer94]

okay thanks for that. I may spend the extra £38 on the 2520M then. If it is at the "lower end of mid-range" what CPU would you recomend as decent enough??