Processor models vary according to cache size, clock speed and RAM speed. If you run computer-intensive programs, the more L2 Cache you have the better. If, however, you use your PC for gaming, streaming video or watching movies, the size of your L2 Cache is not as significant as having a speedy Front Side Bus and increased Clock Speed. That said, every year, software developers design programs and applications that demand more and more of all three of these elements. So, our advice is to think about tomorrow’s needs as well as today's. Still don’t know how much to err on the side of caution? Choose the best processor you can afford. No matter what, you’re bound to be impressed.

Here is some guidance to consider when looking at our laptop processors:

Intel® Core™2 Extreme mobile processor:
X9000 series: For ultimate mobile gaming and/or media performance

Intel® Centrino® processor technology:
T9000/T8000 series: Great for visually intense gaming and/or high definition media
T7000/ T5000 series: Create and store your photos, videos and music

Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor:
T2000 series: Aptly handles a variety of simple computing tasks simultaneously

Intel® Celeron® dual-core processor:
T1000 series: For when you want to run a few basic tasks simultaneously

Intel® Celeron® processor:
500 series: For when you just need the basics

Extend your hand and place four marbles in the palm. That's the gist of quad-core. It’s that simple.

Quad-core technology is a single processor chip (your hand), including four processor cores (the four marbles) or rather four simultaneously hard working brains. And just like those marbles, each core can work either separately, or together on one large task.

Software developers chop up their code (known as threading) and run each piece concurrently through whatever processor core happens to be most available. Increasingly, software developers rely on Intel® quad-core and dual-core technology so their multithreaded program can do more things simultaneously producing faster, more efficient results for you.

Tip: for exceptional multitasking, look for Intel® dual-core processors. If you’re a mega-multitasker, gaming elitist, or multimedia maven, look for Intel quad-core processors.

The simplest way to understand clock speed is to imagine a stopwatch measuring laps. Question is, where is the stopwatch? At an Olympic pool, a racetrack or your child's sports day?

Just like a stopwatch, a clock speed measures how fast a processor performs an activity. But which activity?

That’s up to you. How do you plan to use your computer? Will you video your child with your new HD camera? Then find a benchmark test that tells the clock speed of the processor running a media-intensive program. Do you love re-touching photos? Then look up how a processor was benchmarked running the photo software you like to use.

Tip: yes, you will find numbers. You will see rates in gigahertz (GHz), which means a billion cycles per second.

But numbers don’t tell the story. How you use your processor is what you want to find out. After all, you wouldn’t compare a lap time from your local swimming pool with a grand prix race, would you?

Imagine the RAM of your computer as one city, and the CPU as another. Between them is a wide road (the Front Side Bus). When you’re making calculations, developing graphics - anything you and your software demands - the Front Side Bus transfers data quickly to meet that demand.

Tip: whatever system you choose, make sure the components work together. For example, if you’re building a media computer, having a 1333 MHz front side bus that can handle HD video is wonderful - but make sure the CPU is adequate for the challenge.

Imagine arriving at your local shop and having all your favourite food fly off the shelves and fill the shopping trolley in minutes.

That’s L2 cache. It remembers the information you access most frequently in your computer so you can easily get to it without those annoying lags. (Just don’t expect it to remember documents you didn’t save.)

Tip: more L2 cache reduces bottlenecks and helps speed memory performance.

45nm – A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre. The processors we have on the market are just 45-billionths of a metre wide. To get an idea of the size of the technology: you could lay over 2000 of our transistor gates side-by-side and almost equal the diameter of a strand of human hair. The new Hafnium-infused Intel 45nm process allows transistors to be packed more densely than the 65nm process. With the use of hafnium oxide replacing silicon dioxide (in use since the 1960s) the new transistors leak less energy, produce less heat and switch faster.

Nearly doubling the density of our processors means extra performance, an up-to-50-percent larger L2 cache, and new levels of breakthrough energy-efficiency. Cool – in many ways.