Laptop questions

[ArmchairAthlete]

I'm trying to help a friend decide on a laptop for college, and one thing I'm not sure about are these mobile CPUs. What's up with the Pentium M? All I know is that it's supposed to consume less power so you get longer battery life, but I've also heard you take a pretty huge performance hit for that. There's also the Mobile Pentium 4?

Price Range: Around $1250

Needs a CDRW, wireless option would be nice too. Not for gaming (just Word, email, browsing type stuff).

I think going with Dell would be good here because those can be fixed on campus. Taking a week or two to ship one off to be fixed is baaaad when you have assignments due and tests...

EDIT: What about warranties? I've heard it's worth it to upgrade it to 2/3+ years.

 

[dnuggett]

The Banias core'd M seems to be a great chip. The performance hit isn't huge by any means....

 

[johy99]

Hello ArmchairAthlete,

There is quite a jargon out there, so let me try and clear a wee bit.

1. First you have the Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor - M. They are called "mobile" because they are designed to work for mobile platforms (notebooks). There is no integrated wireless in these processors and the L2 cache on the processor is 512 kb. Processor speeds range from 1.40 Ghz to 2.60 Ghz). System bus frequency is 400 Mhz.

2. Intel Pentium M Processors. 400 Mhz bus speeds. L2 cache of 1 MB or 2 MB (the big selling point here) and frequencies from 1.30 Ghz to 2 Ghz (even though these have lower speeds but they are faster than the above mentioned processors and have a whooping 1 MB or 2 MB L2 cache). Also called Centrino.

3. Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor. This is for near desktop perfomance. 533 Mhz bus speed, 512kb or 1 MB L2 cache and speeds from 2.40 Ghz to 3.20 Ghz.

For *integrated wireless*, option 2. However, in those that do not have integrated option, you can easily add a wireless PCMCIA card and get wireless access, and this will be the cheaper option, but remember that the main thing in the centrino (option 2) is the L2 cache 1 MB or 2 MB and long battery life.

Hope the info is useful.

Thanks.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Ok, I think I'll suggest a system with a Pentium M / Centrino for her then. The battery's duration time seems to be better with those chips too.

Thanks!

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: johy99
Hello ArmchairAthlete,

There is quite a jargon out there, so let me try and clear a wee bit.

1. First you have the Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor - M. They are called "mobile" because they are designed to work for mobile platforms (notebooks). There is no integrated wireless in these processors and the L2 cache on the processor is 512 kb. Processor speeds range from 1.40 Ghz to 2.60 Ghz). System bus frequency is 400 Mhz.

2. Intel Pentium M Processors. 400 Mhz bus speeds. L2 cache of 1 MB or 2 MB (the big selling point here) and frequencies from 1.30 Ghz to 2 Ghz (even though these have lower speeds but they are faster than the above mentioned processors and have a whooping 1 MB or 2 MB L2 cache). Also called Centrino.

3. Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor. This is for near desktop perfomance. 533 Mhz bus speed, 512kb or 1 MB L2 cache and speeds from 2.40 Ghz to 3.20 Ghz.

For *integrated wireless*, option 2. However, in those that do not have integrated option, you can easily add a wireless PCMCIA card and get wireless access, and this will be the cheaper option, but remember that the main thing in the centrino (option 2) is the L2 cache 1 MB or 2 MB and long battery life.

Hope the info is useful.

Thanks.

Hey - slow down here. A lot of this is 'close enough' but it isn't all correct.

There are Mobile and non-mobile Pentium 4 laptops. The difference is mainly power consumption on the newer models, while used 'non-mobile P4' laptops can be hit and miss (some had heat problems).

Pentium M is the champ for battery life, and performs even better than the old P3, clock for clock. A good comparison might be a 1.6 P-M is similar to a 2.4 P4b. The newer Dothan P-M chips are even better, but currently quite expensive.

Laptops can come with or without integrated wireless. If a laptop has a P-M processor, and integrated intel (something-or-other) wireless (and I think one other requirement) it can be labelled a Centrino. But you can get P4 and AMD Athlon laptops with integrated wireless, too. Integrated is generally better than add-on for wireless due mostly to better antenna arrangements.

 

[johy99]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. When I mean *integrated wireless* I am probably saying Centrino.

Thanks.

 

[bolido2000]

Choose Intel wireless chip instead of Dell if you buy from them. Centrino setup gives better battery life.

 

[dnuggett]

Integrated is generally better than add-on for wireless due mostly to better antenna arrangements.

Actually everything I have read suggests the opposite. The cards seem to perfom better then integrated systems for range.

 

[imported_jon1003]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Integrated is generally better than add-on for wireless due mostly to better antenna arrangements.

Actually everything I have read suggests the opposite. The cards seem to perfom better then integrated systems for range.

Maybe he meant integrated is better because you don't have an antenna sticking out of the side of your lappy.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: jon1003

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Integrated is generally better than add-on for wireless due mostly to better antenna arrangements.

Actually everything I have read suggests the opposite. The cards seem to perfom better then integrated systems for range.

Maybe he meant integrated is better because you don't have an antenna sticking out of the side of your lappy.

No I may be wrong here - cards are inconvenient, but I had always been under the impression that integrated had better antenna placement, directionally, if not for 'absolute range'.

That's pretty disappointing if they are actually worse... I have enough problems with wireless using an pc-card.

 

[Fuchs]

My opinion. We have Dell D800 Laptop's with the Pentium M chips in them. They easily outperform a P4 Mobile chip even at higher clock speeds.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030205/

we have Pentium M's at 1.6ghz that easily beat Pentium 4 mobile chips at 2Ghz hands down.