Pentium 4 vs Pentium M

[Carmelchik]

Can anyone explain to me what's the difference between these? Also, what's Centrino? I'm trying to buy a laptop and thinking whether I should buy M or P4?
Also, are AMDs on laptops any good?
Thanks.

 

[cdogg]

When it comes to laptops, the Pentium M (a.k.a. Centrino) has taken over the market in terms of overall performance and battery life.

There are also P4 M's which were the mobile CPU's for sale before the Centrino came out. They originally performed faster than the first Centrino's, but couldn't match the battery life by a longshot. Once the second and third crop of Centrino's came about (the ones you see today), the P4 M's are a thing of the past. Unless you find one dirt cheap, I would avoid buying one.

Also don't become confused with the MHz ratings. A 1.7GHz Centrino can outperform a P4 2.4GHz Desktop in many benchmarks. The Centrino is an entirely different processor redesigned from the ground up and doesn't share very many similarities to its desktop cousin. The key to battery life is that the Centrino clocks itself down when idle or at low activity.

As for the mobile AMD's, only the Athlon64's are worth looking at. I suggest you google search for more information - there is a ton out there. Here's a few places you might want to have a look:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,119274,00.asp

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050119/index.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031216/index.html

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~cdogg
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[Carmelchik]

I've got a President's day Dell special for Inpiron 1150 P4 2.80GHz, 14.1-in XGA, 40 GB, wireless card, DVD-RW/CD-RW, 512 MB RAM, 65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion and 4-year full warranty for only $1,187 free shipping and no tax.
You know, I'm not really using the battery too much so Centrino is probably gonna be an overkill for me and probably any Centrino deal will pale in comparison to this one.
Also, when you compared 1.7 GHz M to 2.4 GHz P4 desktop, what about comparing 1.7 GHz M to 2.8 GHz P4 laptop?
Thanks.

 

[dakota81]

A "Centrino" is not a cpu. Centrino is the marketting name given to the whole intel cpu & chipset & accessory combination. A Centrino laptop by definition includes a Pentium M cpu. But for example, if a laptop maker uses a Pentium M cpu with a VIA chipset, then it is not a Centrino laptop.

So all Centrino laptops use a Pentium M cpu, though not all laptops using a Pentium M are a Centrino.

 

[cdogg]

First of all, I was comparing a mobile to a desktop CPU. The one you are looking at is a P4-M, not a desktop CPU. There is a huge difference.

Did you look at the PCWorld top 15 link I posted above? You'll see that every single one in the list is a P-M Centrino. I went ahead and compared two that might interest you (I found the P4-M doing a search on their site since it wasn't in the top 15):

1) HP Compaq Nc6000 1.6GHz Pentium-M 725, 512MB DDR 333 RAM, 60GB hard drive
2) Dell Inspiron 5150 3.06GHz mobile P4, 512MB DDR 333, 60GB hard drive

The 1.6GHz Centrino outperformed the 3.06GHz mobile P4 by as much as 10% (in the PC Worldbench 4 score - 125 to 115), had more than 1.5 hours longer battery life, and now costs around the same price. The mobile P4 MHz rating is very misleading. A 2.8GHz mobile P4 is about as fast as a 2.2GHz P4 Desktop (533MHz FSB).

Just some food for thought. Either is a good buy, and if you're not as mobile, then go with the better deal or consider a desktop instead to get more for your money. You can easily get a name-brand P4 3GHz Desktop for around $1000 or less which would smack both laptops in overall performance.

~cdogg
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[dakota81]

This is the desktop comparison of cpus:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2342

 

[Carmelchik]

Nope cdogg,
I just got a brand new Dell Inspiron 1150 notebook P4 2.80GHz 40 GB, 512MB 1 dimm, 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability, Dell® Wireless 1350 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) card, extended-life battery and 4-year full warranty for $1,015 with free shipping and no tax - tell me, would I get a similar deal on Centrino? I got convinced that with my needs (carry laptop around and using it with charger at most times), P4 is the best I can get. Centrino maybe in the near future. In the meantime, check out Dell notebook specials and be sure to use Dell coupons that will dramatically lower the price. Go to:

http://www.xpbargains.com/dell_coupons/

 

[cdogg]

Thanks Dakota for that link.

Carmelchik,
Glad to see you found what you were looking for.
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~cdogg
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