Pentium-M (Centrino) or P4 for laptop?

[AeroSnoop]

We are getting ready to buy a few new laptops. I am trying figure out what I should go with for the highest performance possible. Which is better, the Pentium-M (Centrino) laptops or the high Ghz P4 laptops?

Like say a Pentium-M 1.5GHz compared to a P4 2.8GHz?

[irwincur]

Well for pure performance the P4 will probably win. For pure efficiency (the reason most get laptops) the P-M will win. Depends on what you want to do. Are you buying a laptop because it is portable, and you need that? Or are you buying a laptop to use as a desktop replacement?

[Saffire]

M! M!

[mrspm2003]

My P4 2.8 is awsome for games and such, but these laptops tend to be heavy (mines pushing 8lbs) Also, battery life isn't very good as compared to a pentium m

[munchy1988]

centrino technology i heard is the way theres a specific code in the chipset, and they just use **celeron** processors i think....im not 100% sure tho. a friend who works at a computer marketing company heard this, and hes pretty reliable.

[muisejt]

performance wise a Pentium M 1.5GHz is close to a P4 2.8GHz and the Pentium M will give you longer battery life so I would personally go with that.

[Tha Smokah]

Originally posted by muisejt
performance wise a Pentium M 1.5GHz is close to a P4 2.8GHz and the Pentium M will give you longer battery life so I would personally go with that.

Very true statement.

[AMD_Man]

Originally posted by Tha Smokah
Very true statement.

Since no one answered this question in my previous thread...what about a Pentium M 755 (2Ghz). What performance is that processor equivalent to?

[Tripitz]

Originally posted by munchy1988
centrino technology i heard is the way theres a specific code in the chipset, and they just use **celeron** processors i think....im not 100% sure tho. a friend who works at a computer marketing company heard this, and hes pretty reliable.

This is false. The Pentium-M "Centrino" version was developed independently of other Intel designs (aside from the ground work), if I am not mistaken, by an Israeli research team. Anandtech had a great write-up on the chip when it first came out, so I recommend reading that.

Pount for pound, the Pentium-M is clearly the way to go for a laptop. As other's said, the 1.5 is roughly the same speed as the 2.8 for most apps and yields significantly longer battery life. Another huge benefit that it yields (often overlooked) is that the chip runs MUCH cooler, reducing laptop fan noise and the 'burning bottom' problem that many laptops experience.

I would not buy a non-Centrino based laptop at this time.

[masteraleph]

Originally posted by Tripitz
This is false. The Pentium-M "Centrino" version was developed independently of other Intel designs (aside from the ground work), if I am not mistaken, by an Israeli research team. Anandtech had a great write-up on the chip when it first came out, so I recommend reading that.


Correct. IIRC the same team has recently had some success working with an electro-optical chip (as a matter of fact, between the two things, it seems like this is Intel's only successful chip design group).

[PCJ]

The new dothan (P-M 1.8 and 2.0) aren't as mobile as the old p-m's (up to 1.7). If you just want a desktop replacement, get a p4, but if you want an actual laptop, get a p-m.

Also, centrino is the name for laptops that meet certain requirements, like:
-p-m
-wlan
-I think dvd drive and cd burner, maybe something else.

[masteraleph]

Originally posted by PCJ
The new dothan (P-M 1.8 and 2.0) aren't as mobile as the old p-m's (up to 1.7). If you just want a desktop replacement, get a p4, but if you want an actual laptop, get a p-m.

Also, centrino is the name for laptops that meet certain requirements, like:
-p-m
-wlan
-I think dvd drive and cd burner, maybe something else.

It's not even just wlan, but intel's solution for it- when it first came out, there were issues with Intel not supporting 802.11g, so any notebook that wanted it wasn't a "centrino" notebook.

[munchy1988]

would the centrino be good for a laptop gaming platform? (not full gaming, just on trips when im bored and i feel like playing some games). or would the P4 be better for that? is the centrino mainly for buisness apps like excel and stuff?

[kpxgq]

i would personally not buy anything but a penitum-M (centrino) equipped laptop simply due to battery life

my dad has a 2.4ghz p4 inspiron laptop and it barely gets over 3 hours doing menial tasks... my sister has an hp with a amd xp2000 and that barely gets over 2 hours...

i have seen some pentium-M laptops get over 5 hours of use... its simply no contest unless you love lugging around extra batteries and ac adapter

[freedon]

Do say a laptop has Centrino means it needs the following:

-Pentium M
-Wireless (b)
-And a specific intel chipset (forgot the number)

There are laptops with only the Pentium M part.


There are Pentium M "Celeron"
http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040309/centrino-02.html

munchy1988: yes you could use a Pentium M to game, remember to game you need a good video card on the laptop

[Tripitz]

Originally posted by munchy1988
would the centrino be good for a laptop gaming platform? (not full gaming, just on trips when im bored and i feel like playing some games). or would the P4 be better for that? is the centrino mainly for buisness apps like excel and stuff?

All in all, the p-m (centrino) is much better than a p4 in all tasks, even gaming.

Centrino came about because they already had a P4-M and a P4 and Intel was so stuck on the mhz is more deal vs AMD that they needed a new marketing catch phrase ("Centrino" in this case) to make it obvious that these chips should not be compared to the other chips Intel produces on a mhz to mhz basis.

[coolqf]

Originally posted by kpxgq
i would personally not buy anything but a penitum-M (centrino) equipped laptop simply due to battery life

my dad has a 2.4ghz p4 inspiron laptop and it barely gets over 3 hours doing menial tasks... my sister has an hp with a amd xp2000 and that barely gets over 2 hours...

i have seen some pentium-M laptops get over 5 hours of use... its simply no contest unless you love lugging around extra batteries and ac adapter

I've used my g/f's IBM centrino laptop.
When just surfing the web and using MS Word, the laptop lasted over 8hrs. I was VERY impressed.

[hardMan]

P4 is better in peformance
M is good for mobile computing
Battery life for M is about 6 hours
For my Toshiba P4 is only 2 hours

But for performance I would go for P4 as M has roots in celeron.

[masteraleph]

Originally posted by hardMan
P4 is better in peformance
M is good for mobile computing
Battery life for M is about 6 hours
For my Toshiba P4 is only 2 hours

But for performance I would go for P4 as M has roots in celeron.

Pentium M does not have its results in Celeron at all, as already stated.

P-M is higher performance clock for clock, but is not as good a performer as the current highest end chips. IIRC, the P-M 1.6 falls slightly higher in the performance charts than a 2.4B.

[Polaris]

I bet the new Dothan 2Ghz w/ 2MB L2 kicks major ***. Too bad it's so damn expensive!