Teach me quick!

[Hermskii]

I'm about to buy a laptop for my wife. I'm up to speed on full size desktop CPUs but I don't know a thing about how to compare the mobil chips that come in laptops like Centrinos vs AMD vs Pentium M chips and all. I tend to lean towards AMD but not if Pentium has a better laptop chip in it for the money or just by design.

I'll buy from www.frys.com most likely. They have Toshiba, HP and all the big names. I could order from Dell. Please throw me a bone. I need quick advice. I'm looking to spend about $1,400 total.

Comparison site links would be good too. I'm in a big hurry to do this by end of this weekend. Thanks!

[Johnmcl7]

This is a brief guide I wrote, it may be of some use to you:

http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=184585

Basically:
Pentium-m - the most power efficient processor, offers similar performance clock for clock to an A64 but is generally pricier and tops out at 2.26Ghz
A64 - the most powerful processor available for laptops but runs hot and doesn't have good batterylife
Turion - basically a rebadged socket 754 AMD64, while not quite as power efficient as the pentium-m, they are cheaper than their P-m equivalents and available in higher speeds.

John

[Hermskii]

Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for. Sounds like AMD64 is the way to go for me. I don't care about battery life and this thing will never actually be on my lap so I don't care about the heat either. Thanks

[Hermskii]

Here is what I ended up geting for my wife:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pavilion-Notebook-PC-DV5030US-/sem/rpsm/oid/141884/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do