AMD laptops...

[SaturnBeat]

I for one have never seen an AMD laptop in my life. What are the ones out there? What are the best and the worst? Which companies make AMD laptops? Oh and what CPUs does AMD have for lapies? Any better than Intel?

[Johnmcl7]

There are many AMD laptops, surprised you haven't seen any.

AMD offer the AMD64, Sempron and Turion (basically a lower voltage AMD64 mobile), as mobile processors none can top the Pentium-m for performance and batterylife but the AMD64/Turions are cheaper and also have 64 bit support.

As for which is best, depends what your definition of it is, Rock offers a laptop with an FX-57 or the X2 4800 however at the moment Acer's 50xx series notebooks with a Turion and an X700 offer a good balance of power and price. There are many out there so I'm not going into the details of all of them, it depends on your requirements for a notebook.

John

[SaturnBeat]

Blah seems like it's just me then.

So the Pentium M is the best one out there. What about Centrino? On my dad's laptop he has a Centrino, and it's pretty slow I must say, but I guess it depends on the rest of the parts as well. It has a Nvidia 5200 64MB, so that's just aweful I suppose.

There's even lapies with the x2 4800 out already... wow!

Alright then, I'll just do a little search around for AMD laptops and see what I get pricewise in specific, want to compare to the Intel ones.

Thanks for the info John!

[SkyDog]

So the Pentium M is the best one out there. What about Centrino?

"Centrino" is a marketing name that means the system has all three of the following:

* A Pentium M CPU
* An Intel chipset
* An Intel wireless NIC

If your dad's laptop is slow, it's likely not because of the processor.

[Chuck232]

Blah seems like it's just me then.

So the Pentium M is the best one out there. What about Centrino? On my dad's laptop he has a Centrino, and it's pretty slow I must say, but I guess it depends on the rest of the parts as well. It has a Nvidia 5200 64MB, so that's just aweful I suppose.

There's even lapies with the x2 4800 out already... wow!

Alright then, I'll just do a little search around for AMD laptops and see what I get pricewise in specific, want to compare to the Intel ones.

Thanks for the info John!

Centrino is actually the Intel marketing name for the combination of a Pentium M, an Intel mobile chipset, and an Intel Pro/Wireless card. To say the least, the rest of the system is mostly up to the maker so you'll get vastly varying performance, although they're all based off the P-M.

Laptops with the X2 4800 aren't exactly what I would consider laptops. More like portable desktops. Try using one for any more than 45 mins - 1 hour on battery... heh

I agree with John here. The Aspire 50xx series with the X700s are very nice. My only gripe with them is that the X700 is held back by the fact that the screen is WXGA, which means at max a resolution of 1280x800. Kind of lower than what I like. On the other hand, the Ferrari 4000 series are very good laptops, combining good battery life with performance and a good screen. Only problem? Cost. You're paying for the Ferrari logo and build of the laptop, which, honestly speaking, I'm not a fan of. The asthetics just don't sit well with me.

[SaturnBeat]

Hehe, you both posted at the same minute even!

But thanks for the info guys. So the Centrino is the M, chipset and NIC. Wait, I thought Intel didn't make chipsets. I thought it depended on the motherboard's chip. Or is this different for mobile technology?

SkyDog - yeah as I said, it's probably the rest of the parts that's causing the slow down.

Chuck - I don't even wanna picture the price of a x2 4800 on a laptop. 5k? I'm thinking I'm being generous here. Hehe...

So there's a Ferrari laptop?? Haha... this makes just laugh at it. As for the WXGA screen, my dad's also has one. 15.4", it's a Samsung X30. Aweful though I must tell you. Any resolution above 800x600 and the text bleeds, the screen just looks so unrendered with mistakes around it... blah. I heard only Dell could make a good WXGA screen.

Thanks for the info guys!

[SkyDog]

Wait, I thought Intel didn't make chipsets. I thought it depended on the motherboard's chip. Or is this different for mobile technology?

Intel makes chipsets for both mobile PC's and desktop machines.

[bisonator]

I agree with John here. The Aspire 50xx series with the X700s are very nice. My only gripe with them is that the X700 is held back by the fact that the screen is WXGA, which means at max a resolution of 1280x800.

I have a 1360 series with the WXGA 1280x800 and I am impressed with what it offers performance/price wise, and on the 50xx series it is a slightly better CrystalBrite screen.

[gkline]

Have a friend who just got a HP AMD64 laptop and LOVES it.

[Learux]

If battery life is a concern, Intel is really your only choice. If not AMD makes a nice mobile 64 chip!

Learux

[SkyDog]

And the Intel cores have their own code names, too. The various Pentium 4 revisions have been based on cores named Willamette, Northwood, Prescott, Gallatin, and now Smithfield for the Pentium D.

[SaturnBeat]

Ahh... this is what you were talking about. Alright then.. well thanks for the info guys! I'm getting the hang of this.

[proxops-pete]

I have a Compaq R3000z (z for AMD) with XP 2800+M (1.6 GHz). It's a great lappy for the deal I got from Office Depot back in March ($580 AR). I upgraded the HDD to 60 GB 5400 rpm, and upped the memory to 1 GB and it's been an awesome multimedia/internet computer for myself and my wife.

[SaturnBeat]

I have a Compaq R3000z (z for AMD) with XP 2800+M (1.6 GHz). It's a great lappy for the deal I got from Office Depot back in March ($580 AR). I upgraded the HDD to 60 GB 5400 rpm, and upped the memory to 1 GB and it's been an awesome multimedia/internet computer for myself and my wife.

Tell me, how easy is it to upgrade parts on laptops? Did you do it yourself or someone who knows about these things, like a company or something?

[proxops-pete]

Tell me, how easy is it to upgrade parts on laptops? Did you do it yourself or someone who knows about these things, like a company or something?

Upgrading HDD was a synch. Unscrew the HDD cage/top off, take it out and replace and pop and screw it back in again. Memory, however, was a bit more of pain as their first of two memory slots is under the keyboard. But there is a diagram that allows you to go thru step by step to access it. In short, I did it. And if I can do it, so can you.