Laptops: Centrino Vs. P4 ?

[barneygumble742]

Hello,

I'm looking into buying a DELL laptop. And recenty I heard that the Intel Centrino thing (I still don't know what it is exactly) is as fast as a mobile P4 2.4 ghz. Because I know that the speed of a computer is not necessarily based on the speed of the processor. Does a Centrino 1.7 ghz run as fast as a p4 @ 2.4 ghz ? Does anyone know more about Centrino or is it simply a marketing ploy?

Thanks,
BarneyGumble742

[cloasters]

Originally Posted by barneygumble742

Hello,

I'm looking into buying a DELL laptop. And recenty I heard that the Intel Centrino thing (I still don't know what it is exactly) is as fast as a mobile P4 2.4 ghz. Because I know that the speed of a computer is not necessarily based on the speed of the processor. Does a Centrino 1.7 ghz run as fast as a p4 @ 2.4 ghz ? Does anyone know more about Centrino or is it simply a marketing ploy?

Thanks,
BarneyGumble742

Dunno much about Centrino. I think that they are equipped with Pentium-M CPU's, which are P4's with a 1 Mb L2 cache(?), and have lower power requirements than their Desktop relatives.

They come ready to connect to 802.11b wireless networks, AFAIK. You might give mookydooky a shout, he bought a Centrino notebook recently, I think.

[funnyperson1]

No, the Centrinos ARE NOT P4 based Rather they are PIII based. They are PIIIs with 400mhz fsb and 1mb cache. They are entirely new and completely different from P4s. They have great battery life (at least 5 hours on most centrinos) and at the highest clock speeds a heat output of 35 watts. A 1.5 Centrino is faster than a 2.4ghz P4. I myself got a centrino laptop for college. Still waiting for it to arrive.

Also anandtech has a great article on the centrino in their mobile section, it explains everything.

[mookydooky]

Centrino is pretty awesome. I don't really use my laptop for really intensive stuff. I pretty much use it for spreadsheet work, database stuff, internet, and watching movies on the plane. The best part of Centrino is the battery life. I used to have a Sony that ran on a Athlon. The battery would die in less than 30 minutes. With the "M" Processor, I get about 2.5 hours of movie time. If I'm doing spreadsheet stuff, I think it can go for about 4 hours. Maybe a little longer. The database stuff uses the HD a lot so that drops the time to a little over 3 hours. If you think about it, what a laptop for, it's so you can use it whenever and whereever you want.

[funnyperson1]

here is the one I bought:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Compaq_Presa...tml?tag=subnav

mine comes with:
1.5 Centrino
512 ddr (2 sticks)
15.4" 1680x1200 (Widescreen)
60gb 5400rpm hdd
Radeon 9200 64mb
dvd/cdrw

that was 1750$ at Best Buy after rebate

[funnyperson1]

w00t received my laptop, this thing is amazing. 1680x1050 resolution is beautiful .

[Barton]

yup, it's amazing, and all these time I've still wondered: How do they put so much in so little space???