Best Processor for Laptop

[jaygarala]

Hi guyz & galz,
I am debating on which processor based laptop should I buy. Here is what I need it for:
- Mainly, software development. possibly have a database (oracle/mysql) and app server (weblogic, oracle, or jrun...) A java IDE, Intellij IDEA...
- Other uses, surf web, multimedia.. music, movies
- maybe games(!?!)

Which one should I choose? Pentium M, Pentium Mobile 4 or P4. I know there are pros and cons of each one. But can you all help me out?

Thankx

-Jay

 

[Mr5oh]

Have you thought about any AMD chipsets?

Any concerns about battery life, or will this laptop be plugged in most of the time?

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[jaygarala]

Hmm... I never seen that many ppl with AMD laptops. It will be mostly plugged in... but it should have a good battery life .

Thx

Jay

 

[karamazov]

Theres always 2500+M's.. but I'm not sure if that is going to have the speed you want for what you want to do. I can give you a nice link if you want.

Old System😛ackard Bell Legend 3550,200 mhz cpu,72mb ram,8mb video,2gb hdd.
NEW System:ECS N2U400-A,512 mb ram,AMD Athlon 2500+, 64 mb video, SOUND, on board lan, USB Ports, 120 Gb HDD

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Get a notebook based on "Dothan" Pentium M (7xx series, 2 MB L2 cache). And you can't go wrong with IBM

------------
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[FUGGER]

Dothan is the best mobile chip on the market today. It beats the A64 at less clock speed. It runs at a mere 28 watts.

Dude, your getting a Dell! (they have them in stock)

<A HREF="http://www.xtremesystems.org" target="_new">www.xtremesystems.org</A>

 

[c0d1f1ed]

I have a Dell Inspiron 500m with Pentium M 1.4 GHz. It beats my brother's Pentium 4 2.4 GHz and never even feels warm. The new Dothan cores are even faster. Get a Pentium M.

 

[endyen]

The PM chips are great at power savings. For a DTR system, they are too expensive, give no where near the B for B that the Amd systems do. It's almost 05, not getting a 64 bit capable system would be sad.

 

[Crashman]

The Dothans previously mentioned are the latest generation Pentium-M's. I haven't been keeping track, but I believe they run at 1.8 and 2.0GHz these days, you'll have to check with someone else though.

These are very powerfull processors for their speed and consume very little power. They also put out far less heat than a P4, so less worry about burning your lap should you use it as a "laptop".

Centrino is a package that contains the Pentium-M and a few other parts, so if you see Centrino, that's also Pentium M.

I'm certain someone here who'd follows the Pentium-M better than me will tell you how to know for certain you're getting the latest version, Dothan.

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[jaygarala]

Thanks for the replies everyone!!

How does the P-M 2.0 compare to P4 3.0 and up performance wise? Has Tom or anyone done an analysis on this? Can you point me to it?

Thanks again and best regards,

-Jay

 

[Mephistopheles]

It runs at a mere 28 watts.

No, I'm afraid the 2.0Ghz and 2.1Ghz have a 21W TDP, and they have an average consumption which is proportionally less than P4 (i.e. they consume much less than their TDP if compared to P4, which consumes an average which is closer to its TDP)

 

[Mephistopheles]

The Dothans currently are more or less capable of reaching, best case scenario, a desktop processor with 50% more clock. The 3.0Ghz is a tough one to beat, but the 2.0Ghz Dothan can get you within its performance level and will probably be quite capable of satisfying your needs.

Also, I'd look into the price changes that happened with the introduction of the 2.1Ghz dothan. The other processors were cut by like 35% each, which is quite a price drop.

So right now, you'll probably get one hell of a processor for a reasonable price. Dothan is great.

And if you really need the performance, you could always get the 2.1Ghz for that extra bit of performance.

The only concern you might have there is that you'd be developing software only for 32-bit systems, even in the future...

If you still like the idea of centrino/PM but can't live without programming for x86-64, then you could wait some more... I'd expect the next sonoma-based processors from the laptop line to feature x86-64 extensions... (Intel will launch them in january)... and they'll be much faster, featuring 533Mhz FSB and 2.13, 2.26Ghz clock speeds.