CPU lingo

[tomirock]

Thanks for reading and considering responding to this post.
I just bought a new laptop from Dell. Unfortunately the folks there (sales) couldn't define the difference between a Pentium 4 and a Pentium M chip.
Frustrated, I purchased a Pentium 4, 3.2 w/HT.
When in doubt, go big.
I'm looking for some basics here. Like the differences between these chips. They said something like a PM 1.5 was equal to a P4 2.8 but they had no idea why.

Also, will I see a difference between a 40 Gb harddrive at 4200 rpm and a 60 Gb drive at 7200 rpm?
Usage will be internet, word processing, digital photo editing, maybe some gaming.

 

[endyen]

The difference between P4 and PM is in the number of pipelines. Well I guess that's no help.
The PM does more work per clock cycle, while the P4 does a lot more clock cycles.
Because the PM works shorter, it has much lower power requirements. It is usually as fast as a P4 with 40+% more speed.
The PM is a better "laptop" while the P4 is a better "desktop replacement"
The 7200 hdd will really show it's value, when you do photo editing and in load times for games.
BTW the P4M would be closer to a P4@ 2.4.
With the same options an A64 system would be a faster system, with much better gaming.

 

[bosshoss]

I actually work at a retailer selling notebooks and I have had many a heated debate with the intel rep. If I remember correctly here is what he told me about the pentium M (Now I may be incorrect): the pentium M vs. p4 is pentiumM has more on-die cache and less power consumption than a p4 hence a cooler operating temp. Now going by just this I would have to say that in certain apps then yes the extra cache could make up for the slower clock speed, but a difference of 1.5-2.8ghz I doubt that 1mb more cache could make up for that huge speed difference. But the M's do use a little bit less battery power but not quite to the extent of the centrino's. I always ask my customers what they want to do with their notebook and if video editing comes into the picture then I ALWAYS recommend the p4's over the M's.
And about the diff in hard drives, I have 2 hd's in my machine, one is an old 60gb 4200, and one is an 80gb 7200. When I am encoding video I always do it on the 7200 because I notice a slighty faster encoding time. So IMO the diff in rpm's makes a pretty big difference.

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[tomirock]

Thanks!

 

[Johanthegnarler]

is the PM also known as centrino? I get all messed up when it comes to labtops and pentium's

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[Crashman]

It's bigger than that! Remember how the PIII 1000EB was faster than the P4 1.4GHz in many apps? The P-M is a redesigned PIII. The PIII is far more efficient, the P-M is more efficient still, a tad better clock for clock than most XP processors. The P-M 1.8GHz competes well with the XP 2600+ which I believe is 1833MHz. That puts them in P4 2.6 performance leagues, but with much lower power consumption.

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[apache_lives]

Yeah P4's are real Bad 'Clock for Clock wise... spose thats why their ditching the Pentium4 (Netburst) architecture for the older more efficent Pentium3 (P6) architecture - look on google for 'Intel Conroe' - due out in 2005-2006... based on a laptop chip (based on Pentium-M) with dual core, 64-bit, 4mb cache etc... aparently its a laptop chip aimed at performance not power saving... has anyone got any previews of it???

 

[pjordan]

The Centrino is the P-M with an official wireless card, same procesor. Some P-M's come with wireless cards that are just as good but aren't official. I think the mobo is the same, not sure.

 

[endyen]

To be Centrino, it must have a PM chip, but centrino is a package.

 

[endyen]

The xp 2600+ came in three different speeds, but 1833 is not one of them. The xp2500+s run at 1833. The 1.8 PM is not quite as fast as the xp2500+ in most benches. Still very impresive due to the difference in fsb The fsb of the xp is 2/3s faster.

 

[Crashman]

Point well taken, I should have said 2500+ but I can't keep all the performance numbers and equivalent frequencies straight. I didn't think it was worth my time to actually look it up this time, sorry.

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[Johanthegnarler]

I get all confused with pentium labtops. I just know the people in my office are complaining that it's slower ghz.

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[Crashman]

Hehe. Tell them that it performs more work per GHz, weighs much less, and the battery last longer. Then tell them if they get a big heavy laptop with 2 hours of battery life that they can't carry around for more than a few minutes before dislocation their shoulder, they have no room to complain.

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