Understanding laptop speed

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:04:21 -0700, "Bob Richardson" <bobr at whidbey
dot com> wrote:

>I have a 2.4GHz desktop. It's a couple of years old, and the newer desktops
>with the fastest clock speed are in the 3.8 GHz range. I'm thinking about
>getting a laptop but I'm confused about their speed. So many are advertised
>as being super fast but they are listed as 1.6 GHz, or thereabouts. OK, some
>are 3.2 GHz 'hyperthreaded" Pentiums - what ever that is. Some of my friends
>complain about the speed of their laptops - and I would be totally bummed
>out if my new laptop were slower than my current desktop.
>
>So my question is, how do I determine the speed of a laptop. To be specific,
>by speed I'm talking about the time it takes to LOAD, or to CLOSE, MS Word.
>It just takes forever on a desktop. Is this primarily a function of RAM and
>disk speed, rather than clock speed? Same thing with loading PhotoShop or
>even Dreamweaver. It takes a long time. How can this process be sped up. How
>do I find a laptop that can do that job rapidly? Thanks for your ideas.
>
>

Computer speed is more than pure processing power. Take into account
RAM, video processor, hard drive speed, and bus speed. Also, keeping
your OS nice and clean really improves performance. Compare an analogy
to an F1 race car, to get around the track takes more than HP.

One thing to keep in mind is the that Laptop processor (Pentium M's)
do more things(instruction processing) per clock cycle. They are
slower in clock speed, but a 2.13 Pentium M is near as fast as the
Desktop 3.4's. A laptop will suffer a bit in bus speeds and video
performance, but with enough RAM they usually hold their own. Also,
hard drive speeds are slightly slower in laptops, due to the speed of
laptop drives. But things are changing and improving in laptop
speeds.

Look at a laptop with dedicated video processor, capable of lots of
RAM, and a decent processor. I prefer the Pentium M's (part of the
Centrino brand) for battery life. Mine lasts up to 4hrs for me,
compared to a 'desktop replacement', which you may only get 1-2 hours
battery life.

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=dothande...

Happy hunting. Do your homework. You'll be a lot happier in the end!

samurai

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

samurai <sammer003@yahoo.ca.spam> wrote:
: Computer speed is more than pure processing power. Take into account
: RAM, video processor, hard drive speed, and bus speed. Also, keeping
: your OS nice and clean really improves performance. Compare an analogy
: to an F1 race car, to get around the track takes more than HP.

: One thing to keep in mind is the that Laptop processor (Pentium M's)
: do more things(instruction processing) per clock cycle. They are
: slower in clock speed, but a 2.13 Pentium M is near as fast as the
: Desktop 3.4's.

Actually, for many tasks the 2.13GHZ Pentium M will probably be faster
than the desktop 3.4GHZ P4.

A laptop will suffer a bit in bus speeds and video
: performance, but with enough RAM they usually hold their own. Also,
: hard drive speeds are slightly slower in laptops, due to the speed of
: laptop drives. But things are changing and improving in laptop
: speeds.

: Look at a laptop with dedicated video processor, capable of lots of
: RAM, and a decent processor. I prefer the Pentium M's (part of the
: Centrino brand) for battery life. Mine lasts up to 4hrs for me,
: compared to a 'desktop replacement', which you may only get 1-2 hours
: battery life.

Agree that Pentium M/Centrino is the way to go for a laptop these
days. But note that Centrino includes not just the Pentium M CPU but
an Intel chipset and probably integrated video. Personally I think
dedicated video is becoming a non-issue these days unless you really
require high-speed graphics and/or gaming.

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
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Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Thanks Andrew and Samurai for all the good info. Yes, I had planned to use
this laptop primarily like a desktop, and travel with it infrequently.

Another consideration was the fact that many (most?) MS application will now
allow you to load them on only one desktop and one laptop computer. The
money saved on some software will help defray the additional cost for a
laptop. At least that was the thinking. I now think that this is a very
minor issue.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Bob Richardson" <bobr at whidbey dot com> wrote:

> I have a 2.4GHz desktop. It's a couple of years old, and the newer
> desktops with the fastest clock speed are in the 3.8 GHz range. I'm
> thinking about getting a laptop but I'm confused about their speed. So
> many are advertised as being super fast but they are listed as 1.6 GHz, or
> thereabouts. OK, some are 3.2 GHz 'hyperthreaded" Pentiums - what ever
> that is. Some of my friends complain about the speed of their laptops -
> and I would be totally bummed out if my new laptop were slower than my
> current desktop.
>
> So my question is, how do I determine the speed of a laptop. To be
> specific, by speed I'm talking about the time it takes to LOAD, or to
> CLOSE, MS Word. It just takes forever on a desktop. Is this primarily a
> function of RAM and disk speed, rather than clock speed? Same thing with
> loading PhotoShop or even Dreamweaver. It takes a long time. How can this
> process be sped up. How
> do I find a laptop that can do that job rapidly? Thanks for your ideas.

Well, on my eMachines M6811, which has a fast processor but a slow disk,
Word 2003 opens after a cold boot in 3.5 seconds the first time and 1.5 the
second and subsequent. I don't use Photoshop, so can't comment.

Running off battery with the disk spun down it might take longer--the disk
would have to spin up first before it would load and the CPU may be
throttled down. That though is a function of the energy management and not
the processor.

If you want fast, go for an AMD64. If you want good battery life go for a
Pentium M. There is no good reason to go for a Pentium 4 in a laptop
anymore--the Pentium M is an upgraded PIII, and the fact that Intel found
it necessary to resurrect that architecture for laptops tells you how
poorly suited to that use the P4 is.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)