is the intel centribo mobile tech. worth it?

[aznp1noy]

I plan on buying my first laptop and I don't much about it. All I know is you have wireless connection that you can go online with at hotspots, and you have to pay for the service for some. is this and the other benefits like lighter laptop and longer battery life the only good thing? because the processing speed seems to be quite weak.

 

[riser]

If you check out Intel's site, they'll show you that the Centrino is more powerful than higher speed P4s..

It's definately worth it and it should really be the only option you want to consider when looking at a laptop. Longer life and the processing power is excellent..

 

[kwebb]

You have to overlook the actual clock speed on centrinos a little bit. I wouldn't put my work 1.5 Ghz up against a P4 3 Ghz laptop for performance but it isn' beaten horribly either. And you get significantly better battery life in the tradeoff. Integrated wireless which I could really care less about. You can always put in a PC card but I guess it's nice not having to worry about it sticking out or whatever. Given a choice without monetary concerns I'd opt for an athlon 64 in a laptop but the centrino is a solid performer.

 

[riser]

Taking note on Kwebb.. I have a P4 3.2GHz laptop.. the battery life is less than 2 hours.. maybe just over an hour on a full charge. The processing power isn't that much more noticable.

I would definately recommend the centrino. My reason for having the P4 over centrino is that I don't go into battery mode that often with my laptop. Since I spend more time at my desk working away, I figure I would rather have the power over battery life. Had I spent more time moving around and what not, I would definately give whatever P4 boost I get for a centrino. A centrino 1.5GHz is comparable to a low 2.xGHz P4 if I remember correctly. I'm trying for a link right now, but Intel's site is giving me some trouble.

Check it out, it's definately going with over a standard P4 in a laptop.

 

[aznp1noy]

thanks for the reply guys I now have a better perspective of it.

I'll be going to college after summer and I'm sure I'll be moving around alot, so a good battery life would be necessary.

Also what do you guys think of the Turion? I believe it's just like a centrino laptop.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by aznp1noy on 07/12/05 08:19 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[kwebb]

Well it's 64bit so if that is important to you then it's an easy choice over the centrino. From everything I've read it is a decent performer but not a centrion "killer".

<A HREF="http://www.gamepc.com/labs/print_content.asp?id=turion64&cookie_test=1" target="_new">http://www.gamepc.com/labs/print_content.asp?id=turion64&cookie_test=1</A>

 

[Guest]

Nothing beats the centrino when you really need Mobile use. The turion is just selected A64 chips that will run at lower voltage thus consumming less power and making less heat. Centrino (lets call it a Pentium-M now, centrino is the whole chipset with WiFI) was designed from the ground up to be a mobile CPU, so it includes all sort of feature to limit power consumption and a heat output. Youc an google for review from toms/anandtech etc if you want more info on this subject.

I personally have a 1.7ghz 2mb of cache Pentium-M laptop and I really liove it. It weight 4.2lbs and batetry last for 4h+. Im also a student and being able to carry your laptop for the whole day really is a +!

If you dont mind about 64bit, Pentium-M is the way to go

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0