General speed advise

The sempron (click link) looks to be a Socket S1, because of the DDR2 memory used. However, I cannot state anything about its performance characteristics because I am unfamiliar with mobile AMD. It is 64 bit capable (look at link).

The Core Duo is a good processor, I have one in my Dell E1405 that is similar at 1.66 Ghz and 2MB L2 cache. This processor, Yonah (Core Duo), is not 64 bit capable however. It looks to be a good offering because there are other Yonah's (as well as Meroms) with reduced L2 cache and Front Side Bus (FSB) speeds.

The Merom is a 64 bit capable processor. From what I have read about it, it is up to 20% faster than yonah. Click on this link for comparison of Yonah and Merom.

Here are additional informative links: link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, and link 5.

*Other information should exist besides THG and Anand Tech, however.*

For link 3, you may have to extrapolate from Yonah to the AMD K8 architecture. Link 4 unfortunately does not include the mobile Sempron but may be useful if you consider other mobile AMD Cpu's. Link 5, although it does not seem useful, presents an attempt on comparing the Turion X2 and Merom. Look through the comment criticisms of Link 4 for additional, and valuable insight

Finally, if you consider Mobile celerons and Mobile Sempron think about the lack of CPU throttling: Speed step (Intel), and Power now! (AMD).



The notebooks look good with the XP OS, instead of Vista.

Thanks for the replies, i've learnt a fair bit from that I'll go for the core duo I think

Just 2 questions now;

I'm used to a speedy desktop where programs open instantly.. I know how to create a very optimized setup of Windows, but will the raw power of the core duo and 512mb ram (;p) be enough to make it fast?

That brings me onto my second point, is 512mb ram gonna be enough? Of course I only plan to use the internet, work, and listen to music, but I've heard lots of people state 512 isn't enough anymore.

Thanks.

Rich