Who would sell their kidney for a Centrino?

[letdown]

I'm surprised to see that there hasn't been much of a discussion on this. I'd heard good things for months, but based on Anand's review, Intel has put out a real serious chip here. Right now, I'd take a P4-M with either the low power OR the smart design -- and it has both. The Dotham refresh should really give this thing some kick. If a 1.6 gig Banias can hang with a 2.66 P4-M, a 2.0 gig Dotham should scale up around a 3.2 gig P4. All I can say is _wowza_. Even if the wireless Centrino platform doesn't pan out, the P4-M alone is enough to seriously make me consider allocating my limited funds to a laptop purchase in the next few months.

Too bad it's still stuck with a 5400rpm HD. But really, the Banias is promising high-end performance and long battery life at a reasonable price (for the low end models). Is this really when the general public starts to go wireless?

I'm as big an AMD fanboy as there is, but I mean... damn.

 

[bob18]

I completely agree with you. This things kick-arse. p4-m will also be my next upgrade. Question; when will we see 7200rpm hd's on laps? and also serial ata hd's in laps?

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Geeze. The P-M is good, but not <i>that</i> good. I don't think I'd give up a kidney just for a new laptop. (Unless it was like a laptop from twenty years in the future or something really neat.)

And you've still got to love it. They keep making lower and lower power CPUs for laptops, yet they keep pairing them with the eletrical equivalents of hungry-hungry hippos for parts. If someone could make an ultra-low-power LCD display and replace the mechanical hard drive with something less power hungry then I <i>might</i> finally be impressed by lowering the power consumption of a laptop CPU.

If resellers would stop selling desktop chips in laptops becuase laptop CPUs are finally at the same price range as desktop chips, then I might even believe that making the effort to significantly reduce the electrical consumption of a laptop CPU is worth the time and money.

Until then it really makes more sense for server racks (to counteract heat problems) than it does for laptops. I'm not saying that Centrino is bad. I'm just saying that it's an over-priced concept that most people won't be able to afford and that the advantage of is really almost completely <i>not</i> in the CPU itself, but in the implementation of the entire platform for that CPU. The same thing could have been done with a mobile P3 or P4.

<font color=blue><pre>If you don't give me accurate and complete system specs
then I can't give you an accurate and complete answer.</pre><p></font color=blue>

 

[CaptainNemo]

Well, it is a start I guess...

I really want a thin&light laptop that can run for several hours. I've had access to several 'desktop replacements', but a thin&light combined with a powerful desktop makes the most sense to me now.

 

[imgod2u]

Organic LED's will eventually replace LCD's and should require much less power.
As for the Centrino, I'm waiting for the TabletPC's to roll out and then I'm getting 2 more jobs so I can afford one

"We are Microsoft, resistance is futile." - Bill Gates, 2015.

 

[Twitch]

I dunno about selling a kidney. Maybe my appendix. Or some blood. Maybe my wife. But I might need that kidney later.


<-----Insert witty sig line here.

 

[juin]

impressive but how does it scale and what is fusion Ups no information is given on intel website even anandtech got no information.

[-peep-] french

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Well, it is a start I guess...

It is a start. To me though it's just mostly effort spent in the wrong area.

I really want a thin&light laptop that can run for several hours. I've had access to several 'desktop replacements', but a thin&light combined with a powerful desktop makes the most sense to me now.

I'm the opposite. If I want thin and light, I'll use my Palm. If I want <i>real</i> computing, mobile or not, I want the power and flexability of a PC. Give me a laptop the size of a small briefcase. Let me throw two or three real live PCI cards into it on top of four PCMCIA bays. Give me two shock-absorbant 7200RPM 3.5" hard drives. And give me a long extension cord.

Seriously though, I'd rather have a PC that I can sit in my lap and take anywhere (so long as I have a place to plug it in) than a PoS performer with barely any upgradability that I can use in the middle of the woods.

Where will I use my 'mobile' device? In the car? Nope. I'm trying to watch the road. While I'm walking around? Yeah, right. How about, when I'm sitting down somewhere at home or at work, or even at a friend's house, where there's an outlet to plug into right there. That's my mobile usage. If I had that I wouldn't even need an actual PC anymore.

<font color=blue><pre>If you don't give me accurate and complete system specs
then I can't give you an accurate and complete answer.</pre><p></font color=blue>

 

[CaptainNemo]

Mileage varies and all that, but I have never been able to do anything serious with a laptop (even desktop replacements). The small/fiddly form factor is just incompatible with doing anything else apart from typing stuff.

I don't care about wireless; I just want something that is portable and useful(which isn't a PDA in my case) with a decent battery life.

The briefcase idea is something I have considered building myself, but I just don't have the time.

 

[flamethrower205]

Yeah, oleds should make laptops really really thin as there is ne need for a backlight. Also a lot less power b/c no backlight and the way they work. Plus, no more viewing angle bs- as good as crt while response time is generally 1000 times better than current lcd's!

Hilbert space is a big place.

 

[eden]

Looking at the Anandtech results for Centrino (2.66GHZ P4 with i845E being the desktop competitor) 1.6GHZ, I would still say it is impressive. Now assume the 2.66 was equipped with an i850E with PC1066, and its performance would then significantly distance it, you'd better go compare a 2.26GHZ 533MHZ FSB P4 instead. Still, I think it's not the performance that makes it stand out only (it does seem to really perform as or better per clock than an AthlonXP, which makes me wonder why doesn't AMD go for the Banias style, even with all the gating and latencies, it still does an excellent job, and you would not even need all the power reduction stuff since it's a desktop CPU you want), it's the technical specs. After reading Anand's version of the Banias, I'm all the more impressed. This is truly what deserves to be called a True Mobile processor. I can see where the hype came from. But, Banias is an excellent mobile CPu, however it'd make a killer desktop one.

Future Centrino CPU cores will plain rock, and I really do commend Intel for creating such marvel.

--
This post is brought to you by Eden, on a Via Eden, in the garden of Eden.

 

[juin]

they been able to conter 2.66 in only 1 benchmark so dont go to fast and it use 77 million transistor 50% more that northwood or 50% less that presscott

[-peep-] french

 

[eden]

Yes but over 40% of that amount is by the cache. It is still a very advanced design that would do wonders on the Dekstop without the clock ceiling reduction they used.

--
This post is brought to you by Eden, on a Via Eden, in the garden of Eden.