what is this pentium

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I am just looking into notebooks. There is one on EBAY that says:

Pentium M 745 1.8 GHz Processor

I'm not sure what that is??

Is that like a pentium 4???

Good? Bad??

I am just looking for a basic wireless notebook to use for word processing,
spreadsheets, internet surfing, and also playing poker online (no heavy
gaming needed).

Mel

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

MB_ wrote:
> I am just looking into notebooks. There is one on EBAY that says:
>
> Pentium M 745 1.8 GHz Processor
>
> I'm not sure what that is??
>
The Pentium-M is Intel's name for the current generation of Pentium
processors for laptops.
>
> Is that like a pentium 4???
>
Only slightly; it's actually closer to the Pentium-III from an
architecture standpoint -- but that's not a bad thing.
>
> Good? Bad??
>
Very good, the Pentium-M is arguably one of Intel's best chips in the
last five years. Although it's clockspeed is a bit lower than a
Pentium-4, the P-M is more effective per clockcycle and can outperform a
much higher clocked CPU. The P-M also produces much less heat (and
saves a lot of battery life).
>
> I am just looking for a basic wireless notebook to use for word processing,
> spreadsheets, internet surfing, and also playing poker online (no heavy
> gaming needed).
>
Well any notebook made in the last few years ought to be fine. I'd
either go with a Pentium-M or save some money and get a P3-M (but not a
Pentium-4M). My IBM T21 from 2001 ran WinXP fine on a P3-M 800MHz (just
try to go for at least 256MB of RAM, ideally 512MB). For word
processing, speadsheets, internet surfing, light online games (like
poker games embedded into web pages), a P3 would have more than enough
horsepower.

If you do go the P-M route, one thing to note is the latest generation
is number 7X0 with X between 3-8, higher being faster. The former
generation is numbered like 7Y5 with Y between 1-6. The newer
processors have a faster front side bus (FSB0 and can use dual date rate
(DDR) RAM but this has only translated to a slight (<10%) boost in speed
compared to a the previous generation at the same clockspeed.