# The best processor for a laptop



## supervad33

I was looking into buy a top of the line laptop but their is so many different versions of processor help me please


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## Praetor

If you want the most bang period, grab the P4EE 3.4Ghz ... course if that's a bit rich for you, the A64s probably have the most performance/buck for now.


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## Grimulus

amd all the way.  even though centrinos are considered good laptop processors, they are friggin' terrible.  IMO i would rather charge the battery and get much better performance.
but yeah, compaq sells a really, really nice laptop for a very affordable price that has an AMD 64 for like 75 extra bucks...quite nice i must say.   64mb video card for like 50 bucks more, great for mobile gaming.


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## Praetor

Which Compaq book has an A64 in it?


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## Grimulus

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...ooks/compaq_presario&storeName=computer_store

r300z persario.

I was suprised to see an AMD64 in it too.  i built a nice comp for like 1300 bucks.


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## Shadowz

thats a pretty good deal


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## Praetor

> even though centrinos are considered good laptop processors, they are friggin' terrible. IMO I would rather charge the battery and get much better performance.


I just reread this .... what makes you say that? Centrinos were designed specifically for mobile platforms while the "full" processors were adapted.

_P4M_
- 8KB + 12words L1
- 512K L2 (256K for Celeron version -- more than the desktop Celeron)
- 400MHz FSB
- Enhanced speedstep (2nd generation)
- L2 cache latency: 7 cycles

_Centrino_
- 64KB L1
- 1024K L2
- 400MHz FSB
- Enhanced speedstep (3rd generation)
- L2 cache latency: 5 cycles

On paper the Centrino gives the P4M a serious licking (obviously there's no need to talk about the P4EE adapted for mobile platforms). Even in practise, the Centrino will crush similarly clocked (as well as much higher clocked) P4M chips. Why? The P4M is/was adapted from the Northwood which made use of the Netburst architecture ... as we see all the time in discussions of AMD/Intel strategies is that for the Netburst to be effective two conditions must exist (1) the CPUs must be highly clocked  and (2) there needs to be software optimizations such as HT. Naturally we cant have these two features on standard mobile platforms due to battery constraints. Thus the P4M is actually at quite a disadvantage as it's 20 stage pipeline is actually a _negative_ point against the chip's performance (because of the lack of high clock speeds) 

Cheers.


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## dgaley27

nice post praetor, yes to say that Centrino's are friggen terrible is a terrible statement in itself, it is the first true breakthrough mobile processor that intel has developed, my modest 1.6 GHz pentium m combined with a radeon 9700 will compete if not beat most laptop setups while maintaining 4+ hours... thats efficiency


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## Timbo

That post made me happy... I just ordered a 1.7 ghz centrino dothan with a   radeon 9600.. Hoping I could get some decent performance out of it plus the 5 and 1/2 hour battery life.. Look's like I will!


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## Praetor

Just realize the battery life is really bullshit and a bunch of marketing as they run the notebooks at the lowest possible power setting -- now it'd be nice to have  5hr 'book runnin at at least 50% power.


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## dgaley27

praetor... when doing common tasks... internet, word, winamp... those things im getting just over 4 hours... and things are still running crisp with no notice to loss of power... not sure what your problem is...


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## Timbo

Even if it is a marketing scam for my notebook saying 5 1/2 hours * i know not gaming etc *, I just need 4+ hours for wordprocessing and internet for school


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## Praetor

Yeah I know and rarely is it a problem except when people expect 5hrs or what not at full performance


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## Timbo

Ah, yeah. When I set my laptop to word processing / internet, * has a bunch of options to save battery life, I love it * I get about 4 1/2 hours. High performance about 2 - 2 1/2. Which is what I expected / wanted/ hoped for.


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## Praetor

> Which is what I expected / wanted/ hoped for.


Which is all that really matters


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## TUMMYPONY86

*Processor speeds?*

What is the advantage fo geting a Intel® Pentium® M Processor 755 (2.0GHz) instead of a Intel® Pentium® M Processor 705(1.5GHz), in a Notebook computer?
The cost of the 2.0 GHZ is almost twice the cost of the1.5GHZ processor.


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## dgaley27

as with most things the price for the top of the line model is never reasonable... the dothan processor is a big step from the banias however...right now 1.7/1.8 pentium m is best bang for the buck


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## Timbo

Yeah. And trust me it may seem like a modest 1.7 ghz, but it puts out quite a bit of performance, I'm playing doom at 1024 X 768 at medium quality * 64 mb 9600 * and getting decent frames 15-30.


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## Praetor

> What is the advantage fo geting a Intel® Pentium® M Processor 755 (2.0GHz) instead of a Intel® Pentium® M Processor 705(1.5GHz), in a Notebook computer?


Well well well, it appears the Centrino2004 has finally come around (as opposed to the Centrino everyone knows of, the Centrino2003 )


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