Better processor for laptop

[xclusivex]

I recently purchased a Dell inspirion 9100 (yes a dell!) with the lowest options availible considering they only gave me a credit limit of 1500... and i figured it would be cheaper to upgrade on my own anyhow.... i was going to drop a new p4 chip in it to get it a bit better for gamming... my question is.. should i get a 3.2ghz northwood processor or spend the extra 70 bux and get a 3.4 prescott? naturally i would like a 3.4ghz EE northwood but 999 is a bit out of my price limit.. im curious if the lower temp of the northwood would make a difference while placing the laptop on my lap. right now i have a 2.8ghz prescott and the thing heats up quite a bit.. sometimes to the point where i have to put a pillow between my legs and the laptop. thanks

 

[VIAN]

Well the prescott does put out quite a lot of heat.

In my opinion you should've gotten a Pentium M. Those destroy the P4s and run a lot cooler.

What are you using the laptop for. It may not be worth it performance wise to upgrade.

 

[xclusivex]

Mainly video gamming.. I bought it so i had something to do in those boring days at work, and all the pentium M laptops i was looking at had crappy video cards.. the dells are upgradeable to mobile 9800's which is pretty sweet.

 

[whorush]

the best processor is the 25watt low volatage athlon 64, but you might have a hard time finding it. i think the dothan is 27watts. the P4 is faster than the dothan, a bit faster in integer and much faster in floating points, which is what you need for gaming. prob is that the p4 sucks massive juice and will burn your balls.

 

[kmmatney]

We just a bunch of new, somewhat cheaper, toshiba laptops at my work. We had the choice of a 1.5 GHz Pentium M, or a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4. The Pentium-Ms are way better. We use genetic algorithms to solve X-ray spectral data at work, the Pentium Ms were about 10% faster. The calculations are fpu intensive. The Pentium Ms are also lighter and the battery lasts longer. Don't know about gaming though...

 

[rogue1979]

I bought my daughter an Inspiron 5100 with a 2.8GHz P4 (Northwood) and the Radeon 7500 for light gaming.

That thing got blistering hot for anything but web-surfing, it was actually throttling back.

Put a mobile Celeron 1.6GHz (256k L2 cache) and did the pin mod to get 2133MHz at the default voltage of 1.2v. It runs 20c cooler and actually has more performance because it isn't throttling anymore.

If you have a 2.8GHz Prescott already, I wouldn't dare put anything hotter/faster in there. Not only will it run the processor up to critical temps, it will also heat the inside of the notebook and bake the motherboard, gpu and hard drive.

The next notebook I purchase will be a Pentium M, even the low voltage A64 puts out too much heat for a mobile appication even though it is rated at 25-watts (yeah, sure!).

 

[whorush]

kmmatney, i cant explain why that app ran faster on the PM. check the specINTs and specFPs, they are just as i said.

also, i checked the PM is 21 watts at 2.1GHz while i origionally said 27 watts, still the 25watt A64 will beat it at FP apps like gaming whereas they would be very close in INTs.

rogue1979, why dont you believe the 25 watts for hte a64? amd usually puts out wattages that are HIGHER than they really are not lower. besides, thats not a number for AMD to lie about, that number is mostly for OEMs to design laptops and cooling solutions around. if they lie, those laptops might not work and then they wouldnt be sold and people wouldnt buy amd chips.

 

[KDKPSJ]

Well, right now, the best choice for laptop is P4-M Dothan without any doubt. I believe there was a review by DFI, and at gaming (specifically for Doom 3) P4-M 2GHz beats P4 3.6 and P4-M 2.25GHz beats A64 3400+. Reason why P4-M is great is that it's not really P4, it's P3 architecture based, which is way superior to P4 architecture.

But the problem is always the price

 

[whorush]

there is no such thing as a P4-M dothan, its a PM. dothan is the codeword for the latest version of the Pentium Moblie (i think dothan is hebrew, it was developed by intel's israeli design team).

also, its not only P3 based, its a P3/P4 hybrid.

also there is no PM at 2.25GHz, http://www.intel.com/products/...eprocess_pentiumm&

so not to be an ass, but next time you make recommendations "without any doubt," make sure you clear up any doubts first.

 

[KDKPSJ]

Oops, I feel so stupid Thanks for correction! (And, nvm my recomendation about P4-M =P)

 

[VIAN]

We just a bunch of new, somewhat cheaper, toshiba laptops at my work. We had the choice of a 1.5 GHz Pentium M, or a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4. The Pentium-Ms are way better. We use genetic algorithms to solve X-ray spectral data at work, the Pentium Ms were about 10% faster. The calculations are fpu intensive. The Pentium Ms are also lighter and the battery lasts longer. Don't know about gaming though...

Gaming Benchies of Dothan.

I can understand your decision for the VPU

Truthfully, it's not worth upgrading to a 3.2 as they perform within 10% of each other in gaming and I don' think that warrants an upgrade. And the prescott is too crazy hott.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

the pentium4M is not the same packaging as the regular p4.

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: whorush
kmmatney, i cant explain why that app ran faster on the PM. check the specINTs and specFPs, they are just as i said.

also, i checked the PM is 21 watts at 2.1GHz while i origionally said 27 watts, still the 25watt A64 will beat it at FP apps like gaming whereas they would be very close in INTs.

rogue1979, why dont you believe the 25 watts for hte a64? amd usually puts out wattages that are HIGHER than they really are not lower. besides, thats not a number for AMD to lie about, that number is mostly for OEMs to design laptops and cooling solutions around. if they lie, those laptops might not work and then they wouldnt be sold and people wouldnt buy amd chips.

The proof is in the pudding. While not exactly a scientific benchmark I have had an Athlon 64 and a Pentium M notebook side by side. The Pentium M barely got warm on the bottom, and the Athlon 64 was down right toasty. Not anywhere as warm as a P4 mind you, but at least 10-15C warmer than the Pentium M.

Yeah, I know what the specs are, just tellling you how they were in real life.

 

[whorush]

dude, you don't have the low voltage 25 watt A64. some of the A64s run hot, but not as hot as a P4.

 

[Zebo]

You need to check hot deals for lappys and definitly get a pentium M (athough I'd get a A64 just cause they are snappier in the desktop envrioment due to mem controller)

For example recently there was a dell Inspiron 8600 Notebook, Pentium®M 1.5GHz, 15.4" WXGA, 512MB, 60GB, CD-RW/DVD Combo, XP Home, 802.11b/g Wireless LAN » only $803.00 + Free Shipping

 

[xclusivex]

Wow, wasnt expecting so many replies so fast.. maybe i should rephrase, I already purchased the p4 dell inspirion 9100. I was basically asking if it was worth the investment to get the fastest prescott availible or to get a lower clocked northwood for the heat reasons.. would a 3.4 prescott run hotter than a 2.8? or does clock speed not matter? also if its possible would a socket 478 dothan work with a pentium4 based laptop? i could always try just buying a pentium M chip and dropping it in... thanks again

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: xclusivex
Wow, wasnt expecting so many replies so fast.. maybe i should rephrase, I already purchased the p4 dell inspirion 9100. I was basically asking if it was worth the investment to get the fastest prescott availible or to get a lower clocked northwood for the heat reasons.. would a 3.4 prescott run hotter than a 2.8? or does clock speed not matter? also if its possible would a socket 478 dothan work with a pentium4 based laptop? i could always try just buying a pentium M chip and dropping it in... thanks again

You can only use the Mobile version of the pentium 4 when upgrading dell laptops (unless you know how to safely remove heat spreaders and aren't worried about the extra power savings of the Mobile variant, the P4M's are fcpga without the heatspreader.) and this may be true with all other P4M laptops as far as I know. (I actually do field repair for Dell as a 4th party through the company I work for) Finding available P4M's online is going to be a huge hurdle (I only know of one reputable place that carries them, and they only carry the 2.4Ghz model)

 

[VIAN]

Wow, wasnt expecting so many replies so fast.. maybe i should rephrase, I already purchased the p4 dell inspirion 9100. I was basically asking if it was worth the investment to get the fastest prescott availible or to get a lower clocked northwood for the heat reasons.. would a 3.4 prescott run hotter than a 2.8? or does clock speed not matter? also if its possible would a socket 478 dothan work with a pentium4 based laptop? i could always try just buying a pentium M chip and dropping it in... thanks again

No reason to upgrade. 3.2GHz isn't worth the performance. 3.4GHz isn't worth the heat. PM will not fit in that socket. I don't think you'll be lowering the heat by too much going lower either.

 

[xclusivex]

Maybe ill just hold out untill the 3.4EE northwood drops to a reasonable price.. (lets say 400 bux or so) then ill consider upgrading.. thanks for all the replies

 

[VIAN]

i still don' think it'd be worth it. You can get an A64 for that kind of money that will leave the 3.4EE in the dust.

 

[xclusivex]

unfortuantly a A64 processor wont fit into my Dell laptop.. I have AMD for my home system and im more than content with it..