Laptop opinions needed, and P-M vs. P4 question

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MadEx

Junior Member
Mar 18, 2004
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Ok so I'm in the market to build me a laptop.

I decided on the chassis, etc etc. Now when it comes down to the CPU. I heard P-M's are much more power-smart, so I'd like to get one of those.

Now, it's either a 1.6Ghz P-M or a 2.66Ghz P4. I know that's a Ghz right there seperating them, but a few people told me I will notice little to no difference between the two. Is this true?

Also what do you guys think of this config (considering P-M is actually faster/better overall):

Intel Pentium-M (Centrino) 1.6Ghz
1GB (2x512) RAM, Kingston DDR333 200pin
40GB 5400RPM Fujitsu HD
CDRW & DVD-R combo drive (24 x 10 x 24 x 8)
15" XGA Display
802.11b built-in (no .11g, might make that an addon project later once I know that I can easily add it internally)
ATI Mobility 9100 (128MB shared)
4 x USB2.0, RJ-11, RJ45, 2 x IEEE 1394
battery life ~4-5hrs

All for around $1350. I could go with a 1.7Ghz and a 60GB but that would bump up the price to ~$1500, which I think is pointless.
 
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BlvdKing

Golden Member
Jun 7, 2000
1,173
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That looks good. The P4 will be a little faster but it will be hard to tell the difference. The P4 mobile gets awful battery life so it is worth it to trade some speed for battery life.
 
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araczynski

Golden Member
Aug 20, 2003
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the 1.6M is pretty equivalent to the 2.6P4, personally i'd still rather get the 3.2P4 mobile then the 2.0M (i think i saw they sell the 2.0 now as well), as i'm not too concerned about battery life, but then again, i would never buy a laptop to begin with, so take that with a grain of salt.

as to you specs, i'd drop the memory to 512 and get SXGA and possibly a faster M processor (if you want to stick with that route), but that depends on your tastes, I prefer the higher resolutions in everything, of course if this is mainly for gaming, then i can see where the XGA resolution would be more advantageous. sounds like a nice system though.

adjust the money to get the better/faster parts that you won't be able to upgrade later however, you can always add more memory later (when its also cheaper) but you won't be able to upgrade the lcd or cpu/etc.
 
dullard

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
25,605
4,110
126
For a really rough estimate, multiply any P-M frequency by 1.6 to get the equivalent P4 frequency. In your case, 1.6 GHz *1.6 = 2.56 GHz. You won't notice the difference between that and a 2.66 GHz P4 (on average). On some programs the P-M may dominiate, and on others the P4 may dominate. But on average they are about the same.

I would look closely at 15" XGA and 15" SXGA laptops. I don't like 15" XGA. But maybe you don't like the SXGA.

1 GB in a laptop is probably a bit more than most people need. But you didn't mention your intended uses.

I personally would only get the P-M if I were to buy a laptop today. The ones I've worked with are great. You can take it to work/school all day and it'll run no problem. Same is true if you want to use it while travelling and you have one or more airport layover. Then charge at night. NO other laptop can do that.
 
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MadEx

Junior Member
Mar 18, 2004
20
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So you guys don't think the extra 512MB RAM will make much of an impact?

Also the tops that laptop chassis (Asus Z9000) will go is 1.7Ghz P-M, and 1.6Ghz to 1.7Ghz adds another $100+ so I don't think that'll be worth it. I would love to have SXGA (1280x1024) but again thats what that chassis comes with. Perhaps I'll look around for another, 1024x768 is pretty small...

The battery life for me is a pretty important thing, so if there is really not much difference as you say then I think I'll go for the P-M (which again limits my choices for laptop chassis').

Keep those suggestions and ideas coming please! :)
 
dullard

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
25,605
4,110
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Originally posted by: MadEx
So you guys don't think the extra 512MB RAM will make much of an impact?
Click to expand...
Again it depends on your use. If this is your only computer and you will use it for heavy game playing of the latest and greatest games, then you might want to fork over the cash for 1 GB. If you don't mind the occasional lag or if you have a desktop for your game machine, then 512 MB is probably enough.

You just seemed concerned about price, and that is one place where you could cut back in many cases and be just fine. But there are some situations were people do NEED 1 GB. We don't know what you plan to do.
 
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MadEx

Junior Member
Mar 18, 2004
20
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Well I do have a desktop but I was planning to just tuurrn that into a monitor0less server box and just keep all my movies, mp3s, etc and run my ftp/shares off there. But I am known to push even non-gaming machines to the edge with my heavy application use. I'll usually run a many things at once and I don't have much regard for the memory usage. So I do feel I need that, but I'll think about it, as it's true I can always add another 512 later with ease.

As for the case, the only manufacturer that makes whitebox laptops ATM seems to be ASUS and my best option off there seems to be the Z9000, which only has XGA so I guess I'll have to live with it. Once I go with a M6000 series (which are damn sexy, have a nice videocard and display and could easily beat my current desktop at a 3DMark test) I have fork over not only $150+ for that chassis (over the Z9000) but also for wireless and CD-RW/DVD-R combo which both come standard on the Z9000.

Nothing is set in stone though... so any other ideas?
 
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MadEx

Junior Member
Mar 18, 2004
20
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Ok one more specific question. Both of these drives are around the same drive, so it comes down to which company is more trusted.


Toshiba 60GB 5400RPM or Fujitsu 60GB 5400RPM?
 
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