Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M Pros/Cons

[600Burger]

Hey all,

I was wondering how to AMD XP-M's measure up to other mobile chips on the market. I'm looking at buying a compaq from BB for $849.99. Specs are as follow:

Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M Processor 2800+ (1.6GHz)
DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
512MB DDR SDRAM memory
60Gig HD
15.4" BrightView Widescreen
802.11g wireless LAN
"Powernow!" exteneded bat life

Reg $1029.99 -$150.00 BB MIR - $30 Compaq MIR = $849.99

I know about every cept the XP-M. I'm only going to be using it for wordprossecing school work stuff, web surfing, and maybe some light gaming. Also, I plan to use it on the wall plug almost alway so bat life isn't that great an issue.

Thanks for the help!

-Burg

 

[neoreturns]

If battery life isn't an issue there isn't anything particularly bad about the XP-m. Its just that without it plugged in I doubt you would see more than an hour and a half doing normal stuff. Do you know what graphics card it has? Last I checked most AXP-m solutions had onboard that is not good for games.

 

[600Burger]

I do not know what graphics it has, I assume it would be an onboard. When I say light gaming I mean NES emulators, mine sweeper, and maybe something like simcity 3000. Nothing like HL2 or Doom3. Would these "small" games still be a problem for XP-M?

 

[Lord Evermore]

The processor would not be an issue no matter what games you tried, it's plenty fast, the graphics would be the issue. I assume you're looking at the Presario R3410US. It uses GeForce4 420 graphics, which aren't exceptional, but will work perfectly well for the uses you intend. You wouldn't want to try any real 3D gaming on it though, as it would be about as good as current integrated graphics most likely in that usage. In fact it's kind of odd that they'd be using that chip, unless they're trying to flush out their stock of old parts.

Given what you plan to use it for, you might even be better served by going even cheaper. The Toshiba M35X-S111 would do what you want just as well, and comes out to only $670 after rebates. It certainly isn't as good a value though, given the processor used, so it would depend on whether flat-out price or price/performance is more important to you.

 

[600Burger]

I personally, and have heard others, have had terrible experiances with toshiba products and then their customer service (or lack there of) so i try to steer clear. I'm basiclly getting $1000 for a laptop and being encouraged to get a good deal. So this price is perfect, the speed is good, and the widescreen is nice. I think (baring any bad news on this post in the next 24hours) I will buy this laptop.

Thanks,
-Burg

 

[neoreturns]

Originally posted by: 600Burger
I do not know what graphics it has, I assume it would be an onboard. When I say light gaming I mean NES emulators, mine sweeper, and maybe something like simcity 3000. Nothing like HL2 or Doom3. Would these "small" games still be a problem for XP-M?

Definetly not, they'll all be fine. I mistook what you meant for light gaming.

 

[imported_bajan]

Toshiba makes very good laptops, or at least they used to. The only laptop with an XP-m that i have used though were the HPs that have them. Generally i find HP laptops are a bit on the sluggish side and their XP-m ones weren't any different.

As far as i'm concerned, if you're only going to be using it for surfing and doing office stuff etc, then it's more than enough.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Don't say Toshiba has bad support. I'm halfway hoping they'll repair mine under warranty since it's not far out of it. I don't really expect it though, not even from someone with great support.

That is a pretty damn good deal though.

 

[fbrdphreak]

As for the Athlon XP-M, it is a rather good notebook processor. My GF had the old HP ze4325 with an AXP-M 2000+ & 8-cell battery, she got 3 hours routinely with low brightness & a PCMCIA wifi card. I definitely recommend those CPU's for budget laptops. :thumbsup:

 

[crabbyman]

My girlfriend has a Toshiba laptop. They were complete assholes to her when it died like a week after its warranty was up. The hard drive crashed and they would not do anything about it. She ended up having to take it to a third party to get a new hard drive. The hard drive was not workable at all so she couldnt even get her data back. Go Toshiba! ...what a crock of a hard drive...