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P4 vs. Centrino - best for laptop?

N

NewbieCanadian

Member
Hey all,

I'm looking into my first laptop, after years of hand-building desktop rigs, and I'm trying to decide whether to go Pentium 4 or Centrino for the chipset.

The general consensus I've heard so far is that a Centrino 1.5 would be a rough performance match for a low-2-GHz-range P4, but at much lower power consumption. If so, I'd rather go for a P4 2.8 or thereabouts, but if anyone can shed new light, it'd be much appreciated.

Thanks!
 
A very rough number to go by is to add 800 MHz - 1000 MHz to the Centrino number to get an equivalent P4 speed. But a more realistic estimate is to multiply the Centrino speed by 1.6 and you'll get very close to what the benchmarks show. So yes the 2.8 GHz P4 will be faster than the 1.5 GHz Centrino. But it will have much shorter battery life, and will burn your legs while you use it.
 
What do you plan to do on your laptop?

I recommend centrino laptops because of the low-heat/power-savings with them. The P4s in laptops run awfully hot, and most have some annoying fans that kick in when it gets too warm...
 
Originally posted by: dullard
A very rough number to go by is to add 800 MHz - 1000 MHz to the Centrino number to get an equivalent P4 speed. But a more realistic estimate is to multiply the Centrino speed by 1.6 and you'll get very close to what the benchmarks show. So yes the 2.8 GHz P4 will be faster than the 1.5 GHz Centrino. But it will have much shorter battery life, and will burn your legs while you use it.
Click to expand...

I couldnt of put it better myself.

Honestly, centrino will be better, plus you get the added benefit of wireless 😉
 
....What would you want to do with a notebook where a P4 2.8 would be vastly more desirous than a Centrino? The difference in battery life and heat can sometimes be astronomical. And I believe any time you save with the faster processor, unless your gaming, would be lost due to distraction from the fan noise.
 
P4 vs. Centrino - best for laptop?
Click to expand...
Well since the P4 was designed for desktop/workstation class machines and Centrino was designed for laptops it would stand to reason that Centrino is "best for laptop" use.

Thorin
 
Bah, go for the Centrino. I play with various notebooks almost everyday at work, i can tell you *i* don't see any difference from a 2000XP from a P4 2.6 or so. There are other things like the videocard and hdd that's the bottleneck. So yes, i would get the Centrino. You'll get MUCH better battery life (and probably the life of the notebook too, since less heat would hopefully mean less stress on the other components).
 
I was debating this and the only reason to stress is that the centrino laptops dont have the radeon 9600 pro mobility yet (well some are starting get 64mb ones)
If you are gaming and you are planning on using it while plugged in most of the time, get the p4, otherwise get a centrino
 
Originally posted by: GnomeCop
I was debating this and the only reason to stress is that the centrino laptops dont have the radeon 9600 pro mobility yet (well some are starting get 64mb ones)
If you are gaming and you are planning on using it while plugged in most of the time, get the p4, otherwise get a centrino
Click to expand...

The i8600 just got an update for the Radeon 9600. No word if its the 128MB or 64MB version, but seeing how it already fits a 128MB GeForce FX 5650, I'd say it'd be a 128MB version.
 
I was going through the same debate myself. I ultimately decided on the P4 solution. At first I was almost regretting it thinking "oh-no, it will be too hot and low battery life" but so far, I love it!
I got a 2.6 P4 800mhz fsb w/ HT it is the fastest thing I have ever used! As far as battery life, it lasts about 2 hours, but also if you are carrying your laptop in a bag, there is always room for a power adaptor so if you are getting low its easy to find a power outlet.

Also, my main reason for getting it was the 9600! wow, I'm used to sub-par video cards, and man this thing is awesome.

I'm sort of rambling here, but to sum it up, unless you are planning on using the lappy in places where there are no outlets for long periods of time, the P4 is a good contender IMHO. I regret nothing! 😛 Except not getting a DVD burner. Also it has perfectly good built-in wireless, so you have that as well, bluetooth even.
 
I have Inspiron 600m with Centrino 1.4GHZ and I love it. It's been running comparably to my desktop (2.53 P4)
 
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