Questions about P4 laptops...

[Wingznut]

A friend of mine is looking at getting one with a desktop cpu...

• Can you swap the cpu just like a desktop unit? (Seems as though that would be reasonable.)
• He's looking at Alienware. What other vendors are there?
• He would love one with onboard wireless.

Any suggestions?

 

[John]

Alienware rebadges Sager Notebooks

 

[MWink]

Can you swap the cpu just like a desktop unit? (Seems as though that would be reasonable.)

That depends on how the laptop is designed. I do know you CAN replace the P4-M CPU in a Dell Inspiron 8200.

He's looking at Alienware. What other vendors are there?

Plenty (Dell, Compaq, IBM, Toshiba, HP, Gateway, etc., etc.). Alienware/Sager is at the bottom of my list. I know someone who had a Sager laptop and it was nothing but problems from day 1. I would not buy from them.

He would love one with onboard wireless.

Lots of laptops support WI-FI. Most can use an internal Mini-PCI WI-FI card.

A friend of mine is looking at getting one with a desktop cpu...

Why??? There is NO advantage to getting a desktop CPU over a mobile CPU except for price. I have never heard anything good about desktop CPU's in laptops. A recent review (in PC Games magazine) tested the Dell Inspiron 8200, Alienware, Gateway 600xl, and a Toshiba laptop. The Inspiron 8200 and the Alienware were pretty much tied for first place. IMO that does not look good for the Alienware which had a much faster rated desktop CPU.

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 and I'm very happy with it. I highly recommend he look into it. I also recommend he not get one with a desktop CPU. Those have to have the fans running all the time and still probably get too hot to run at full speed. I like the fact that the fans on mine only run about 25% of the time (under minimal CPU usage).

 

[shathal]

Wingz - Do NOT get a Desktop-CPU in a Laptop. VERY bad idea.

Following reasons (to keep things reasonably short):

1: They're not designed to be very sparse on power-consumption - at least a P4M will last you a while with battery, whereas a P4P won't. Hence you can expect your battery to be of little use (as far as I recall 30 minutes-ish).

2: a P4 in a laptop environment produces a LOT of heat - I remember seeing quite high figures (if you want details, e-mail me - you know how to find me ) on this. Let's just say - Thermal throttling *WILL* kick in, simply because you will get "a lot" of heat, and in order to keep itself from getting damaged, thermal throttling kicks in. Now, Intel didn't design Thermal Throttling as a means for "getting away" with putting Desktop CPU's into Laptops. Either way, the result will be that your system will actually run SLOWER than what it's advertised as.

So - these are the two biggest reasons, why NOT to get a desktop CPU in a laptop.

1: Power

2: Performance.

- Shathal.

 

[Gibson486]

is dell the only manufacture where the cpu, video card, etc can be swapped?

 

[ai42]

is dell the only manufacture where the cpu, video card, etc can be swapped?

Umm no, but it just depends on how it is made. The Dell 8100 and 8200 series are popular models because you can swap them.

However a fair amount of notebooks have hard mounted CPUs which means they cannot be replaced unless you can do some SERIOUS precision soldering and what not and well nobody's going to do that.

As far as video being swaped the only one I know of is the Dell 8xxx notebooks.

Yes I agree if your going to spend a lot of money don't get a notebook with a desktop CPU. The heat and power consumption are way up there. I have a friend with a KDS which has a desktop P3 800 in there and its a heater, and he had to spend a couple hundred bucks on an extended life battery that could actually last more than 3/4 of an hour.

In fact I have still been suggesing that anyone who is getting a notebook get a P3 based one. Because even the P4M uses lots of power compared to the P3M. In all honesty if your not playing games I cannot justify that kind of speed. And you get lots better battery life and low heat.

 

[Gibson486]

Umm no, but it just depends on how it is made. The Dell 8100 and 8200 series are popular models because you can swap them.

However a fair amount of notebooks have hard mounted CPUs which means they cannot be replaced unless you can do some SERIOUS precision soldering and what not and well nobody's going to do that.

As far as video being swaped the only one I know of is the Dell 8xxx notebooks.

does gateway or toshiba have mounted cpu's?

 

[ai42]

does gateway or toshiba have mounted cpu's?

You can't really make general statments about manfuacuters etc. It will greatly vary by model, and I would bet not all Dells will have removable CPUS/Video. Seach for the model your looking at on google and see if anyone has taken it apart to see it. If you see a rather complex screw mechnisim around the cpu socket then you can swap it. Occasionally (but not often) if you can find the corporate evaluator's guide from the manufacuter (usually pdf files) they will go through all the internal workings (but sometimes they omit such things like cpu upgrades on purpose) of that notebook.

 

[Gibson486]

ehhh...i could not find anythig on google and gateway's manual omits the cpu stuff. I guess I iwll go to Gateway Country on Friday and see if I can get a sneak peak at the internals. I'll do it when no one is looking or I could atleast just ask.

 

[ai42]

ehhh...i could not find anythig on google and gateway's manual omits the cpu stuff. I guess I iwll go to Gateway Country on Friday and see if I can get a sneak peak at the internals. I'll do it when no one is looking or I could atleast just ask.

Somehow I don't think that will go over too well, pop off the keyboard looking around while your buddy makes sure your clear. Sounds like that could get your thrown in jail. As far as any of these salesmen knowing anything I seriously doubt it, a Best Buy Employee was trying to sell me a 2.4Giggamegahertz desktop a few weeks ago.

You may just have to take a chance and hope it does what you want, thats what I did because I had the same concern.

Or you can try calling Gateway and pretend to be a corprate evaluator who is looking to buy a few hundred notebooks and ask your questions that way. And even that may not work these companies don't want to divulge that kind of information.