Questions on the new Centrino CPU

[irenealan]

Hi:

Just wonder if there's any difference between the old Bonias 1.7G and the new Dothan 1.7G chip? Is the newer perform much better than the old one? Since there was a 1.8G Centrino chip before, is the 1.8G much faster than the new Dothan 1.7G chip or it's the same difference between a 1.6 Bonias and 1.7 Bonias. Cuz I am trying to buy a Centrino laptop and wonder if the performance gain from 1.7 to 1.8 Dothan is worth for the extra $150? How about the extra $350 for a Dothan 2.0. If the difference are not so much noticible then I would get the 1.7G instead. Since I already made the jump from 1.5 to 1.7 for $125, I really wanna save if it's not too much noticible with the next upgrade. Thanks for everyone's help!

Irene

 

[LTC8K6]

Dothan is superior. It is faster clock for clock than Banias and has 2MB cache. It also uses a bit less power. It is Intel's first mobile chip to be built using the new strained silicon process.

I would not pay the extra $350 for the 2ghz chip. The 100 mhz jump from 1.7 to 1.8 doesn't seem worth the money either. I would definitely get a Dothan and not a Banias, though.

 

[irenealan]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
Dothan is superior. It is faster clock for clock than Banias and has 2MB cache. It also uses a bit less power. It is Intel's first mobile chip to be built using the new strained silicon process.

I would not pay the extra $350 for the 2ghz chip. The 100 mhz jump from 1.7 to 1.8 doesn't seem worth the money either. I would definitely get a Dothan and not a Banias, though.

Thanks LTC8k6, I would definitely get the Dothan based on the 2mb cache alone! Anyone tried it with Video encoding? It would be nice to have a laptop on the road and encode movies so I can rent movies anywhere I go and save them to watch later!

Yes I am quite sketical on the 2ghz Dothan, even to spend $200 and upgrade from a 1.8 seems way to much. $100 per 0.1ghz! Also the extra 0.1ghz from 1.7 to 1.8 don't seem to justify also. However, what do you think about the $125 upgrade from 1.5 to 1.7ghz. That seems a better deal for me, since I don't want to get the lowest grade of the chip and I can spare some money to upgrade.

Can someone please post their experience with such cheap if they got a laptop with it? Thanks!

 

[irenealan]

Just wonder is there any website that has benchmark on the different Dothan chip? Stat from 1.5ghz to 2.0ghz? I really want to see how the clock speed increase with a Dothan would boost performance! Thanks!

 

[DrMrLordX]

irenealan, Anandtech has a nice set of Dothan benchmarks vs non-Dothan cpus that might help you out. It's on the main page still. In particular, it has 2 ghz Dothan vs 1.6 ghz Banias. Definitely worth a look.

 

[irenealan]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
irenealan, Anandtech has a nice set of Dothan benchmarks vs non-Dothan cpus that might help you out. It's on the main page still. In particular, it has 2 ghz Dothan vs 1.6 ghz Banias. Definitely worth a look.

Duh... I should have looked... I was only searching on Google and the only relevant article I found is from Tom's comparing a Dothan 2.0ghz with a Bonias 1.7ghz. Thanks.

 

[irenealan]

Anyone else can post some more comment on the Dothan cheap? Just wonder what's your experience with the cheap and laptop thanks.

 

[Shimmishim]

i have a 1.4 ghz banias for my 1 year old laptop...

this thing is beastly!!!

do it... get a 1.7 ghz dothan and you won't be sorry...