Should I get an older PIII or newer Celeron/P4 Laptop?

[msi1337]

because the price difference is negligible between an older PIII notebook
(around $450-$500) or like a new Dell Inspiron 1100 (Celeron 2.2ghz) ($600)

which would you choose? Since I am not really going to be gaming, does it matter much which I get?

 

[NoToRiOuS1]

i doubt it would REALLY matter all that much. i mean for the basic email/IM/internet you will notice no difference...unless you're using a program like lotus notes for your email needs. so in terms of that...pIII would suffice...but also take into consideration that the older notebooks are obviously used notebooks...so you have to decide if you're willing to take a chance because you dont know who's used that computer...how they've used it...not to mention the shoddy warranty that is offered by stores on refurb/used items....if it was my choice...i would go with the celeron...because this way i would take comfort in knowing that only i have used this notebook and should something go wrong...i have a manf. warranty.
oh and speaking of notebooks...i saw a VERY nice averatec notbeook at CC or CompUSA(one of the two) for about 649 with 512mb and 60gb hd, wireless, dvd burner and 15in xga....look into averatec's sempron...cant recall what model number they are...i think its 5xxx. hope this helps!

 

[uOpt]

Depends on your applications. Pentium-4s have an entirely different performance characteristics than P-3s, AMDs and Pentium-Ms which all have about the same characteristic. The Pentium-4 and P4-based celerons will run fast only for applications optimized for P4s, plus a few selected items like media encoding.

However, outside the CPU newer notebooks are much nicer, so I would get the modern one. Be warned, however, that most of the P4-based Celeron mobile notebooks have neither firewire nor USB-2.0. Mst of these still have mainboard with USB-1.1 which would be an instant dealbreaker for me.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
Depends on your applications. Pentium-4s have an entirely different performance characteristics than P-3s, AMDs and Pentium-Ms which all have about the same characteristic. The Pentium-4 and P4-based celerons will run fast only for applications optimized for P4s, plus a few selected items like media encoding.

However, outside the CPU newer notebooks are much nicer, so I would get the modern one. Be warned, however, that most of the P4-based Celeron mobile notebooks have neither firewire nor USB-2.0. Mst of these still have mainboard with USB-1.1 which would be an instant dealbreaker for me.

characteristic? What do you mean by that?