To Celeron or not to Celeron.....

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: ibex333

Originally posted by: mechBgon
edit: hehe, where's my Doritos! :evil:

Aunts can vary, but assuming she's not a computer nut, you may want to spend some time doing user education with her.

1. Do not download and install "free" stuff like screensavers and whatnot (will probably contain adware/spyware)
   
2. Do not take email at face value, no matter how alarming the subject line or content (virus writers are experts at making up scary stuff like *DETECTED* Online Violation)
   
3. Do not click links in emails. Instead, open a browser and type them manually (phishing avoidance)
   
4. Do not forward sensational/alarming/tearjerking **** to "everyone you know!!!", do not try to unsubscribe from low-life SPAM emails, do not whore your email address to just anyone/anyplace. (SPAM avoidance)
   
5. Assuming she'll have broadband, get a router and set it up tight
   
6. If you set her up with AntiVir, or any other antivirus package, configure it completely, do not use out-of-the-box settings and think you're done. And show her how to update Antivir manually, since setting up automatic updates on Antivir is a mystifying process (anyone wanting to make a demystifying guide to this, speak up).
   
7. I would super-duper-hugely suggest setting her up with two separate user accounts: one named Admin which has a strong password, that she uses only when she needs Admin-class powers. The other one should be her "daily-driver account," named with her first name that is a Limited-class account. Limited-class accounts are a huge security enhancement, especially for the non-computer-geek. She'll never see an ActiveX popup asking her to install Gator or Bonzi Buddy or etc, and a completely-successful exploit of her Limited-class account would still fall on its face because the power is all safely locked away in the Admin-class accounts.
   
8. Make sure Automatic Updates is enabled for Windows. If there's any MS Office or MS Works software installed, run it through the Office Update site too.

Wow... that's truly excellent advice. Even I found something for myself here, even though I've been using a PC for 12 years now... I'm so ashamed.


As for everyone else, thank you. I shall concider your advice. The only problem is that I still cannot decide on a pentium or celeron for my aunt since you guys seem to disagree with each other on this topic. I know how computer ppl are(including myself), so let me make this easy for you:

For my aunt who will ONLY use MS Word, E-mail, and internet, this setup is enough:

TRUE or FALSE?


Inspiron 600m Notebook
Celeron® M Processor 360(1.40 GHz/400MHz FSB) 14.1-in XGA 32MB Video
512MB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
40GB Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive



Also none of you explained what's they mean when they say that a celeron is signifficantly inferior in performance to pentium. Like, the programs run slower?? Dont run at all? How does this translate to simple real-life terms??

celeron no questions asked....why pay more for something your not gonna use/see benefits from?

simple programs like your aunt is wanting to do, you wont notice a great deal of difference at all

celerons show their slowness in...gaming, photoshopping, video encoding, and those synthetic benchmarks

seriously a Celeron M in a laptop for your Aunt will be more than she needs. that set up you posted right there is a good contender

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: ibex333

Originally posted by: mechBgon
edit: hehe, where's my Doritos! :evil:

Aunts can vary, but assuming she's not a computer nut, you may want to spend some time doing user education with her.

1. Do not download and install "free" stuff like screensavers and whatnot (will probably contain adware/spyware)
   
2. Do not take email at face value, no matter how alarming the subject line or content (virus writers are experts at making up scary stuff like *DETECTED* Online Violation)
   
3. Do not click links in emails. Instead, open a browser and type them manually (phishing avoidance)
   
4. Do not forward sensational/alarming/tearjerking **** to "everyone you know!!!", do not try to unsubscribe from low-life SPAM emails, do not whore your email address to just anyone/anyplace. (SPAM avoidance)
   
5. Assuming she'll have broadband, get a router and set it up tight
   
6. If you set her up with AntiVir, or any other antivirus package, configure it completely, do not use out-of-the-box settings and think you're done. And show her how to update Antivir manually, since setting up automatic updates on Antivir is a mystifying process (anyone wanting to make a demystifying guide to this, speak up).
   
7. I would super-duper-hugely suggest setting her up with two separate user accounts: one named Admin which has a strong password, that she uses only when she needs Admin-class powers. The other one should be her "daily-driver account," named with her first name that is a Limited-class account. Limited-class accounts are a huge security enhancement, especially for the non-computer-geek. She'll never see an ActiveX popup asking her to install Gator or Bonzi Buddy or etc, and a completely-successful exploit of her Limited-class account would still fall on its face because the power is all safely locked away in the Admin-class accounts.
   
8. Make sure Automatic Updates is enabled for Windows. If there's any MS Office or MS Works software installed, run it through the Office Update site too.

Wow... that's truly excellent advice. Even I found something for myself here, even though I've been using a PC for 12 years now... I'm so ashamed.


As for everyone else, thank you. I shall concider your advice. The only problem is that I still cannot decide on a pentium or celeron for my aunt since you guys seem to disagree with each other on this topic. I know how computer ppl are(including myself), so let me make this easy for you:

For my aunt who will ONLY use MS Word, E-mail, and internet, this setup is enough:

TRUE or FALSE?


Inspiron 600m Notebook
Celeron® M Processor 360(1.40 GHz/400MHz FSB) 14.1-in XGA 32MB Video
512MB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
40GB Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive



Also none of you explained what's they mean when they say that a celeron is signifficantly inferior in performance to pentium. Like, the programs run slower?? Dont run at all? How does this translate to simple real-life terms??

i would even buy this for myself for those needs. i know the celeron will be slower, but since there is nothing to compare it too the speed won't really matter.

also, what mechBogn says here:

That setup would be good enough for her needs, *applause* for the 512MB of RAM. Now let me ask, what's the warranty on that? Does she need a laptop? I like nice normal standard ATX systems where I can upgrade or change stuff out if the need arises. If I bought a laptop, I'd get a long warranty on it.

Point in case: my 65-year-old mom's system. Originally an email box... now a budget video-editing rig! Being a standard ATX system, I had the option to do that, and if something goes *poof*, I can change stuff out too.

is a good point too. if she does go with the laptop, get her one of the 1-3yr warranty's, i have noticed a lot of the cheaper dell laptops are coming with 90day warranties, which is pretty weak.

also what ive noticed with dell....specially here in the UK, they are shipping mountains of pre-installed crap

my friends 5100 came complete with a 90 day trial of some antivirus, it had MS's antivirus as well, yahoo messenger was there, AOL was there...just lots of pointless crap that i had to uninstall (made sure no traces of AOL were left) his system tray was chocka full of rubbish....clicked the arrow and it shot out to the middle of the screen!

so jus be weary of the extra rubbish theyre filling your memory with

there may have been like a trial version of MS works or something too ...cant remember

 

[Azndude2190]

Originally posted by: ibex333
Can someone please explain to me the difference between a regular Pentium processor and a Celeron???
I bet this was explained a 100 times, but i cannot find this thread in the forums.
I know quite a bit about computers, but I never had to deal with Celerons because several years ago someone told me that CELERON is BAD. From that point on, I stayed away from Celerons like a plague.
My aunt asked me to configure a new Dell laptop for her. She says she ONLY needs email, internet, and word processing. She wants a Laptop that is below $1000. Preferrably no more than $800. I could easily configure a Laptop for her that's around $900, but I'm wondering if I can bring the price even lower by going with a Celeron and no video card.... Also, is 256mb RAM enough for her or she absolutely must have 512?
Considering the idea that my aunt will never use things like photoshop, and will never play Doom3, just how feasable is it for her to get a Celeron oriented Laptop???

I got have an old Dell Inspiron 5100 Notebook back in 2003...and its a P4 2.4GHz,512MB RAM and 80GB HD~800 dollars...so you should be able to get a notebook with a better processor than the celeron

 

[Hacp]

OK why are people saying that celerons are slower? Celeron Performance is almost as good as pentium M. The real advantage the Pentium M has over the Celeron M is the BATTERY LIFE. Performance is alomost a non-issue. Its the battery life thats important, and thats why I say to with the Pentium M. No speedstep=

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: MDE

Originally posted by: w00t
Take a bag of Doritos
Pound it with your fist a few times
Stick a label on the outside saying "now 50% more chips inside!!"
Tada, you've got a Celeron!
-mechBgon

Theif!

Celerons are fine for simple web\Word\email stuff.

your the thief you took it from mechBgon

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Hacp
OK why are people saying that celerons are slower? Celeron Performance is almost as good as pentium M. The real advantage the Pentium M has over the Celeron M is the BATTERY LIFE. Performance is alomost a non-issue. Its the battery life thats important, and thats why I say to with the Pentium M. No speedstep=

surely the smaller cache on the Celeron accounts for performance loss somewhere? and performance loss = speed loss?

i said that for the application in question you simply wont notice the performance deficit...but if you were gaming, or something more intense then you'd probably see a small diff?

 

[Hacp]

The difference in gaming won't be that bad, and from your earlier post, I kinda got the suggestion that gaming would be horrible on a Celeron M. It won't be.

 

[batmanuel]

What about a Turion 64 laptop? The prices on those are pretty close to the Celeron M prices and the battery life is pretty decent. From the reviews I've read, in some cases the Turion can actually get better battery life than a Dothan under nomal usage (although the Dothan gets better battery life under constant 100% load).

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
What about a Turion 64 laptop? The prices on those are pretty close to the Celeron M prices and the battery life is pretty decent. From the reviews I've read, in some cases the Turion can actually get better battery life than a Dothan under nomal usage (although the Dothan gets better battery life under constant 100% load).

could you point me in the direction of a turion review...i can't find any

 

[batmanuel]

Turion review

In terms of features, Turion offers x86-64 (64 bit) support, which will increase both performance and offer "future-proofing" when Microsoft Vista is released in 2006. In terms of price, a Turion-based laptop can be hundreds of dollars cheaper compared to a similar Dothan-based laptop. In terms of performance, Turion wins a majority of the non-synthetic benchmarks in all categories, although the Pentium M is no pushover. In the third category, battery life, Dothan wins when both processors are performing CPU-intensive tasks. However, when doing light tasks such as word processing and internet browsing, Turion is yet again the victor. The area where the Pentium M really shines is during heavy load while running from the battery. In most categories, the Turion meets or exceeds Pentium M?s performance at a lower price point.

 

[Hacp]

Although I think the Turion is a nice low cost solution, I would still go with a Pentium M. There are basically better lighter laptops with the pentium M than there are with the Turions.

 

[EatSpam]

If you aren't gaming, a Celeron will do well. IIRC, the Celeron M is Pentium M with less cache. Get the cheapest video card option. You don't need a GeForce 6800 GO to run Outlook Express.

Money is better spent on more RAM, 512mb is a good value for her needs.

 

[HO]

OK, I have to admit to using a 1.2G Tualatin Celeron (Powerleap) in an Abit BM6, and I use it hard. I am a serious amateur photog who edits images and sells stock, and I also am a part time graphic designer who does Photoshop/pre-press work... all on the lowly Celly. Truth be told, it's faster than some P4 machines I've had occasion to use. BTW, the BM6 has got to be the most upgradeable mobo I'll ever be likely to own. It started out as a home for the original Celeron 300A and it's still kickin'.

I am currently specing a new Athlon 64 4400 X2 box and I know I will love it. Still, I hate to turn out the lights on my Celly. It's been a good one.

 

[Hacp]

Guess battery life isn't big with people in this forum.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Crism
Celerons have less cache and a large decrease in performance as opposed to a Pentium 4 or Pentium M. I would personally NEVER buy a Celeron unless it was in an Inspiron..that system is the only laptop I've ever physically had in my hands with 4hr battery life...it was a Celeron M too!

For her, the Inspiron 2200 would do the job. If you're oging to have Norton products installed, get the 512MB memory...it'll be a LOT better in the long run. 256MB + Norton = Gag, Choke, Die system

crism - the 2200 with celeron m lasted 4 hours? i am looking for a cheap laptop for school and i want it to be cheap in case it gets stolen, but i need long battery life. what were you doing for it to last that long? my uses will be easy - m$ office, internet, and maybe a little ps and illustrator, viewing pdfs, basic "office/student" work, but nothing major as that is what i have my main rig for..

Well on my old sony vaio laptop, with 1 original battery and 1 low end battery (combined), I was able to get 3 hours in an internet cafe doing web browsing before it got to 3% and shutdown, but I've been doing some testing lately so that it goes to 0% and for some reason I've been able to get about 30minutes in that 3% left So I really have no idea what kind of battery life I could have gotten if I let the battery get to zero. My point is that if you get a used IBM laptop off of ebay with a good battery, I'm sure you'll get good battery life. (Old laptop was a 600MHZ PIII so a used T21 should have similar or better battery life).

 

[ibex333]

Ammm.. you're still confusing me a bit guys, but at least now I am convinced to get the setup that I posted earlier for my aunt. She just wants a laptop because she thinks that it's "cute", stylish, portable, and smallish. She and her husband already own 2 PCs, and now she just decided out of clear blue that she wants a laptop. Battery life is not an issue, since she probably will be powering it from the wall outlet anyway. She doesnt travel much....
Oh and Hacp, if u send me that link it would be truly great. I think the lower the price the happier she will be.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Hacp
Guess battery life isn't big with people in this forum.

big deal for me

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: HO
OK, I have to admit to using a 1.2G Tualatin Celeron (Powerleap) in an Abit BM6, and I use it hard. I am a serious amateur photog who edits images and sells stock, and I also am a part time graphic designer who does Photoshop/pre-press work... all on the lowly Celly. Truth be told, it's faster than some P4 machines I've had occasion to use. BTW, the BM6 has got to be the most upgradeable mobo I'll ever be likely to own. It started out as a home for the original Celeron 300A and it's still kickin'.

I am currently specing a new Athlon 64 4400 X2 box and I know I will love it. Still, I hate to turn out the lights on my Celly. It's been a good one.

what p4s were you comparing it to? if the tualatins celerons were anything like the 1.4GHz tualatin 's' cpus, they annhilated the early 1.7 p4s.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: ibex333

Originally posted by: mechBgon
edit: hehe, where's my Doritos! :evil:

Aunts can vary, but assuming she's not a computer nut, you may want to spend some time doing user education with her.

1. Do not download and install "free" stuff like screensavers and whatnot (will probably contain adware/spyware)
   
2. Do not take email at face value, no matter how alarming the subject line or content (virus writers are experts at making up scary stuff like *DETECTED* Online Violation)
   
3. Do not click links in emails. Instead, open a browser and type them manually (phishing avoidance)
   
4. Do not forward sensational/alarming/tearjerking **** to "everyone you know!!!", do not try to unsubscribe from low-life SPAM emails, do not whore your email address to just anyone/anyplace. (SPAM avoidance)
   
5. Assuming she'll have broadband, get a router and set it up tight
   
6. If you set her up with AntiVir, or any other antivirus package, configure it completely, do not use out-of-the-box settings and think you're done. And show her how to update Antivir manually, since setting up automatic updates on Antivir is a mystifying process (anyone wanting to make a demystifying guide to this, speak up).
   
7. I would super-duper-hugely suggest setting her up with two separate user accounts: one named Admin which has a strong password, that she uses only when she needs Admin-class powers. The other one should be her "daily-driver account," named with her first name that is a Limited-class account. Limited-class accounts are a huge security enhancement, especially for the non-computer-geek. She'll never see an ActiveX popup asking her to install Gator or Bonzi Buddy or etc, and a completely-successful exploit of her Limited-class account would still fall on its face because the power is all safely locked away in the Admin-class accounts.
   
8. Make sure Automatic Updates is enabled for Windows. If there's any MS Office or MS Works software installed, run it through the Office Update site too.

Wow... that's truly excellent advice. Even I found something for myself here, even though I've been using a PC for 12 years now... I'm so ashamed.


As for everyone else, thank you. I shall concider your advice. The only problem is that I still cannot decide on a pentium or celeron for my aunt since you guys seem to disagree with each other on this topic. I know how computer ppl are(including myself), so let me make this easy for you:

For my aunt who will ONLY use MS Word, E-mail, and internet, this setup is enough:

TRUE or FALSE?


Inspiron 600m Notebook
Celeron® M Processor 360(1.40 GHz/400MHz FSB) 14.1-in XGA 32MB Video
512MB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
40GB Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive



Also none of you explained what's they mean when they say that a celeron is signifficantly inferior in performance to pentium. Like, the programs run slower?? Dont run at all? How does this translate to simple real-life terms??

Definately get the Celeron with 512mb ram. I have a Inspiron 1000 that I got free, it has an older s478 2.2ghz celeron processor. It will never win any speed records, but it's great for basic work.

Durability isn't a problem either. I have more confidence in my Dell surviving abuse than I do my Compaq. I use mine as a oversized mp3 player, with some other apps of course. But it gets bungied to the console of my work truck every day, gets the hell bounced out of it, filled with dust and splashed with water, and still works fine.

Best of all it can be had on special for under $500.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Celeron != Celeron M

Celerons are based off of P4's, while Celeron M's are based of of P-M's.

 

[Stretchman]

I'm using a P4 2.4 ghz (northwood core) celeron in my Asus Pundit-R system, and i've found that it performs exceptionally well for home office tasks.

It seems to run cooler than its Prescott cousin, and the price is quite reasonable for a home system build. I had never used a celeron before, but now I believe that they would be my first choice for building an inexpensive home PC.