Core Duo VS Core Solo

fifib

Can anoyone explain the difference between the Core Duo/ 2 Duo and the Core Solo Processors?? Looking to buy a laptop and fell in love with the small 12" screens but when looking a Dell noticed that the 12" screens come with Core Solo Processors and not Core Duo
Will be using the laptop for college work and dvd, music etc...
Am i mad going for a small screen? or should i just stick wuth the standard size??

TerrorFirmer

The Core Solo is the replacement to the Pentium M. Its the same as the Core Duo but with one core disabled.

Core Duo has two cores, in simple terms 2 processors which makes for much faster multitasking and the like. Core 2 Duo is the successor to the core duo and is faster.

A core Solo will be absolutely fine for those sort of tasks you described. 12" screen is small but perfectly usable. Very portable for college too...

Obelisk29

Both the XPS M1210 and Latitude D420 come with Core Duo as standard.

The XPS comes with the 1.6Ghz T2300E as the base although this can be upgraded to the 2.16ghz T7400.

The D420 comes with the 1.2Ghz Ultra Low Voltage U2500.

Gurgle

fifib wrote:

Will be using the laptop for college work and dvd, music etc...

The cheapest new laptop you can buy will work just fine for you, unless you plan to do college work, re-encode DVDs and rip your music all at the same time.

tbh, theres feck all advantage (for most people) to having dual-core anyway. Its more a marketing ploy than anything else.

Disadvantages are you'll pay much more for the dual-core and it'll reduce the battery time.

fifib wrote:

Am i mad going for a small screen? or should i just stick wuth the standard size??

If you want it as light and portable as possible and to get the best battery life, go for small screen.

One thing though - if you plan to listen to music on the laptops built in speakers, forget it. They've gone to absolute ****e in what they're putting in over the last few years. You'll need external speakers or headphones.

TempestSabre

I've just bought a Laptop with a Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz. I do a lot of multitasking and the difference is noticable. Running AV scans, encoding music, while I'm doing something else is much better experience than my Desktop P4 3Ghz. Its has "Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio" onboard and sounds ok.

fifib

Can i ask what kind of laptop you got tempestsabre??

TempestSabre

I got a cheap Dell 640m from the dell outlet. Its ok, but no VAIO. My main critisim so far would be the poor viewing angles on the screen. I wanted something cheap with good battery life. It only cost about €700 with 1GB/80GB the 9 cell battery, 14.1" WXGA Widescreen TrueLife (1440 x 900). and a DVDRW. If I had a money to spare I would have gone for a VAIO for a better screen and keyboard, but it would have cost a lot more, and I didn't want to spend much. The battery should give me about 6-8 hours, which is what I was looking for. My current 16" VAIO is much bigger and only lasts about 2 hrs. Its a nicer laptop, but then it cost about 3 times as much when new.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2950&review=Dell+Inspiron+640m

fifib

ya ive looked at that dell one too but now that would cost bout €900+ on their site. Maybe i should wait week or 2 more n see if they have any better offers on that one.

and yea the VAIO's are gorgeous but dont think ill be able to afford one of them!

fifib

i also notice with the Dell models that it is more expensive to get windows XP media centre 2005 than get XP professional or home. has anyone used this? would it be worth it?
saw on site that you cannot upgrade to XP media centre can only get it if its ben pre-installed by manufactrers
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/howtobuy/default.mspx

TempestSabre

Only buy off the outlet it its cheap. If you keep watching a bargain might pop up. I've been watching it for a while and got a Insprion 1300 for someone else, while there I started thinking about getting a 640m and a deal popped up on one the following week.

Personally I wouldn't pay extra for any of those OS unless there was a feature it had I could do with out.

fifib

thanks for that bit of advise TempestSabre. i never knew bout this Dell Outlet before. Checked it out when i read your post and found a 640m so i snapped it up straight away. it has 2Ghz Core Duo processor, 2Gb ram and 100Gb for €1,040 so think i got a nice lil bargain there. Thanks again and to all the rest of ye for yer help and advise I'm a happy camper now hehe

TempestSabre

Let me know whay you think of it. Haven't had much time to play with mine so far. Battery life seems to between 6-8 hours on mine. I expect it depends a lot on the config you pick. The 1.6 Ghz uses less power and thus battery than the faster models. I have the 9 cell battery. So I'd expect with the 2.0 that might effect battery life a bit. The only disappointment I have is the limited viewing angle of screen. But I'm used to the superb screen on my vaio. Maybe I'll get used to it.

fifib

yea i didnt really need a 2GHz one but anyways...for the price!
its got a 9 cell battery too so we'll see how long it lasts. Put it this way anything is better than the laptop i have at the minute!!
Anyways i'll let ya know how i get on with it

TempestSabre

Well at the default res of 1440 x 900 I couldn't live the screen. Text is too small and just not sharp enough. But I've played with the DPI settings and with it set about 110% I'm happy enough with it.

fifib

Got my 640m!! i love it. it wasnt supposed to arrive til tomorrow but i managed to pick it up from the courier on saturday morning (they are only up road from my house) so big thumbs up for Dell in that respect, wouldnt have seen it for few weeks otherwise cos got it delivered to my "home" home!! has bluetooth which i didnt think it would and also the 100Gb h/d it was supposed to have turns out to be 120 and on docket it says 129! either way im chuffed. finding it a bit hard to get used to the touch pad, my old laptop had the "nipple/nubbin" thingy (lots of different names for it it seems) which was so easy to use cept after time the keys around it didnt work anymore! battery life seems to be good so far..havent given it a good proper charge yet but its still goin. only downside is that protruding battery..presuming thats cos its a 9 cell. just looking into buying a groovy new case for it now and wondering with the battery will it be better to go for 15" compatability? even tho havent seen many for 14" neways so mite av no choice there hehe

TempestSabre

Haven't looked for a case for mine. I'm still think the screen is quite poor, mainly due to the very limited viewing angles. The screen on my sisters Insprion 1300 14" (1280x800) is much better. But because of the battery life I'm using it loads. Haven't looked for a case yet, I'll let you know what I get. I notice that if you turn of the wifi, turn down the screen brighness when you can (I do that a lot a night) and use hibernate instead of suspend it really gets the most out of the battery.

Looks like you looked out on the spec though, 120GB and bluetooth! For the price its a bargain.