Laptop processors question

Dilbert75

Looking at a Dell Inspiron 6000 for home use. Comes with a "Centrino Mobile Technology with Intel Pentium M Processor 740 (1.73GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB) & Intel Pro Wireless 2200 (802.11b/g)"

Now I understand what all the bits do - but how does that processor relate to the desktop I'd buy for an equivalent price (say Intel Pentium 4 processor with HT-Technology, 3GHz, 1MB Cache, 800FSB)?

How do I relate the performance of the two different chip families? Is it too simplistic to say that that desktop chip is nearly twice as quick as the mobile chip?

FWIW, I only want to do officey stuff, internet, spreadsheets, light databases, etc. Rest of the spec seems fine.

Jorinn

Dilbert75 wrote:

Looking at a Dell Inspiron 6000 for home use. Comes with a "Centrino Mobile Technology with Intel Pentium M Processor 740 (1.73GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB) & Intel Pro Wireless 2200 (802.11b/g)"

Now I understand what all the bits do - but how does that processor relate to the desktop I'd buy for an equivalent price (say Intel Pentium 4 processor with HT-Technology, 3GHz, 1MB Cache, 800FSB)?

How do I relate the performance of the two different chip families? Is it too simplistic to say that that desktop chip is nearly twice as quick as the mobile chip?

FWIW, I only want to do officey stuff, internet, spreadsheets, light databases, etc. Rest of the spec seems fine.

Yes, Pentium M 1.7 is about Pentium 4 3.0

godtabh

Is there an chart web page that gives direct comparisson?

jesus_thats_gre

double the clock speed and subtract 10%

godtabh

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

double the clock speed and subtract 10%

Can i ask where you got that?

Whats better for games pentium m or P4?

Some desktops ship with pentium m these days? Does it make any difference?

sceptre

Dilbert75 wrote:

Is it too simplistic to say that that desktop chip is nearly twice as quick as the mobile chip?

Very much so.

Have a look here including the benchmark results. Article's not quite what you're looking for (though I know that site has one with exactly what you're looking for somewhere though I can't find it, it had benchmarks showing the 1.7 -M chip well outperforming the 3.4 P4 chip on certain tasks)

The big advantage the -M chips offer is of course power saving, obviously rather important for mobile computing. A nice forumulaic direct comparison that'll apply in all situations is next to near impossible so you'd have to go on benchmarks for specific apps (with any luck someone can find the -M v P4 comparison article there).

FWIW, I only want to do officey stuff, internet, spreadsheets, light databases, etc. Rest of the spec seems fine.

Frankly the P4-M will do you rather well for the use you're going to put it to. The notebook XPS designed for gaming uses a P4-M chip as well. Quickly checking the Dell site the I-6000 is offered with up to a 2.13GHz P4-M chip but the extra performance isn't worth anywhere near the extra money required to buy it with the higher spec chip unless you almost literally have money to burn. Changing from a 1.73GHz chip to a 1.86GHz chip would cost you an extra EUR108 though so you might consider that, though you almost certainly don't need it (to be honest, for what you've mentioned, the Celeron chip would probably do you perfectly well - now watch me get flamed for saying something so obviously evil).

maidhc

I do officey stuff and I can guarantee you you wont notice any difference between the lowliest Celeron-M and a Pentium Extreme Edition.

I think the Celeron-M is a very good buy actually. I have a Dell Inspiron 2200 with one, and there is nothing at all wrong with it. Laptop stays as cool as my x300 and the battery last longer. Performance only lacks due to it having 256mb ram, but that will be sorted in due course.

Stephen

The Pentium-M's are very good CPU's for games too, the 2MB L2 cache really helps there. I have a P-M 1.73 in my laptop and it (combined with an nvidia 6600 go) plays Half-Life 2 and GTA San Andreas, etc perfectly.
However, Celeron-M's? Ooh, controversial

dearg_doom

Agree with maidhc, celly-M will be grand for officey stuff.

maidhc

I'm not a fan of benchmarks or anything, but last nite I had a few DVDs I needed to encode.

I used a desktop P4 2.8/ 768 RAM. It averaged at about 4,800kb/s. The Inspiron with a 1.4Cel-m and 256 RAM did about 3,700kb/s.

SteveMcK

maidhc wrote:

I'm not a fan of benchmarks or anything, but last nite I had a few DVDs I needed to encode.

I used a desktop P4 2.8/ 768 RAM. It averaged at about 4,800kb/s. The Inspiron with a 1.4Cel-m and 256 RAM did about 3,700kb/s.

little unfair comparison considering the 3x times more memory in desktop.
Very important are also the speeds of the DVD-Drives and Hard disks used.

But like u said, the celeron is worth every penny and is doing considerably well here.

Also very important is power consumption!
Keepin those speeds in mind, the M generation needs only 25-40% of the power compared to the top P4 models, and thats what a mobile computer needs, IMHO.

Dilbert75

Thx for the replies. I did forget to mention the occasional 2D CAD and the DV capture and editing, which might make the Pentium M worth while.

Pity there seems to have been a typo on the price in the Dell ad in PC Live this month - the lappie priced for €849 seems to be €999 on the site.