Pentium 4 vs Pentium M?
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I'm in the process of buying a developer laptop and have narrowed my choices to 2 machines: the Dell 9100 and the Dell 8600. Both machines are priced within 50 USD of each other (~ $1700) and are similarly equipped:
- 1G RAM
- On-board LCD > 1600x1200
- 60G 7200rpm drive
- DVD-ROM, CD-RW
- Floppy drive
- NIC, 56k modem
- USB and Firewire ports
- WinXP Pro
The main difference between the two is that the 9100 has a Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHz chip while the 8600 comes with a Pentium M 1.6GHz chip. I'm given to understand that processor speed is no longer an accurate differentiator of performance and was wondering if anyone had an informed opinion regarding which would provide more bang for the buck. The machine will primarily be used at home (plugged into the mains and sometimes with an external CRT). Thanks for your feedback! /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
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I'm in the process of buying a developer laptop and have narrowed my choices to 2 machines: the Dell 9100 and the Dell 8600. Both machines are priced within 50 USD of each other (~ $1700) and are similarly equipped:
- 1G RAM
- On-board LCD > 1600x1200
- 60G 7200rpm drive
- DVD-ROM, CD-RW
- Floppy drive
- NIC, 56k modem
- USB and Firewire ports
- WinXP Pro
The main difference between the two is that the 9100 has a Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHz chip while the 8600 comes with a Pentium M 1.6GHz chip. I'm given to understand that processor speed is no longer an accurate differentiator of performance and was wondering if anyone had an informed opinion regarding which would provide more bang for the buck. The machine will primarily be used at home (plugged into the mains and sometimes with an external CRT). Thanks for your feedback! /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
Given a choice, I would take an M-series chip. I think you will find that is actually faster than a 2.8GHz P4 and provides a longer battery life. If not faster, it will be very close. My laptop has a M-series chip of about that speed and it is a pretty zippy machine. Hard drives in laptops are notoriously slower than most desktop boxes though. It is noticable in large project builds. BTW - there is a rather good article on the M-series here : http://arstechnica.com/cpu/004/pentium-m/pentium-m-1.html[^] __________________________________________ a two cent stamp short of going postal.
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Given a choice, I would take an M-series chip. I think you will find that is actually faster than a 2.8GHz P4 and provides a longer battery life. If not faster, it will be very close. My laptop has a M-series chip of about that speed and it is a pretty zippy machine. Hard drives in laptops are notoriously slower than most desktop boxes though. It is noticable in large project builds. BTW - there is a rather good article on the M-series here : http://arstechnica.com/cpu/004/pentium-m/pentium-m-1.html[^] __________________________________________ a two cent stamp short of going postal.
I have a laptop with an "M" inside and it runs very cool - the fan hardly ever comes on. Steve
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I'm in the process of buying a developer laptop and have narrowed my choices to 2 machines: the Dell 9100 and the Dell 8600. Both machines are priced within 50 USD of each other (~ $1700) and are similarly equipped:
- 1G RAM
- On-board LCD > 1600x1200
- 60G 7200rpm drive
- DVD-ROM, CD-RW
- Floppy drive
- NIC, 56k modem
- USB and Firewire ports
- WinXP Pro
The main difference between the two is that the 9100 has a Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHz chip while the 8600 comes with a Pentium M 1.6GHz chip. I'm given to understand that processor speed is no longer an accurate differentiator of performance and was wondering if anyone had an informed opinion regarding which would provide more bang for the buck. The machine will primarily be used at home (plugged into the mains and sometimes with an external CRT). Thanks for your feedback! /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
I've never had a Pentium M (M is for mobile; less power consumption). I have in my home gaming machine a Pentium 4 HT 2.8 though and I can tell you it's one of the best performing processors I've ever had. Sweet little thing - with HT (hyper threading), you can run several performance intensive things without freezing your system (I can play MP3s while burning a CD and browsing the web, for instance). Come to think of it, because of HT, Windows XP will report you have 2 processors on the system heh. So anyway, I'll bet the 2.8 HT outperforms the Pentium M by far. OTOH, the Pentium M won't eat nearly as much power, resulting in longer battery life. Unless you're looking to do some gaming on your dev machine (shame on you), I'd go with the Pentium M because of the power consumption and because dev machines really don't need *that* much power. #include "witty_sig.h"
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I've never had a Pentium M (M is for mobile; less power consumption). I have in my home gaming machine a Pentium 4 HT 2.8 though and I can tell you it's one of the best performing processors I've ever had. Sweet little thing - with HT (hyper threading), you can run several performance intensive things without freezing your system (I can play MP3s while burning a CD and browsing the web, for instance). Come to think of it, because of HT, Windows XP will report you have 2 processors on the system heh. So anyway, I'll bet the 2.8 HT outperforms the Pentium M by far. OTOH, the Pentium M won't eat nearly as much power, resulting in longer battery life. Unless you're looking to do some gaming on your dev machine (shame on you), I'd go with the Pentium M because of the power consumption and because dev machines really don't need *that* much power. #include "witty_sig.h"
Judah Himango wrote: Unless you're looking to do some gaming on your dev machine Actually I only use my PCs for development (large compilations aren't uncommon), email/browsing, video processing and burning CDs/DVDs. Looks like the Pentium-M may be the way to go, also based on other responses. Thanks, /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
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I'm in the process of buying a developer laptop and have narrowed my choices to 2 machines: the Dell 9100 and the Dell 8600. Both machines are priced within 50 USD of each other (~ $1700) and are similarly equipped:
- 1G RAM
- On-board LCD > 1600x1200
- 60G 7200rpm drive
- DVD-ROM, CD-RW
- Floppy drive
- NIC, 56k modem
- USB and Firewire ports
- WinXP Pro
The main difference between the two is that the 9100 has a Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHz chip while the 8600 comes with a Pentium M 1.6GHz chip. I'm given to understand that processor speed is no longer an accurate differentiator of performance and was wondering if anyone had an informed opinion regarding which would provide more bang for the buck. The machine will primarily be used at home (plugged into the mains and sometimes with an external CRT). Thanks for your feedback! /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
If you're looking for battery life, go with the M. My Inspiron 8200 had an 1.6GHZ M and that bugger performs as well as my 2.4GHZ desktop.
// Steve McLenithan
Who is remote client and what has he done with my VPN connection?
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I'm in the process of buying a developer laptop and have narrowed my choices to 2 machines: the Dell 9100 and the Dell 8600. Both machines are priced within 50 USD of each other (~ $1700) and are similarly equipped:
- 1G RAM
- On-board LCD > 1600x1200
- 60G 7200rpm drive
- DVD-ROM, CD-RW
- Floppy drive
- NIC, 56k modem
- USB and Firewire ports
- WinXP Pro
The main difference between the two is that the 9100 has a Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHz chip while the 8600 comes with a Pentium M 1.6GHz chip. I'm given to understand that processor speed is no longer an accurate differentiator of performance and was wondering if anyone had an informed opinion regarding which would provide more bang for the buck. The machine will primarily be used at home (plugged into the mains and sometimes with an external CRT). Thanks for your feedback! /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
I deal with these everyday. I have some of both types of system and the P4s are heavy and loud because ofthe heatsink and fan to dissipate the scorcher of heat that the thing puts out. The P4 with HT is the fastest thing arround, hands down. The Pentium M is much cooler and doesn't consume as much power, but lacks the hyperthreading. A 1.6Ghz Pentium M is roughly the equivalent of a 2.4 Mhz P4 (minus the HT) Given the choice, I'd dtake the Pentium M.. the Hyperthreading won't buy you enough to compensate for the ammount of battery life it will also eat. Mark Conger Sonork:100.28396
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I'm in the process of buying a developer laptop and have narrowed my choices to 2 machines: the Dell 9100 and the Dell 8600. Both machines are priced within 50 USD of each other (~ $1700) and are similarly equipped:
- 1G RAM
- On-board LCD > 1600x1200
- 60G 7200rpm drive
- DVD-ROM, CD-RW
- Floppy drive
- NIC, 56k modem
- USB and Firewire ports
- WinXP Pro
The main difference between the two is that the 9100 has a Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHz chip while the 8600 comes with a Pentium M 1.6GHz chip. I'm given to understand that processor speed is no longer an accurate differentiator of performance and was wondering if anyone had an informed opinion regarding which would provide more bang for the buck. The machine will primarily be used at home (plugged into the mains and sometimes with an external CRT). Thanks for your feedback! /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
Looks like the Pentium-M is the way to go. Thanks for your helpful comments, guys! /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com