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Laptop specs

  • 25-11-2003 12:15pm
    #1
    Figment
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,747 ✭✭✭


    Hi Guys,
    I need to invest in a laptop and I have decided to go for a DELL. I have been borrowing my dads for the last while but its a dead weight so I would prefer a lighter model however the lighter ones seem of a lower spec.
    I am going to be running a lot of multimedia apps on it like Photoshop and 3dmax so it needs to be fast. Most of the graphics apps are optimised for Pentium 4 chips.
    How does the new Centrino chip compare to the P4 ones. It states a lower speed but a higher cache. And would the optimisation of the apps hold true for the Centrino?

    Basically I need a beast of a multimedia machine in a light package. Any advice is really appreciated.


Comments

  • #2
    Gerry
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,457 ✭✭✭Gerry


    I'm not too well up on particular laptop models, but I think the centrino ( or more correctly, the pentium m ) is the right choice for the chip. You should go for a 1.6ghz or 1.7ghz pentium m, this will be about the equivalent of a 2.66ghz p4. Basically the pentium m does significantly more work for each clock cycle, its an improvement of the p3 design.
    Optimizations for the p4 will not hold true for the pentium-m, they are very different architecturally, having said that the pentium m does support the same sse2 instruction set as the p4, and does not need such specialized optimisation to get good performance. Ultimately its not going to be as fast as a p4 3.2ghz machine, but it will last a lot longer under heavy usage.
    On applications which are not p4 optimized, the pentium m will be faster.
    Take a look at the IBM T40, afaik it comes with an optional long life battery which would let you get a few hours work done on the move, and IBM make damn good laptops. But there are probably better machines out at this stage.


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