Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo Processor

Benzino

Hey,
I was thinking on getting a gaming laptop and was pointing towards dell's xps M1710 laptops. However cause the cpu's are centrio's, i'm concerned whether or not they are good for gaming.

Any info would be appreciated, thanks

JackieChan

Centrino != Celeron

Centrino, means that the machine uses certain Intel techs. These include matching the processor/chipset and wireless card.

Core Duo, means that there are two Cores and so the machine can effectilvely truely multitask. Celeron processors were crappy with smaller L2 caches and clock speeds.
Google is your best friend here

Raekwon

Centrino is fine for games (the CoreDue version is much better).

Centrino are like the mobile version of a Pentium 4 processor. But because Intel could not get a Pentium 4 chip into a notebook they came up it the Pentium M (which is a Centrino). So bascially it is a thin, lightweight & cool version of a Pentium 4 for a notebook.

(P.S.: Celeron = Pentium 2)

JackieChan

(P.S.: Celeron = Pentium 2)

Not sure what you mean by this. A pentium 2 is a pentium processor. A Celeron has a different architecture. Can you flesh out what you mean by this?

Tom Dunne

Raekwon wrote:

Centrino is fine for games (the CoreDue version is much better).

Centrino are like the mobile version of a Pentium 4 processor. But because Intel could not get a Pentium 4 chip into a notebook they came up it the Pentium M (which is a Centrino). So bascially it is a thin, lightweight & cool version of a Pentium 4 for a notebook.

(P.S.: Celeron = Pentium 2)

Erm, Raekwon, I think you have your facts a little messed up there.

For starters, I have a bog standard 3Ghz Pentium 4 in my laptop. The Pentium M is a derivative of the Pentium 3 and Centrino is a combination of processor, chipset and wireless technologies. Centrino laptops can use a Pentium M processor, but it is technically incorrect to say Pentium M=Centrino. Celeron is a general term for low cost chips and hasn't been based on the Pentium 2 for a long, long time.

Sources : Celeron Pentium M Centrino

Raekwon

JackieChan wrote:

Not sure what you mean by this. A pentium 2 is a pentium processor. A Celeron has a different architecture. Can you flesh out what you mean by this?

Sir, yes sir

The low-end version of the Pentium II - essentially a Pentium II with less (or none) level 2 cache - was marketed under the name "Celeron". It was not well received by many IT professionals due to substantially lesser performance compared with the more expensive product with L2 cache. However, the lack of the off-die L2 cache allowed for more flexibility with overclocking (the missing L2 cache was more sensitive to overclocking than the main chip). This overclockability led to heat issues, and the Pentium II Celeron was one of the first chips for which aftermarket companies started to produce high performance cooling such as water-based or refrigerant cooling.

Raekwon

tom dunne wrote:

Erm, Raekwon, I think you have your facts a little messed up there.

For starters, I have a bog standard 3Ghz Pentium 4 in my laptop. The Pentium M is a derivative of the Pentium 3 and Centrino is a combination of processor, chipset and wireless technologies. Centrino laptops can use a Pentium M processor, but it is technically incorrect to say Pentium M=Centrino. Celeron is a general term for low cost chips and hasn't been based on the Pentium 2 for a long, long time.

Sources : Celeron Pentium M Centrino

I said a Centrino is like a Pentium 4 for a note book, which is not too far wrong. Also, the original Celeron was based on the Pentium 2.

Now could you answer the OP's question? Is it good for games?

tuxy

wow Raekwon, what are you trying to do to the poor OP, talking about celerons that are almot 10 years old lol

Raekwon wrote:

I said a Centrino is like a Pentium 4 for a note book, which is not too far wrong. Also, the original Celeron was based on the Pentium 2.

there never has been a processor called a centrino however there has been a processor called a pentium 4, i dont understand your comparrison
centrino just means it has an intel modile processor(there are a few different ones) and wifi

the dell xps M1710 uses a Intel Core Duo T2600 processor (not pentium m as Raekwon said)
so look up reviews of that processor, it seems to be close enough to a high end athlon 64 x2 in terms of performance.
so should be great for games.

Tom Dunne

Raekwon wrote:

Now could you answer the OP's question? Is it good for games?

Of course, that's what we are here for.

The processor is top notch for games, but of course it is all about the graphics card. There's not point having a powerful processor with a crap graphics card - what card is in that laptop?

Benzino

thanks for all your help.

The graphics card is a 512MB DDR3 nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX graphics card. Here is a link to the laptop clicky.

Here is another laptop of similar spec another clicky. altho that is pretty much out of the question i think cause the company isn't based in ireland, and therefore i can't claim vat back:(

TempestSabre

This thread (celeron - centrino) shows you how most people are baffled by computer technology and the marketing, especially Intels.

Akrasia

You want to make absolutely certain that your graphics card supports all of the direct x 9 features or you won't be able to play any recent games.
Lots of Graphics cards claim to support Dx9 but they don't support pixel shaders or whatever.
the 7900 looks pretty top notch though from a quick glance