Hyper-Threading technology or not???

I think its more about the video card than the CPU.

after using this 5680 with hyperthreading its hard for me to go back to any machine without this technology.
does it make games run faster? no

It really depends on what you're going to be doing. Applications that take advantage or are optimized for multiple CPUs can take advantage of HyperThreading. CPU-intensive apps like After Effects, Photoshop, 3D Rendering & Video Editing programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, are some of the types of apps that can really benefit from the virtual 2nd CPU provided by HT. You won't notice HT for Office-type apps.

I've noticed a significant benefit from HT for After Effects and 3D Rendering.

-romo
M675XL | 17" | 3.2HT | 512MB/80GB-5400 | ATI 9600/128 | WiFi-G | DVD-RW
...there are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't...

thats true for performance in single applications.
but windows xp is able to use SMT on its own. it can send specific applications to separate virtual processors on its own

A 3 year extended warranty on the Gateway M505X ranges from $150 for the basic extended warranty to $329 for a Total Protection Plan that also includes accident protection and on-site service. If you are a AAA member or are willing to join ($60/yr), you can get a 10% discount on computers at Gateway. Therefore, the cheapest you can get a Gateway M505X with a 3 year extended warranty is $1499 + $150 - $150 = $1499.

You will need WinXP Pro to take advantage of HT (home doesn't support it, I've been told). If you go with a P4 desktop chip, I would get the HT version. It definitely makes a difference on the apps that can make use of it, and you never know what killer app will come out that you want that can take advantage of it. Overall, the price difference of HT/non-HT is small in relation to the total cost of your purchase.

No, the Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) covers accidents (drops, liquid spills, etc.) that the regular warranty normally does not cover.

Not necessarily. Batteries have a variable number of recharge cycles that they are rated to meet. However, over the course of these recharge cycles, a battery will begin to only hold gradually decreasing percentage of the original full charge. If you originally had 3 hours of battery time from your new battery, then you may only have 2.2 hours after a year and 1.5 after 2 years, etc. (you get the picture). It also varies by how much the laptop is used on battery, left plugged in, left unplugged for extended periods of time, etc. Eventually your battery could even get to the point of saying that it's fully charged, but failing to power your laptop on battery.

Sorry for the long-winded response, but well-informed is well-armed.

Maybe you'll be able to figure it out if you understand what it is.

A "thread" is a "mini-program" (I know, I know...) that a program runs to get something done. For example, if you run Word and do a spellcheck, Word may launch a thread to go through your document. If, at the same time, you convert your Word document into a .pdf, another thread launches to do that conversion. Of course, it's never this simple. Also note that people tend to have multiple programs running at once (or in the background), and each of these can have multiple threads.

Hyperthreading is a way for the CPU to order these threads in the most efficient way. CPU's w/o HT are often inefficient when it comes to threads; the CPU isn't being used to its fullest capabilities because it has to wait for a thread to go through the CPU and exit. HT allows threads to be partially through the CPU and inserts other threads in the beginning, so the entirety of the CPU pipeline is being used. A cleaner way to say it is that our P4 CPU is pretending to be 2 CPU's.

With that said, it's obvious that you'll get the most out of HT if you run programs that use a lot of threads (i.e. the aforementioned Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, etc.), if you run a lot of programs at once, or ues programs that are optimized for two CPU's (most graphics rendering programs). Otherwise, HT isn't going to do much for you, unfortunately.

Sony GRT996ZP has a 3.2mhz HT processor

Extended warranties at Gateway can include three possible components: the extended warranty itself, onsite service and accident protection. I suggest going to Gateway's website here and looking over the available options.

a rebuttal

I think most of us that use computers get into this multi-threading scenario often. Intel pioneered this technology to gain a market edge over it's competition (AMD). The technology allows different elements of the chip, such as the integer unit for graphics processing and the floating-point unit for complex calculations, to be active at the same time.

By multitasking in this manner, chip performance can be boosted by 25 percent to 30 percent. It's a free performance boost, because the circuitry to enable hyperthreading is already inside the Pentium 4.

And you're right, the software you're utilizing must be able to take advantage of this. But since XP and 2000 are both software packages that can it's pretty obvious that most ppl (except the Linux faction..at least for now) will see great benefits from this technology.

Intel realizes that MHz sells chips. In order to increase the frequency at which chips can be clocked, they increase the size of the pipeline. The pipeline serves to feed instructions into the core of the CPU, not necessarily in the same order that instructions are actually ordered. I don’t want to get into the technical details, but a longer pipeline causes a performance hit by requiring more cycles to get an instruction into the CPU, but allows the chip to be run at a higher clock rate. A Pentium 3 at 800 Mhz is faster than a Pentium 4 at 800 Mhz, but the P4 can be clocked much higher.

Hyperthreading is circuitry that essentially makes the operating system “think” there are two CPUs. Modern operating systems are multi-tasking; the OS is challenged with the task of managing preemptive multitasking. The OS has little knowledge of the internal workings of the CPU and its pipeline. Hyperthreading circuitry allows a much more efficient ordering of machine level instructions in the CPU’s pipeline, taking some of the burden off the OS and better packing instructions in the pipeline. It’s kind of like playing Tetris, but the little blocks are different instructions.

In a nutshell, hyperthreading brings some of the multi-tasking to the chip level allowing a more efficient ordering and execution of instructions.

It's true that HT is only totally applicable to those monster programs that can take advantage of it (Adobe, Macromedia, etc).

However, don't forget that buying such a powerful machine is an investment, and should last at least 3 years if not more, if you buy the highest technology today.

It is more than likely that some new software apps will come out in the next three years that you will want and that can take advantage of HT. That's important in the decision making process. Don't buy technology that will be truly obsolete in 12 months.

You may save money by "seeking the best bargain", but in 12 months you're looking for another machine. You pay more for the top of the line, latest release stuff, but you're looking at several years of operation.

I bought a Gateway solo 9150 lappy, 450Mhz, 384MB memory, the day it came in March 1999 - literally, the day it was released - the newest technology of the day. It did cost alot of money back then.

But, almost five years later, it works great with XP Pro, no problems, has over 256MB so handles all new software pretty well. It's obviously not a gaming machine, but I do have illustrator, Photoshop, Studio MX (all latest versions), and Office 2003 installed and they work just fine - no problems whatsoever.

It's obviously not as *fast* as newer machines, but it doesn't bottleneck or crash because it doesn't have *enough* power. I will pay top dollar for my next lappy, but will get the latest and greatest technology (w/HT), and I know it will be good for at least 3 years, and may stick around perfoming well for at least 5 years (like this machine I'm typing on right now).

I really like that description.

I would respectfully disagree with that. True, with top-of-the-line stuff, you get the fastest out of everything. You're the king of the mountain as far as that generation goes.

But you have to pay a hefty premium to get there, and top-of-the-line components are usually margainally faster than slightly slower components (i.e. a Radeon 9800XT vs. a plain Radeon 9800 or even a Radeon 9700). It's not like slower components can't run programs of the future - they just run it slightly slower.

It's well known that software lags behind hardware; the time delta can be a few months to years (think Longhorn). Most of the stuff that we're running right now can be run on an average machine 2 years ago - I can attest to the fact that my T-Bird 1.4Ghz w/ a GF2 can still run Office 2003, Maya, Photoshop, and even play NFS: Underground and Max Payne 2, albeit at lower resolutions. It's not like getting a Motherboard, where getting one supporting an older chipset means you can't upgrade your CPU w/o getting a new one. The vast majority of software makers realize that not everybody will have top-of-the-line machines (i.e. the id Software complex), and cater to slower machines as well as faster ones.

I won't disgree with you Datheron, all I can site is opinions based on experience. I remember when I bought my 9150 solo that everyone thought I was an idiot paying so much, while they were buying 166Mhz, and 266Mhz max laptops, with 92MB to 128MB. Many of them upgraded a year ot two later to 300Mhz and 400MHz with 128 MB to 256MB (as they didn't want to pay for the top of the line). You can barely use that anymore either. I would suspect that most of them have upgraded a third time, when my puppy is still a work horse.

Granted, I'm well outdated too on this lappy, but it still hangs in there with the latest apps and it's still working 5 years later.

It's a long-term investment, and I would bet that LongHorn and future apps will more and more take advantage of HT. If you aren't using any programs that currently use HT, then you don't need it now - true. Sure, you can buy a 2.4 Ghz machine now, but when those other apps or OS's do come out and you want HT, you'll be paying more money again.

The fact is you pay a pretty penny for the latest technology, but find yourself upgrading less. If you buy outdated stuff for much cheaper, you upgrade more often. Do the math. How much did I spent ONE TIME in 5 years, versus what someone else spent 3 times in a 5-year period?

There is a strategy though. The trick, in my opinion is to time it so you get the latest of a *brand new* technology that looks strongly like the wave of the future *shortly* after release. For example, to get something with HT now, and DVD/+R/-R is sure to last for several years to come. I would invest in something like that. The Sager's I see finally support both versions of DVD. Therefore, whether one overtakes the other, like Beta/VHS (Beta losing), I'll have both. Who knows, +R could overtake, and all the folks with only -R will be surprised and bummed? When I first got my lappy, it was *new* technology for a laptop.

I think it a waste of money, at this time to buy a 3.2 without HT. As per gsferrari suggesting Prescott and others saying the EE isn't worth it, I'm waiting to time my purchase for something like a Prescott, which has HT and the bigger cache, and also the latest 256 Vid MB both of which should last for some time. I may pay more buying a month or two after release (and after some kinks/bugs are worked out), but I bet I'll be upgrading alot less than someone who pays half the price for a 1.4 GHZ machine now with 64 Vid MB, and only a CDRW, 512MB memory, etc.

Truly, if you're already thinking prices in the 2.8+ GHZ range, or even a 3.2 original without HT, I think it worth the extra couple of bucks to get something with HT.

There's no doubt that a 1024MB machine with Prescott or other 3.x+ CPU and 256MB Vid will stay in play MUCH LONGER.

IMHO between Prescott, 80GB 7200 RPM, and 256 Vid MB all soon-to-be-released for lappys all around the same time, plus the recently released 4 bays, RAID and DVD/-R/+R, I think the next few months will be that *perfect timing* to pay that *pretty penny* for a new top-of-the-line lappy that will have the best return over the longest period of time, and have the best chance of all of its technology being a strong player for years to come.

My two cents.

You do realize the minute they start selling an 80GB 7200 RPM drive and a 256 MB video card they will announce a 160 GB 7200 RPM drive and a 512 MB video card. Given that fact that anything you buy will quickly cease to be the top of the line, technology can only really be valued by how you use it. Sometimes waiting for new technology make sense, sometimes the time spent waiting while you suffer through using an older and slower machine costs money, sometimes a whole lot of money. You've got to do what works for you.

True for the most part. However, "the minute" is stretching it. It's been at least six months since the 128 MB video memory and 5400 80GB Drives have been available. Granted, we're not talking years of being at the top, but to say "in a minute" or even "next month" is exaggerating. Also, don't forget the main point at hand and that's *new technology*. HT is a new technology which I'm betting on being around for some time. Also CDRW's were NOT superceded by DVD's for YEARS (CDRW's still the main standard but are losing ground), and with DVD-R/+R I bet nothing will superceded that *standard* for years either. HT is the *key* of this thread, and is the *key* to future processors, at least for the foresseable future, which I bet would be at least a few years.

Again, it's all about timing in the purchase, my opinion. Thus, I'm spending time on this, researching, contemplating, comparing.

Also, think about 512MB memory, it was the most for a long time, then the standard for a long time, and now is still sufficient for many, but is losing ground. I think 2048 is a waste of money, but 1024 is not only good for performance, but I'd bet it will support future apps for YEARS before becoming too slow or *not enough*. I wouldn't invest in 512MB right now, because within 12-24 months or so, I bet many new apps won't run very well with that. Obviously, there's many variables in the equation to consider, but timing and package can give you a better deal even if paying top dollar.

Hi
I have a sick 9150 PII 400 with 384 megs RAM and a wonderful 15" screen.
Have you had any powerproblems? Mine will not take a charge or work with the AC. Any ideas?
I got mine as a refurb on ubid 4 years ago.... no regrets, except it no longer works
I asked this question on another thread, but no helpful aswers.