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Centrino - Worth The Hype?

post #1 of 26
12/2/04 at 6:44pm
Thread Starter 
I'm wanting to know what everyone thinks of the Centrino architecture, mainly the Pentium M CPU.

Is the Pentium M processor really as fast as it's worked up to be? Can it really compare to a P4-M chip that's clocked at over 500 Mhz faster? How does it compare to desktop CPU's?

I am debating whether to buy a Centrino-based notebook (in which case, I'll probably be looking for an IBM T or R series with a 1.4 - 1.8 Ghz, either banias or dothan), or a desktop CPU'd notebook (I would likely be looking for an ECS G732 with a P4 2.8).

I would be using this computer mainly for website development, which includes programming, WYSIWYG development, image editing (in a Photoshop equivelent that eats less ram ), and some heavier image editing in CorelDraw. I also need to be able to multi-task (ie.: up to 10+ applications with 10+ files open each), often between several resource-hungry applications. Can Pentium M-based notebooks continuously handle this kind of thing?

Any tips, directions, opinions??
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post #2 of 26
12/2/04 at 7:45pm
Quote:
Is the Pentium M processor really as fast as it's worked up to be? Can it really compare to a P4-M chip that's clocked at over 500 Mhz faster? How does it compare to desktop CPU's? Can Pentium M-based notebooks continuously handle this kind of thing?
Yes. Yes. Great. Yes.
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post #3 of 26
12/2/04 at 7:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by epp_b
I'm wanting to know what everyone thinks of the Centrino architecture, mainly the Pentium M CPU.

Is the Pentium M processor really as fast as it's worked up to be? Can it really compare to a P4-M chip that's clocked at over 500 Mhz faster? How does it compare to desktop CPU's?

I am debating whether to buy a Centrino-based notebook (in which case, I'll probably be looking for an IBM T or R series with a 1.4 - 1.8 Ghz, either banias or dothan), or a desktop CPU'd notebook (I would likely be looking for an ECS G732 with a P4 2.8).

I would be using this computer mainly for website development, which includes programming, WYSIWYG development, image editing (in a Photoshop equivelent that eats less ram ), and some heavier image editing in CorelDraw. I also need to be able to multi-task (ie.: up to 10+ applications with 10+ files open each), often between several resource-hungry applications. Can Pentium M-based notebooks continuously handle this kind of thing?

Any tips, directions, opinions??
I think that kind of graphic development isn't as much processor intensive as RAM intensive. Video editing/3D modeling is where it starts to push on the processor, which is when the P4 might be a bit nicer.
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post #4 of 26
12/2/04 at 7:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saiyr
I think that kind of graphic development isn't as much processor intensive as RAM intensive. Video editing/3D modeling is where it starts to push on the processor, which is when the P4 might be a bit nicer.
Well, I'd be looking at 512 MB of DDR 333 RAM to start, and would probably upgrade to 1 GB in a matter of a few months. I think I might have some video editing to do as well, but very occasionally (ie.: once a year).

And the video card would be an ATI Mobility Radeon with a minimum of 32 MB(preferably 64 MB or higher) dedicated RAM for sure. Fortunately, that seems to be a popular card for notebooks today
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post #5 of 26
12/2/04 at 8:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by epp_b
Well, I'd be looking at 512 MB of DDR 333 RAM to start, and would probably upgrade to 1 GB in a matter of a few months. I think I might have some video editing to do as well, but very occasionally (ie.: once a year).

And the video card would be an ATI Mobility Radeon with a minimum of 32 MB(preferably 64 MB or higher) dedicated RAM for sure. Fortunately, that seems to be a popular card for notebooks today
From what I've been hearing (not on here), P4-M isn't worth it, unless you're saving money. Get a Pentium M. 512 RAM might not be enough for 10 copies of say, Photoshop. Actually, I'm not sure if a gig will handle that either, but it can handle 2 gigs of RAM.
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post #6 of 26
12/2/04 at 8:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by epp_b
I'm wanting to know what everyone thinks of the Centrino architecture, mainly the Pentium M CPU.

Is the Pentium M processor really as fast as it's worked up to be? Can it really compare to a P4-M chip that's clocked at over 500 Mhz faster? How does it compare to desktop CPU's?
I suggest you read this review:
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_cont...id=gmso&page=1
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post #7 of 26
12/2/04 at 8:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
From what I've been hearing (not on here), P4-M isn't worth it, unless you're saving money. Get a Pentium M. 512 RAM might not be enough for 10 copies of say, Photoshop. Actually, I'm not sure if a gig will handle that either, but it can handle 2 gigs of RAM.
Well, it certainly won't be 10 copies of Photoshop

An MDI text editor with several files open, Eudora, one or two FrontPage windows, two or three FTP windows, one or two SSH windows, Micrografx PP8 (kinda like Photoshop), a few MSIE windows, etc. That's the usual.

Quote:
I suggest you read this review...
Thanks
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post #8 of 26
12/2/04 at 9:34pm
well PM will give u good battery life and weight as compared to p4 laptops...
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post #9 of 26
12/2/04 at 10:14pm
http://www.intel.com/products/notebo...m4-m/index.htm

Quote:
Processor
Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor - M
Architecture 130 nm process technology
L2 Cache 512KB
Clock Speed 1.40 to 2.60 GHz
Front Side Bus up to 400 MHz
Chipset Mobile Intel® 845 Chipset Family
Intel® NetBurst™ Microarchitecture
Hyper-pipelined technology

Rapid execution engine

Execution trace cache

Advanced transfer cache

Advanced dynamic execution

Enhanced floating point/multimedia





Features Benefits

Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 Accelerates the most demanding aspects of Internet computing, including video, multimedia, 3D imaging and encryption applications
Flexible External AGP4X Ensures reliable power state transitions without compromising performance for leading-edge graphics solutions
Deeper Sleep Delivers extended battery life and lowers power consumption
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology Automatically optimizes application performance and power usage
Wireless LAN (802.11) and Bluetooth* Provides robust connectivity at high performance and low power
Intel Hub Architecture Provides faster wireless input-output
http://www.intel.com/products/notebo...ium4/index.htm

the p4-m and the p4 are totally different processors. The p4-m only goes upt to 2.6 ghz.

The dothan 2.0 ghz is comparable to performance to an amd 64 3000+ and a p4 3.0/3.2 ghz.
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post #10 of 26
12/2/04 at 11:16pm
P-M is good in general...gives you life, and pretty good performance. you seem to be a intel fan. Consider that AMD64 is in many cases CHEAPER and BETTER than P4. P4-m was a mistake.
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post #11 of 26
12/2/04 at 11:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by B Nietsnie
Yes. Yes. Great. Yes.
Agree'D

Plus, check out the link Snorre provided.

Also, check out these:
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_cont...desktop&page=1
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_cont...ngaming&page=1
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post #12 of 26
12/2/04 at 11:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
P-M is good in general...gives you life, and pretty good performance. you seem to be a intel fan.
For notebooks, yes; but not for desktops. In a desktop, I will favour AMD's for their good performance-to-cost ratio. But I wouldn't trust one in a notebook (heat).

Quote:
Consider that AMD64 is in many cases CHEAPER and BETTER than P4. P4-m was a mistake.
I've never had a P4-M. I used to have a PIII-M in a notebook, which wasn't too bad for my needs. But, much to it's credit, it was running Win98, and not the resource-hungry XP.
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post #13 of 26
12/2/04 at 11:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by snorre

I like that article. The P4s and AMD64s beat the Pentium-M in almost every category... but barely, and that is great because the Pentium-M only has a 400 MHz FSB
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post #14 of 26
12/3/04 at 12:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by epp_b
For notebooks, yes; but not for desktops. In a desktop, I will favour AMD's for their good performance-to-cost ratio. But I wouldn't trust one in a notebook (heat).
FYI. there're no problems with heat from AMD's Mobile Athlon 64 CPU's and the low-power Mobile Athlon 64 run in fact noticeably cooler during full load than Intel's Pentium M "Dothan" (leakage).
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post #15 of 26
12/3/04 at 12:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by snorre
FYI. there're no problems with heat from AMD's Mobile Athlon 64 CPU's and the low-power Mobile Athlon 64 run in fact noticeably cooler during full load than Intel's Pentium M "Dothan" (leakage).
Never heard of that before. Is there a source you can point me to or did you measure yourself?
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post #16 of 26
12/3/04 at 12:11am
The question is do you want power or more power. the P-M is powerful, The desktop P4 is even more powerful, but gets very little battery life, especially in sagers
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post #17 of 26
12/3/04 at 12:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by deltawalkerl
Never heard of that before. Is there a source you can point me to or did you measure yourself?
See this thread for instance:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=38764
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post #18 of 26
12/3/04 at 1:08am
Say NO to ECS
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post #19 of 26
12/3/04 at 1:20am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
The question is do you want power or more power. the P-M is powerful, The desktop P4 is even more powerful, but gets very little battery life, especially in sagers
As long as it would do what I need with zero lag, I think I'd be happy. Like I said, however, video editing/processing is one thing that I may need very infrequently.

Quote:
Originally Posted by awingedpig
Say NO to ECS
Really...any particular reason?

A friend and co-worker of mine has owned an ECS notebook for a year and couldn't be happier with it. He works it pretty hard too, and, AFAIK, hasn't had any problems.
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post #20 of 26
12/3/04 at 1:25am
Thread Starter 
Oh, and I also forgot to mention, modularity is very important to me. Accessible RAM is a given, I'm sure; the hard drive *must* be easily replaceable; and I would prefer to have the ability to easily replace the optical drive and processor.

I know that's a bit much to ask for a notebook, but I know that it's entirely possible as I've seen notebooks with these types of modular features.
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