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Going to buy an 8600 ... Celeron M or Pentium M ?

post #1 of 26
12/12/04 at 6:12am
Thread Starter 
I've decided I'm going to buy the 8600. I can't decide if I should get a Celeron-M 1.5 Ghz or Pentium-M 1.6 Ghz processor. The price difference between the two systems is about $150-200.

It's important because I am a student on a tight budget, and if I decide to go with the Pentium-M I will be going slightly over it, thus requiring me to justify the extra expense to good ol' Mom and Dad.

I will be using it to run numerical/analytical simulations and to play games. I don't think my choice of chip will affect the speed of my work, but I'm wondering if it will affect my gaming.

I read the review linked below, but I want to know if you guys have any personal experiences or recommendations that either differ from or add to it.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040309/index.html

I've been lurking here for a little bit so I'd also like to say thanks to all of you for inadvertently helping me with my first laptop purchase
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post #2 of 26
12/12/04 at 7:57am
Maybe you could use the extra money to build up the ram. I would think that along with video card would make more difference. That is my opinion. And... maybe see if you could get a good deal with rebate and see if savings could get you the Pentium M.
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post #3 of 26
12/12/04 at 9:39am
go with the pentium-m. you'll hav a much higher resell value, and the pentium-m is much more powerful than the celeron, and yet it has a longer battery life. celeron-m is a nono.
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post #4 of 26
12/12/04 at 12:20pm
P-M is the way to go in mobile procs... in my opinion at least.
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post #5 of 26
12/12/04 at 1:22pm
someone correct me if i'm wrong (since I'm not a gamer), but the processor is not so important in gaming because all the processors now should be able to handle it without a problem. What matters is the video card, which is the same on both machines. Everyday normal usage probably won't be affected too much either. I don't know what matters for those numerical simulations. I think there is a stigma against the celeron-m held over from the p3&4 that may or may not be fair.
How much is that extra hour of battery life worth to you? If you plan to carry it around with you, it might end up being important.

I think you should skimp on something upgradeable like RAM or harddrive right now and get the pentium m, then ask for that for you bday etc. That way you get it all in the end, and mom and dad are happy.

Edit: oh, and getting the ram from someone else will be cheaper than from dell too.
Edit #2: forgot to say this the first time....and the second time Resale value will definitely be higher with the pentium. Does this matter to you? I know I plan to keep my computer until the only use for it would be as a paperweight or a do-it-yourself vasectomizer.
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post #6 of 26
12/12/04 at 3:29pm
go to small business section and you can get a 8600 with a pentium M starting @ $949, which is only $50 more than the celeron M
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post #7 of 26
12/12/04 at 3:54pm
That extra 1-2 hours of battery life can make a big difference. It's the difference between almost finishing the movie, the game, that paper and actually finishing.

Also, the Pentium M will have MUCH better resale value which is something to consider if you don't plan on owning the laptop forever.

I personallly would do all I can to get the Pentium M.

Martian
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post #8 of 26
12/12/04 at 5:21pm
Thread Starter 
I'm going to get an educational discount. If I knew of a way to get the Small Business deal then I would take advantage of that.

I plan on keeping this laptop for a while, so I won't be reselling it.

As far as battery life is concerned, would it be cheaper if I just bought an extra battery? And how clunky is the power adapter? Most places where I would be have wall outlets.
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post #9 of 26
12/12/04 at 5:51pm
you can think this to death or do the right thing and buy a pent M and get it over with
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post #10 of 26
12/12/04 at 6:52pm
i think p-m is the way to go. especially if you are not reselling, you want to have good cpu which it can last you for few more years.
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post #11 of 26
12/13/04 at 2:09am
p-m is the only way to go. I service computers and the main ones that I work on are celerons. Celerons are cheap pieces of crap! Trust me, go with p-m, you won't be dissappointed
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post #12 of 26
12/13/04 at 2:52am
Celeron is just a name the marketroids at Intel came up with. The Pentium-M and Celeron-M are basically the same processor. They disabled half the cache and disabled speedstep on the P-M and renamed it Celeron-M so they could segment the market. Not much difference in CPUs.
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post #13 of 26
12/13/04 at 7:11am
Get the P-M. It will be faster. Celerons are budget processors, P-M gives peformance,
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post #14 of 26
12/13/04 at 7:50am
Besides the processor, think about the keyboard. I myself bought the 8600. And like it a lot and use it a lot. But thing that irks the hell out of me is the damn keyboard. Makes it nearly impossible to type anything because it feels cheap and your fingers will slide all over the place. I find it hard to recommend the 8600 to anyone knowing the keyboard sucks. People should check it out and THEN type on a system from other manufacturers. You should be able to get a quick comparison that way. You ought to quickly notice the difference.

Well, doing my best to warn people. Some people dont think the keyboard is a problem but I think it is a big factor and want people to know about it.
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post #15 of 26
12/13/04 at 8:37am
i had the keyboard flex problem, but it was easily fixed by doing the keyboard fix in the Mod thread.

however, the 8600 my dad's (and 5 other from his company) does not have the flex problem. the keyboard looks slightly different too. seems dell have fixed the problem!
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post #16 of 26
12/13/04 at 3:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dellbert
Celeron is just a name the marketroids at Intel came up with. The Pentium-M and Celeron-M are basically the same processor. They disabled half the cache and disabled speedstep on the P-M and renamed it Celeron-M so they could segment the market. Not much difference in CPUs.
That extra bit of cache can have a pretty big effect, actually.
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post #17 of 26
12/13/04 at 3:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lazyhound
That extra bit of cache can have a pretty big effect, actually.
The newer Celeron-M's (350 and 360) have 1MB cache. That's a pretty good cache size, and I wouldn't expect to see big improvements with cache sizes over 1MB. Here's a graph that shows how the miss rate falls with increasing cache size:

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post #18 of 26
12/13/04 at 5:23pm
Thread Starter 
Just as an FYI, I'm most likely going to get one of those holiday deals from the EPP store for the 8600.

P-M 1.4, WXGA screen
512 mb ram (will buy an extra stick from crucial)
128 mb Radeon 9600
60 gb 7200 rpm hd
24x cdrw/dvd

I decided to go with the WXGA screen because I hate large resolution displays. I would just end up lowering the resolution to 1024x768 for personal preference and for gaming. It's also 300$ cheaper than if I got a system with a P-M 1.6 Ghz.

I'll probably buy this tomorrow and I'll bump it when the purchase goes through. With discounts, the system comes to ~$1100 without shipping.

As for the keyboard problem, my cousin has an 8600 and when I used it, I thought the typing was fine.
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post #19 of 26
12/13/04 at 9:34pm
P-M ........nuff said!!!!!!!!
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post #20 of 26
12/13/04 at 11:33pm
one last thought before you buy: did you look at dell outlet? you can usually get great deals there...ive gotten both my laptops from there, and i've been very happy (not a scratch or problem with either)
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