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Processor's

meinzorn

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2003
Messages
1,327
I'm browsing the dell website for notebooks, thinking about getting one. I'll admit that I know NOTHING about penitium processors, I've always been an AMD kinda person.. but it's hard to come about notebooks with AMD processors. anyways, my main question is what is the difference between a "Pentium M" "Pentium 4" and "Pentium Celeron M" processor. I'm guessing the M is mobile.. but what are the biggest differences between them all.
 
The M in Pentium M and Celeron M don't stand for mobile, at least I haven't heard it called anything besides the Pentium M.

Anyway, the Pentium M is a modified Pentium 3, with features like lower power consumption, and improved cache size (older ones have 1 MB, the Dothan has 2 MB). They have a 10 stage pipeline (similar to Athlon XP chips) and I think all of them still have a 400 Mhz FSB (future ones will have 533 and faster), and a 1.6 Ghz Pentium M is probably the equivalent of a 2.2 - 2.4 gigahertz Pentium 4.

The Pentium 4 is based on Netburst architecture, and has at least a 20 stage pipeline (20 or 31, depending on the core of the chip). They have 512 KB to 1 MB cache, but since they are desktop chips, tend to be more power hungry. However, there is a Pentium 4 M (this M is Mobile) that should not be confused with the Pentium M. The P4 M is the mobile chip with power saving features that make it more suitable for laptop use.

The Celeron M is a celeron with the Pentium M core, so I'm assuming they cut the cache size (which hampers performance). Not much to say about it, since they're a newer processor.

I'd choose a Pentium M for laptops.

And it's no surprise you can't find an AMD notebook, Dell doesn't sell them. Neither does IBM I think. Emachines have some nice Athlon 64 ones; HP/Compaq and Gateway too, and others.
 
Ok here is the scoop on mobile processors.

The Pentium 4 M is a low voltage Pentium 4, nothing else really special about it. They tend to not be stellar performers because they are held back by the rest of the system. (P4's are very dependent on the rest of the system for good performance) The only advantage over the Pentium M here is that SOME (not all) support Hyperthreading, and this can help in situations where you will be running multiple programs at once.

The Pentium M is a totally different processor, that evolved from the Pentium 3. It has stellar performance when it comes to IPC, in fact clock for clock it is even faster than Athlon 64's and Opterons. The fastest one out there right now is the 2.1GHZ 2MB cache Dothan based one. (the Banias is the older 1MB version, you want a Dothan)

The Celeron M is a Pentium M with half it's cache chopped off (and in so doing the cache is half as assosiative so the cache not as good as a half cache Pentium M would be if it were built that way from the start) It is not a bad processor, but you would be better off getting one of the above ones.

The Mobile Celeron is a low voltage desktop Celeron. Avoid this beast at all costs, this is a cheap pile of poo at best.

==>Lazn
 
The way I understood it, you have to ask yourself how you will use your laptop. The two choices being plugged into a power sourse or off the battery. The p-4s are designed to run while being plugged in. The M's, or Centrino's are designed to run off the battery.
 
ok, cool, this has been a lot of help. definatly explains a lot of what I was looking at. I was checking out HP though, and they have some good deals on the AMD 64's.. so I might look into getting one of those.. all depends :) thank you :)
 
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