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I just got accepted for a student loan so I'm going to invest in a new laptop. I've decided on getting a Dell and I want to spend around $1700-1800 CAD.

It's confusing though because a laptop that uses hyper-threading and is 3.06GHz

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_notebook2?c=ca&cs=CADHS1&l=en&s=dhs

is $100 *cheaper* that 1.6GHz one with similar specs:

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_notebook6?c=ca&cs=CADHS1&l=en&s=dhs

This doesn't make sense, does it? I would like to know if the HT technology really isn't all it's made out to be?

It's been about 5 years since I've built a computer so I don't know jack about processors

I'm guessing you're talking about one of those Centrino 1.6 GHz processors. Those are relatively new, and if I'm correct, meant to be somewhat fast with low batery consumption, thus more expensive technology. Hence the increased price.

The P4, on the other hand, is an energy sucking vampire of battery death and would make quick work of your battery.

So take your pick, long battery life, or cheap and powerful with a two hour battery.

Yeah, Centrino's have a very low battery usage but aren't as fast as P4s.

Hmm.... thanks for the info! So if I spent the difference and bought an extra long-life battery, do you think it would be worth getting the P4?

I guess you need to know what I'll be using it for:

Not gaming (well here and there, but not major)
Mostly programming in C++, C#, Python, and Java (all required for this semester in school). So I will be doing lots of compiling, and many of us know how long it can take to run a heavy Java IDE like Eclipse

EDIT: Oops, didn't notice the URLs were the same. I updated it.

EDIT: Actually I just noticed that the cheaper one is NOT a Centrino CPU.

Well, if you're going to take it to class and stuff and need the battery life then get the Centrino but if you're going to use it at home or places where there's outlets get the P4.

Currently Intel offer 3 Processors for the Laptop / Notebook markets..

Pentium 4 (5xx)
Pentium Mobile (7xx)
Centrino

What exactly is the benifit of each of the processor types?

5xx Pentiums are quite literally laptop lower-heat versions of your desktop Processors. You're looking at around 75w of power, which generally means when combined with Graphics Processors such-as Radeon 9Series, GeForce FX / 6Series... well your laptop ends up having the battery-span of half of ten minutes
Well heh probably more around 3hrs but still it is very limiting.

7xx Pentiums are the equivilant of Celeron's for the Laptop world, they run on alot less power, alot cooler, with less Cache. Problem is they're also just as frigging slow as Celerons. You're looking at around 15w power consumption though, which means they do give you around a good 9-10hrs battery life. Quite nice

Centrino, heh the Intel processor that breaks the mold. When you look at these 100% ignore the speed.. why? well for the same reason your ignore the real speed on an AMD Processor.
These processors not only run fanless, but they run low-power (even lower than Pentium-M) and they are quick as hell...

A 1.6GHz Centrino is roughly around 2500+, while keeping a nice 6w power consumption that can go as low as 4w. It has alot of tips and tricks the Pentiums. They are the most expensive of the bunch but well worth the extra cash... well unless you get an Athlon64-M heh

just a shame Alienware only seem to do P4HT and P-M

Processors and the Benchmarks

Raven - Thanks for the useful info. So for a programmer guy who doesn't mind having 3-4 hours battery life, would you recommend the P4 3.06GHz?

I'd go for the P4, your looking for power, and your gonna need it. The centrinos are aimed towards the "Business man" who's on the run, not always having time to charge up the battery, being on the road everyday. And for that use, it's nice.

But for our uses, its not worth it.

In your dreams. Point out a P4 with that much battery life and I'll point to one thats either off, or has a small nuclear power station on the side. The Alienware P4s will be luckily to get an hour just doing windows stuff (not browsing with wireless!), and a Rockdirect gets about 45 mins. Nice. And if you for a P4 then if it's a performance laptop then invest in extra fans coming out of your ears plus some weights lifting equipment to enable you to pump yourself up to be able to carry it around. If you like Alienware laptops then chuck them in the bin, and get a Rockdirect instead (or an AGP). Voodoo or PC Torque are pretty good too (there are more, but I dropped out of the scene after getting my laptop, and have a bad memory). Alienware laptops are basically too slow and too pricey. The Area 51, for example was always a *little* slower than the Rockdirect version, and was normally one to hundred quid more. Does have nice BIOS controlled eyes on the front though Alienware desktops are a different story.

When it comes to power, then it depends what you want with Centrinos. When I bought mine, I liked that it was smaller than a small house, didn't get too hot, pretty much kept up with game benchmarks compared with the equivelent P4 (times the Mhz by 1.5 apparently - although think the Dothans slightly changed things - but my 2Ghz Dothan should be approx the same as a P4 3Ghz), and tend to look better. Some things are better than others. Just google it. But basically when the compared my 2Ghz Centrino with a few 3Ghz P4s with the same graphics card (ATI 9600 pro turbo 128mb) mine was in the middle somewhere with games benchmarking (including 3DMark200x), was slightly better at some things (office type stuff was better), and slightly worse at others. For example on the laptop forums someone posted SuperPI test results for 1 million decimal places. Nothing was as fast as my laptop (40 secs), even 3.4Ghz P4s (between 45-55 normally), apart from *one* AMD64 that did it in 39 seconds. Overall a Centrino should be fine power wise, and be a lot better size wise. Main downside is that since I got mine the graphics have come on a bit, to the point where they really only go inside P4s. The mobile X800 for example will get you, apparently, slightly better results than a 9800Pro (not the same as a desktop X800 though, think it's a cutdown version if I remember rightly). Pretty bloody good for a laptop basically. But you won't be getting it on a Centrino for a while (mainly heat problems).

AMD64 laptops are sort of inbetween. I almost went for one of these, as you can't deny the speed for the price, plus the laptops tend to be leaner than P4s (although not Centrinos in general). You also get inbetween battery life. Sort of 2-3 hours for a performance AMD64 compared to about 0.75-1.5 for a P4, and about 3-5 for a Centrino.

Look at http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/Forums/Default.aspx or http://notebookforums.com/ And ignore the Alienware fanboys (Alienware is best. Not listening! Hands on ears! Alienware is best!) on the 2nd forum and the Anti-Dell (So you got £900 off a brand new PC, nothings gone wrong, and it has better benchmarks than all the PC's in the world put together? Sounds great! Dell? Argle, sounds rubbish!!!!!! NOOOO!!! (Even though I've never ever bought anything from them)) fanatics on the 1st forum. Hot air basically.

Mine has a fan. Just doesn't use it *all* the time. Start Doom 3 and you will hear it. Even my friends non-performance 1.4 Centrino has a fan. Now you hardly ever hear it, and it runs really cool, but it comes on now and again.

Cheers

Heh, depends what battery you get with it on how long you have Dazzag.
Both my Alienware P4-530, and Aries AMD64 3000+ both get around 3-4hrs battery time. The Alienware one gets around 1.5hr when playing games cause it has a 6800Go, but apart from that for general use it's alright, most of the time I have it plugged into the wall unless I feel like working outside... have an extended battery I bought for it that lasts 7hrs, from Sony iirc; was quite impressed with it cause it helps make flights shorter getting to play Unreal2 and such on the plane heh

It does really depend on what your going to do and willing to spend really. AMD64-M are the best of power consumption and speed, but rare; P4-HT are pretty powerful, but about as much battery life as a PSP ... Centrino are most expensive (and oddly only sold through selective retailers) but definately the best for power:battery.

As a coder, I'd strongly suggest the Centrino; as a gamer I'd suggest the AMD64-M. This said provided you have a good gpu your alright, but then the better the GPU the much shorter the battery lasts.

I'd be very suprised anything non-Centrino can last 7 hours on battery. Even if it was just sitting there doing nothing but showing an empty desktop. Unless you have a battery the size of the laptop itself, such as one of those extender efforts that basically have like multiple batteries in them. And are basically the size of a laptop. Never heard of anything capable without one of these, and those forums are constantly reviewing those sort of things.

Cheers

My P4 2 GHz laptop can stay on for about 6 hours but my friends AMD64 laptop gets 3 at best.

Alright, thanks for all the hardware info--- but I looked on forums and most of them say Centrino is slower when it comes to multitasking and other CPU intensive issues. I've sent away for a Dell--- they tacked on a 3-Year on-site accidental damage warranty to boot

My old man gets about a movie and a good 2 hours of AoE2. His is the 2.8 (non mobility)... standard battery from dell also :/

Sounds more like 'over-exageration' on these people who are 'reviewing' the batteries and such. The CPU itself generally doesn't eat all of the battery power, it's the GPU, HDD, CD-ROM, LCD, etc...

In-fact the biggest hog is the LCD. Followed by the DVD-ROM and then Hard Disk. While the CPU/GPU do both take alot more power the quicker and less optimised they are for mobile uses, fact remains that when your CPU is taking 15w and your GPU is taking 10w and your 18" LCD is taking 115w ... it's not hard to see where all the power is going. Windows XP has a handy monitor for the power useage of a PSU when installed on Notebooks

By swapping the parts you can you can generally ignore the Processor, but as I've said above the P4-HT are quite power hungry at desktop rates of 50-80w, which can really cut down battery time.

What makes it worse is Pentiums always run at the exact same speed and consume the same power no matter what your doing. Cetrino & AMD (with PowerNow) are capable of conserving energy quite nicely... Everything else though making sure it only uses what it needs to is paramount, particularly the Screen. 15" Screens should run for a good 3x longer than 17/17w" counterparts.

mine is a Compaq X1000 40gb hard-drive, Radeon 9800 mobility edition,18" screen*lcd*, and a P4. My battery life runs 2hrs playing a game like unreal2, and about 4hrs doing nothing.