Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mowie]

I am looking for a laptop here in Korea. Unfortunately, my knowledge is very limited. I came across one that was a P4 Celeron. Maybe it is a stupid question, but aren't those completely different?

My understanding is the celeron is a bad choice.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks

[kprrok]

The P4 Celeron label must be a mistake. Or they just offer the model with both processors and that's cool. The different processors are Pentium (I, II, III, 4), Pentium -M, Celeron, and Centrino from Intel. AMD has the Athlon XP and 64 (not sure if they do Duron in their laptops, but I think not).

For the Intel chips, The Celeron is a good chip if you want price only. It'll work fairly well for most non-speed-intensive applications like the net or word processing. If you want to do DVD-watching, video editing, or higher games, you should probably avoid the Celeron.

The P4 is a good chip, but not designed for laptops. They tend to eat up the batteries pretty quickly, but you can get a lot of speed out of them. You can get up to 3.0 GHz P4 chips in laptops (maybe more). You can do just about anything you want if you get a P4 chip, and do it all well.

The P4-M is a, so far as I understand, P4 chip slightly modified for laptop ussage. Same basic performace as the P4.

The Centrino is Intel's specially-designed laptop chip and you can get them up to about 1.8 GHz. While slower than the P4s, they are designed to use less battery power and with less cooling. Maybe more, but those are two key things when you're using a laptop.

AMD makes the Athlon-XP up to at least 3600 (about 2.4 GHz if I recall correctly). These are good chips for video editing from what I hear. My friend has the XP-3000 and loves it. Mainly, about the same as the P4 in performace.

The AMD 64 is a new chip, and I know nothing about it. I don't even know if it comes in laptops yet, but it is fairly expensive from what I see.

The Duron is an older chip and is comparable to the Celeron.

For comparison, back in the states I had a Celeron 2.0 GHz with 256 RAM and here I have a Centrino 1.4 GHz with 256 RAM. My laptop here goes for about 3 hours, and back home I was lucky to get 1h 45m out of the battery. Of course, you can always get a better battery, but that's just more weight to carry around.

Also, check this thread here for a good discussion: http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=26217

KPRROK

[Demophobe]

The celeron and the P4 have much in common...so much so, that the monicker "P4 celeron" is apt.

The celeron is the weaker brother of the P4. It's weak points only show up in certain applications and gaming, so it's actually not a bad laptor solution.

The "P4M" and "M" are not the same processors at all.

http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/processors/pentiumm/index.htm?iid=ipp_mobiletech+pmp&

http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/processors/pentium4-m/index.htm?iid=sr+4&

All of the "mobile" processors in laptops, until now, have been scaled down versions of their desktop counterparts, starting with Intel and spreading to AMD. The Pentium-M is the first kind to be built specifically for the mobile laptop user and was designed from the ground up.
The Centrino is a package of a Pentium-M processor, the Intel 855 chipset, and Intel's integrated wireless a/b solution. The Pentium-M is kind of like an Athlon in that it is more efficient than a Pentium4-M while drawing less power; it will still offer similar if not identical performance. The Pentium-M is also lighter and cooler. In most tests, the Pentium-M almost outran the Pentium4-M.

However, the main advantage of the Pentium-M to the Pentium4-M is the battery life. You will get an average of 4-5 hours on a P-M and only 2.5-3 hours on a P4-M.

For DVD and high multimedia use, you should plug into an outlet IMHO. The Centrino setup is not one geared for DVD viewing and heavy multimedia use. Power draws will be heavy on either processor with a Centrino lasting a little longer than a P4 but not much while watching movies. However, average battery time is about 1.5 - 2 times longer on a Centrino to P4-M.

The AMD 64 is indeed in notebooks, but why I'm not sure. It's only reasonable function is as a desktop replaement, but hardly for mobility...it's a power pig.

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

wow, this thread is pretty informative. I think I'm going to buy a Centrino laptop.

[T-dot]

i did and love it. great for layovers at airports.

[T-dot]

celeron isn't a bad choice. its a cheaper one. good for basic internet use.