Hello all,

I have an interesting dilema. My Packard Bell - P4 2.4GHz laptop was stolen a little while ago... finally the insurance company has descided to pay out.

The problem is that they want o give me a Toshiba M70 - Centrino Pentium-M 2GHz.

I have looked around and it seems that the only benefit to having a Centrino Pentium M is portability... which I don't need. I will be using the laptop for graphics, and the laptop will rarely be away from a power socket.

In which case, really the older P4 2.4Ghz is actualy better isn't it. I don't care if it gets hot, I need raw power. I understand that the centrinos perfom better at the mundane (word processing, spreadsheets etc) but I have a funny feeling that they won't perform so well when trying to run heavy graphics???

Do you know of a comparison that doesn't take biast benchmarks from Intel, or know or a review that doesn't just go on about mobility? I'd like an independant benchmark that looks at sustained raw processing power.

Can anyone confirm my thoughts or shed any light on the subject.

Thanks in advance - Alex

Well centrino itself is a platform. For something to be centrino branded it has to have an Intel approved CPU, motherboard and wireless combo. Now that means either a Pentium M or Core Duo which in my experience the Pentium M will out perform quite a few P4's. What your really going to worry about is the graphics, if your rendering graphics like you say, the onboard graphics on a Centrino branded notebook might not cut it... Long story short, no I dont have any benchmarks, rather just compare the two specific CPU's if you'd like, but again graphics, graphics, graphics!

My two cents

When you mention raw power , you mean program processing (as photo editing , music player and office use ) or rendering power (as for gaming and for dvd edition )? You former P4 have a better video card on installed . Some centrinos notebooks also have that , so it is better to check if the model they are offering to you have it or not (most centrinos from toshiba have only intel graphics) . If you get a core duo Centrino, you will have better program processing power , but honestly program processing power in centrino Pentium M cpu are not bad at all , but without any better VGA , video performance will suck... I had a toshiba P4 3.0 with 128 MB Gforce Nvidia , I have never had problem on games and on dvd edition. Now I got one M45 centrino from Toshiba due portability , but now I can only use the pc for working and not for gaming or dvd editing ... so if you can get one with video (from ATI or Nvidia) your system will be very close to your previous P4 , if you can get centrino duo core with video...well you will get a good upgrade ....

When you mention raw power , you mean program processing (as photo editing , music player and office use ) or rendering power (as for gaming and for dvd edition )? You former P4 have a better video card on installed . Some centrinos notebooks also have that , so it is better to check if the model they are offering to you have it or not (most centrinos from toshiba have only intel graphics) . If you get a core duo Centrino, you will have better program processing power , but honestly program processing power in centrino Pentium M cpu are not bad at all , but without any better VGA , video performance will suck... I had a toshiba P4 3.0 with 128 MB Gforce Nvidia , I have never had problem on games and on dvd edition. Now I got one M45 centrino from Toshiba due portability , but now I can only use the pc for working and not for gaming or dvd editing ... so if you can get one with video (from ATI or Nvidia) your system will be very close to your previous P4 , if you can get centrino duo core with video...well you will get a good upgrade ....

i believe the pentium m's which are 2ghz or better outperform a 3ghz or better p4 in every way. the only thing they don't have AFAIK is hyper threading. they are a dying breed p4's and should be avoided like a plague. in saying that i have a year or so old dell inspiron 9100 which had a p4 and it is a good little comp.

post the full specs of the toshiba and we'll tell you how it should perform.

What he said. Intel produces its own graphics chip and there is a large variance on what an Intel graphics chip can do. Newer ones are ok but the older ones are crap. Now, if its going to be a Centrino with an ATI or Nvidia dedicated card you'll be in better shape

Hello and thanks to all who replied...

Ok so it seems that for most of you the answer is invariably; take the centrino but try and get better graphics...

But that leaves me with another question... shouldn't I really get a Duo rather than a standard centrino which appears to be last years news? I have the option to upgrade... seems like a good time to do it...

I think I already know the answer though!

Thanks again - Alex

get centrino duo... performance diference is really big...and will be good enough for some years... even with conroe mobile family...centrino duo will be enough for notebook performance...

Centrino is a Pentium.

centrino is pentium M , Pentium M do not have HT as Notebooks with Pentium 4 ... so performance is not the same , at all ...

Perhaps you could post the complete specs for your old system and the system they are offering you. This will make it easier for others to provide a clear and comprehensive opinion.

I learned the hard way that the complete package is much more important. I have a mobile P4 3.06GHz w HT. Powerful processor? Yes. But the rest of the system is too much of a bottleneck for me to enjoy it.

The original Packard Bell had:

Model - Ipower 5400 series
Processor - P4 2.4 GHz
RAM - 768 Gb DDR
Hard Drive - 40 GB
Graphics Card - NVidia GeForce4 Go 420 32M

and The Toshiba:

Model - M70
Processor - Centrino Pentium Mobile 2.0 GHz
RAM - 768DDR
Hard Drive - 80GB
Graphics - 128 MB ATI x600 graphics

The packard Bell was the best Laptop I have ever come across (once it had a clean XP Pro installed). Never crashed, never lacking.

All Centrinos that I have use (three of them) have all been slow and unstable. But they had the manufactorers hacked XP home.

Thanks again to all who have posted... I appreciate it!

Alex

your previous system had vga power for your needs, so the new one is good enough to surpass the old model . I have been using toshiba for long time and their notebooks are stable and reliable, no matter xp pro or home . If you can get centrino duo , you will get an exceptional deal , but for you previous notebook, your insurance company is getting you a better system , so you probably should be a very good customer as you could get for the same price as your system ...a worse system config...

That's a very nice system that they want to give you. As chen said, if you can get core duo then all the better. Otherwise, those specs are rather sweet considering what you used to have.

Centrino is a "platform" something can only be centrino (or viiv for that matter) if it has an approved CPU AND MOBO AND WLAN chip so just because something has a p3-5 in it, doesnt mean it meets centrino "standards"

ok... what you meant was PM versus P4

but that doesn't matter.

The new one they are offering you is a sweet deal and way more powerful than the one you had. Faster, and yet takes less power and makes less heat. Core Duo would be better, so see if you can get that, but the deal you got there is great.

That sure is a lot of RAM.

I grabbed an early Pentium M 1.6Ghz (Acer laptop, sweet machine until I dropped it, screen went bad ), apparently it was about as fast as a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4. That should tell you that a 2Ghz Pentium M is definitely faster.

Another thing to consider, a fair amount of laptop gaming vendors used the P-M 2Ghz cpu for their high-end gaming laptops, where not just a cpu but graphics count. (The better graphics card is a SERIOUS bonus.)

I'd take the new laptop and run before they change their mind and give you a piece of garbage!

PDH-NicFury 8)

That sure is a lot of RAM.

lol... it's a typo, man

centrino = pentium-M = conroe = intel's future architecture > P4