Hi

I have a tecra 9100 - 1.7, 512mb ram, bought about 2 years ago. I have been looking for a replacement like a Toshiba M2 or a Sony 505. Which is also 1.7 but now a centrium M rather than a Pentium 4 as my tecra was back then. Intel really love to confuse us all! ;-) However the clock speeds don;t seemed to have moved. Am i going to see a big speed difference between what I have now or getting a new pentium. Has anyone got any information on what sysmark etc I would get on my current laptop, my desktop (p4 3.2 etc - eg top of the range custom built) and getting my new laptop ? Trying to work out if spending $3000 is worth it or not.

Paul

Ok, firstly, there are faster Pentium-Ms out at the moment, based on the Dothan core (i.e. up to 2GHz).

Secondly, this has been quite widely discussed, so I will summarize. The 1.7GHz Pentium-M would perform about as well as a 2.8GHz Pentium 4. But if you get the 2GHz Dothan, it will perform above a 3GHz, and close on the 3.2GHz P4. If you want benchmarks etc in comparing a 1.6GHz P-M to a 2.8GHz P4 (400MHz), refer to this <A HREF="http://rcsraven.0catch.com/P4PMBench.xls" target="_new">spreadsheet</A>

The other notable difference, is that a P-M 1.7GHz will give you a lot more battery life than a P4-m 1.7GHz (I know from experience), while still giving you twice the processing power.

If I may say, for $3000 you can get a hell of a notebook:
Inspiron 8600:
Intel P-M 755 (2GHz)
15.4" WSXGA+ LCD Panel
1GB RAM
128MB Mobility Radeon 9600 TURBO
8x DVD Burner
60GB, 7200rpm HDD
etc.

$2700

Regards,

Paul (RaPTuRe)

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

Hi

Thanks for the great reply! ... so in essence a Centrum Pentium 4-M 1.8ghz as in the Toshiba Tecra M2 will be a LOT faster than my current P4-Toshiba Tecra 9100 a 1.7ghz CPU.

I have looked at the Dell however what I am looking for is the most powerful machine for the smallest weight!. My current Tecra 9100 laptop is 4.39lb and I don;t want to go above that. Ideally I really want the new Sony X505! ;-) But it will be a long time before something that size will have some real power. I use a laptop for normal email etc - but also for developing using Visual Studio.NET, running sqlserver, IIS 6.0 - so need something that can handle that + DVD/CDR for watching on a plane + backup up. Wireless is also critical. I don’t mind if the battery does not last - plan on getting a 12cell upgrade for the M2 (for longer trips away from power) + the faster 7200rpm harddisk which I know eats bats! ;-(

So my conclusion at the moment is the Toshiba M2 as the best of that breed with weight, power, features etc ...

Money was never really an issue – more the fact of finding what I want! Give it another few years and the weight / power will be perfect! ;-)

What’s your thoughts ?

hehe, give it another couple of years, and the weight/power might be perfect - but then there will be something better that you want - Being human, we can never be satisfied.

With the 7200rpm HDD, it actually doesn't use a noticable amount more power than the 5400 and 4200rpm drives -And, as I've said many times before, only settle for a 7200rpm drive - it is worth every cent.

Well, I've just had a look at a couple of notebooks, and the Tecra M2 is very nice, but check out other designs and manufacturers - like the Dell Latitude D600 or D400 - and similar models from Compaq/HP, Sony etc.

Post back with specifications - and we'll give you pros & cons.


Regards,
RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

"Centrum Pentium 4-M 1.8ghz"
Argh! I just have to correct this. First of all, I think you mean "Centrino" and not "Centrum" - which is a package, and not a cpu. This package does NOT include any P4 cpu, it includes the pentium-m cpu (with the banias or dothan core), the intel 855 chipset, and an intel wireless nic. So what you should look for, is a computer with a pentium-m cpu - preferably the dothan kind, because these give you more processing power, while consuming slightly less energy. The pentium-m will perform (on average), like a P4 that is clocked 1.5 times higher (Dothans a bit higher than that). So a 1.7 GHz banias ~ 2.55 GHz P4.

Now to answer your post.. I would NOT spend that kind of money on a Dell notebook. I've been browsing notebook forums since last September, and take it from me, Dell has not got the best of reputations - but they are often the best way to go, when the buyer's funds are limited, because they do give you a good set of hardware for the price.

With the kind of budget you got, look closely at the IBM ThinkPad T42P. IBM makes the best notebooks in the business (in a recent anandtech poll, IBM won with 52 votes, Apple coming in as a distant second with 10 votes or so!), and the T42P is their top model - it starts at 4.9 lbs with the 14.1" screen, is about one inch thick, and you won't have to compromise with performance, because it comes loaded with top hardware - for instance the 7200rpm hitachi hard drive, the ati firegl t2 video card, which is great for demanding 3d/graphics applications, gigabit lan, an ultraslim dvd-burner, the best keyboard you'll ever see in a notebook, and more. Just check out the reviews on the T-series, and you'll soon be persuaded

No way. Sorry, it does a bit better than that. A 1.6GHz can compare favourable with a 2.66GHz P4.

I agree about the IBM, Slim, sturdy, light-weight, the best in the business. That being said, Toshiba's build quality is extremely good too.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

From where did you derive that number? It's true that it might perform like that in a few applications, but certainly not on average.
Anandtech once did an extensive test on the centrino "technology" - I took out my calculator, and calculated the average speed average of the pentium-m in all of the tests, in terms of the number of times the p-m was faster than a similarly clocked P4. In the end, I added all my results together, and divided by the total number of results, and it came out to 1.46 - so to figure out the P4 equivalent of a P-M, you just multiply by 1.46, and not with 1.66 as you are suggesting.
I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight, before I posted it here, so I did the same thing again. This time with a pentium-m review by tech-report:
<A HREF="http://tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/pentiumm-1.4ghz/index.x?pg=1" target="_new">Tech-Report: Intels Pentium-M 1.4 - More cache, less power</A>

I skipped the benchmarks in which the P4 held an advantage due to it's slightly better video card solution (32mb extra vram and newer drivers). A total of 16 different benchmark results went into the calculation, and it came out to 1.47055, or roughly: 1.5.

Real world testing. I've compared my 1.6GHz Latitude (which performs a little worse, on average than most 1.6GHz Pentium-M's), against a Compaq Nx9010 (2.8GHz P4 (400MHz FSB)), as well as against a 2.8GHz Eurocom (533MHz FSB). In the spread sheet, I only included CPU tests (and in some cases memory tests).

I'm not saying Anand is wrong, but I've done pretty extensive benchmarks comparing even up against a 3.2GHz P4 notebook. Unfortunately I have yet to get my hands on a 1.7GHz Banias or any of the Dothan cores.

Performance can't always be measured in ratios, I mean even the difference between the performance of a 1.6GHz I8600 and that of a 1.6GHz D800 is quite measurable. Having used a multitude of different notebooks, I can tell you that a 1.6 P-M compares very favourable to a 2.66 P4. Well I'm convinced at any rate. Check my results for yourself...

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?