my dell inspiron 6000 gets around 2-4 hours depending on load and screen brightness when it's not plugged in, and yeah, games work pretty well, not cranked up to high detail all the way mind you, but I think it can handle it's own. Also, the M series has a larger cache than the desktop p4, so performance is really not an issue.

pentium M 1.5 ghz
80 gb 5400 rpm drive
128 mb radeon x300 pci-e 16x
512 mb DDR400
9-cell battery

quote:

Originally posted by MaxTO Got a Toshiba M30-001 in January. So far it's been performing great. The only upgrade I did was add another 512mb of RAM for a total of 1GB. I use it for everything, including gaming. So far the only game that it ran slow for me was Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, others (ie. SWAT 4, Rise of Nations, Need for Speed:Underground etc.) ran smoothly, even on higher video settings. Also, the screen on the laptop is amazing.

doesn't really pertain to her question, but she is buying a toshiba, so oh well .. ..

got a toshiba also, and it works well also ..

but i agree with kool-aid .. i perfer the M over the p4 .. i think the M chips are cheaper than the p4 ?? .. i guess if you want to go economical, go for the M .. wasn't the p4 meant for the power desktop pcs, not for the laptop ?

yeah .. if you want to splurge an extra couple of hundred bucks, go for the centrino ..

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doesn't it have to do with the circuitry? all the p4's power would be wasted whereas the pentium-M is specifically made to harness the processor's abilities as best as possible.

quote:

Originally posted by djkoolaide um.. does anyone here read hardware benchmarks? i guess not. pentium M's can SMOKE a p4. just go to www.tomshardware.com or www.anandtech.com let me ask, if pentium M's are so much slower, than why did asus just release a socket adapter so you can use pentium M's on a standard sock 478 mobo? they really are faster.. trust me

i was about to say hehe
P4 faster tham PM? No way
1.6Ghz PM is about an equivalent of ~2.5hz P4 or so
and plus drains 4x less power (25 watts i think, even at full load)

maybe they were thinking of P4M
thats a whole different story

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Someone probably has already said this but if you aren't planning on taking your computer around many places, then a Desktop or Desktop Replacement (which many 17 inch laptops are) is a a better bet, esp if you are into some more advanced software or games or video/audio editing. If you are planning to take it around with you a lot and do more basic things like checking email, surfing the net, listening to music, writing papers, then the Centrino is better idea. It is to be noted, however, that Centrino's are more powerful than they were a year ago, and there are now Centrino's at 2.1 ghz with 533 Front side bus (which is the speed that the processor communicates with the memory in the computer) and still have 2MB of Level 2 cache, which is pretty good, considering the one I own has only 512k. Probably in a year or less...you'll see Centrino's with 800 Mhz FSB and maybe even 2.5 or 3 MB of Level 2 cache, ya never know. So Centrino's are becoming more versatile, so that they will be able to do the same things that Pentium 4's can nowadays, and even exceed them as well.

Get the AMD64 runs much cooler.. but if you must to Intel go4 the M

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quote:

Originally posted by Transporter Get the AMD64 runs much cooler.. but if you must to Intel go4 the M

Yeah the AMD 64-M is nice. I kind of regret getting a Pentium 4 in a way because I had found out a few months after I got my desktop replacement notebook, that Acer had a really nice laptop called the Ferrari 3400LMi and now they have released the 4005WLMi with the AMD Turion 64 processor. This is suppoed to rival the Centrino. If I had the money I would buy this one, but I will have to wait till next summer to get a new laptop...one that is actually portable.

M owns the 4 in battery, portablility performance, and heat output. Would be nicer if the M was avaible desktop with real chipset and features. Gr8 for gaming and everyday usuage + a quiet pc.

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