Notebook processor choice

[mubs]

Is there a significant difference between the following processors for a notebook for general average use? The buyer is verrrry price sensitive. Listed in alpha order:

Core Duo
Core Solo
Mobile Sempron
Pentium-M
Turion 64 Mobile

Thanks!

m

 

[LiamC]

Define "average"? What is it that your peep wants to do? If it's office type apps. Pick the cheapest. If it's something a little more heavyweight, then the Core Duo's look interesting.

 

[mubs]

Thanks bud. Simple Powerpoint presentations, viewing Autocad files. They'll probably buy the cheapest one since they're a small outfit.

They have a desktop with a P4-3 GHz, 512 MB ram, integrated Intel GPU, XP Pro, and the thing flies. It's a vomit box (Hp-Compcrap), but when they open an Autocad drawing it pops on the screen real fast, and rotate / zoom / pan is almost instantaneous. I don't unnerstand it.

 

[Mercutio]

The Core Solo and Core Duo are both clock-for-clock faster than the other choices, and better for battery life as well. The Duo is the most expensive choice and, being dual core, might be a little bit exotic for an "average" user. There's not much practical difference between a Turion and a Pentium M, though I believe the Turion is a cheaper chip. For "Average" use, a Sempron is probably fine, but a little bit of shopping shows me that you can find the other chips in notebooks that are pretty much just as cheap.

 

[mubs]

Thanks, Merc. When I first saw "Core Solo" listed on a model, I did a double-take, but figured it must be a single-core verison of the Core-Duo. The user is even more price sensitive than I guessed, so I've just found him choices and will let him make the decision.

Typing this on the trusty, 5 year old Stinkpad T23 (P3-1133 MHz). Still fast enough for most uses, and the new Samsung 100Gb drive and W2k are the bottlenecks leading to long boot times. It is getting long in the tooth, though.

Also, there is a problem somewhere; after a multi-hour hibernation it loses internet connectivity that is fixed only with a reboot. IBM last released a driver for W2k in 2002, and I'm already running it.

 

[Mercutio]

You might look for a power management driver or a BIOS update for your problem, mubs. Or, a quick install of Linux or XP might tell you that you have some kind of hardware fault.

 

[mubs]

Thanks, Merc. I'm using the latest BIOS (amazing that IBM/Lenovo still release new versions for a 5 year old m/c). I'll look into the power management driver.

 

[LiamC]

Just came across this.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3185

 

[Mercutio]

The BBB is pretty much worthless. Newegg.com also has an F rating from the BBB[1]. Yet it's also one of the highest-rated sites on resellerratings.com.

[1] As I recall, Newegg.com failed to respond to something like 5 or 10 different BBB inqueries, which qualifies it only for the lowest possible BBB rating, no matter that it's a company with $5 Billion in annual sales and thousands of daily customers...

 

[Stereodude]

The BBB is pretty much worthless. Newegg.com also has an F rating from the BBB[1]. Yet it's also one of the highest-rated sites on resellerratings.com.

I agree 100% on the BBB. If you have a problem with Best Buy, for example, and complain to the BBB, they will contact Best Buy for a response, who also by the way helps support the BBB (as all their members do). Best Buy tells the BBB that, "We've since come to a satisfactory resolution with this customer". The BBB takes their word for it, and closes the complaint and Best Buy gets another gold star in their BBB rating. Meanwhile the person who made the complaint against Best Buy gets offered a $10 coupon or some token insult and gets no resolution to their complaint.

 

[mubs]

I have a situation against a business that I need to complain about. What do you folks suggest? They're not a retailer (a mover/shipper) so Reseller Ratings won't help much though I plan to crap on them there.

 

[Splash]

Is there a significant difference between the following processors for a notebook for general average use? The buyer is verrrry price sensitive. Listed in alpha order:

Core Duo
Core Solo
Mobile Sempron
Pentium-M
Turion 64 Mobile

Core Solo is the best overall mobile processor, only because Core Duo isn't going to give you much for the cost difference.

Power consumption on all the Core Solos is incredibly good -- especially the ultra-low-voltage models -- and the performance is better than you might think.

By no later than October of 2007, excellent dirt cheap Core Solo notebook computers will be common. A mid-range Core Solo notebook with a 120 GB SATA hard drive using perpendicular recording technology, DVD+-R/W, 1 GB of DDR2, 16- or 17-inch LCD, and a big battery for 6~7 (or more) hour operation will be the ideal base model system.


Core Duo "Yonah" (32-bit dual-core mobile)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
T2700 2.33 667 31 2MB
T2600 2.16 667 31 2MB
T2500 2.00 667 31 2MB
T2400 1.83 667 31 2MB
T2300 1.66 667 31 2MB
L2400 1.66 667 15 2MB
L2300 1.50 667 15 2MB
U2500 1.20 533 9 2MB


Core Solo "Yonah" (32-bit single-core mobile)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
T1400 1.83 667 27 2MB
T1300 1.66 667 27 2MB
U1400 1.20 533 5 2MB
U1300 1.06 533 5 2MB


The mobile Core2 (64-bit Solo and Duo variants) called "Merom" won't be available for several more weeks. Core"1" processors use a bit less power than Core2, but Core2 is plenty faster.

 

[ddrueding]

I just ordered a Dell for the current GF:

Core 2 Duo @ 2Ghz
2GB RAM
80GB HDD
DVD Burner
15" Screen

I think she'll be happy with it; she needs more that a Treo has to offer. (AutoCAD)

 

[Mercutio]

What brand and how much did you pay?

I'm excited. One of my customers is ditching their Toshiba POS notebooks for T60s. I'm hoping I can get them to hold off long enough to deliver something with a Merom chip.

 

[ddrueding]

Dell. I think it was around $1300 including shipping and CA Tax. There were over $500 in price breaks.

 

[Pradeep]

Are you sure it's a Core 2 Duo, and not a Core Duo? I don't see any Core 2 Duo lappies for sale at Dell right now.

 

[LOST6200]

Core 2 dugo? That seens to be an oyxgzmoron.

 

[Pradeep]

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808&p=1

Core 2 Duo vs Core Duo performance comparison. Looks like 10-20% improvement in many multimedia apps, unfortunately maximum performance is crippled by use of a 667MHz bus.