Pentium-M and Centrino, are you all excited?

[CougTek]

I'm sure everyone here has heard about the new CPU/platform from Intel for the mobile market. I missed it on the front page due to a relatively charged schedule, but I think it still deserrves at least a thread in the forum. There have been several reviews about the Pentium-M on the Web, most notably those at Anandtech.

So, if you would be about to buy a laptop, would you wait for Centrino (Pentium-M +i855 chipset IIRC) to arrive or would you nevermind and go for the hottest deal you can currently find?

I'll state my personnal opinion later when some will have added some meat to this thread. I'm pretty sure many people here follow the developments of mobile computing closely, so I'm not too worry about your interest in this topic.

 

[blakerwry]

I think the laptops based on the Centrino system are simply amazing...

I think that SFF and fanless computers could benefit a great deal fomr the use of one of these Pentium M CPU's as well.

Intel is clearly ahead of *everyone* with this product

 

[Tea]

Who?

 

[Mercutio]

Centrino falls into the "it'd be nice, but..." category for me. Wireless + low power + reasonably fast ultraportables are undoubtedly good things, but I'd rather someone make a laptop drive that's as fast as a desktop's. That's a more interesting product.

 

[Bozo]

Don't like laptops. Too expensive; can't be upgraded; can't be tweaked; making anykind of repair is a pain.

SOOOO....Could care less about laptops. :roll:

Bozo

 

[Mercutio]

Spoken like someone who has never upgraded the CPU in his Latitude.

 

[LunarMist]

Who?

I think the Centrino is a kind of subatomic particle.

Mercutio:

I too would like to see a 2.5-inch 7200 RPM drive someday.

 

[Bozo]

Spoken like someone who has never upgraded the CPU in his Latitude.

Wouldn't own a Dell either. Just repairing and maintaining the ones we have at work make my hemeroids twitch :mrgrn:

Bozo

 

[Mercutio]

My Dell is OK. It'd probably moan about it quite a bit if I'd had to pay more than $200 for it, though.

Are P4/2.4s all supposed to be slugs? Or is it just mine?

 

[Pradeep]

No the P4-M 1.6 GHz is a true slug. I can only dream of what a 2.4 would be like. I would upgrade the CPU in my i8200 myself, but might as well wait for the 8500's with WUXGA to come down in price

Looks like the P-Mobile is simply a hotted up P3-M, hardly the "built from the groun-up" bullcrap that Intel have been spouting.

And on a happier note, Buffy Season 6 on DVD will be released on the 12th May in UK and 14th May in Aus

 

[Tea]

I didn't realise it waz actually a modified Pentium III till I read a little about it just now. That changes everything. Much more interesting. I cancelled the Thinkpad I had on order.

 

[Will Rickards WT]

I'm excited about the centrino.
My work laptop is old (Pentium II 266) and very much needs to be replaced. I'm holding off on asking for a new one till I think the company will spring for a centrino based one from dell.

The power savings and speed are impressive.
I think it is the best processor intel has released in a few years.

 

[CougTek]

I cancelled the Thinkpad I had on order.

On the contrary, order a Thinkpad! The T40 and especially the T40p, although quite pricey, are probably so far the best implementation of Centrino yet. Light (unlike the 7lbs Latitude), very optimized (topped the Delll in almost every benchmarks - excluding gaming) and with a superior battery life that can be made even more impressive if you buy the optional high capacity Li-Ion Battery, with which you can get up to 6 hours of time without recharging.

Sure, the T40 doesn't offer a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 grpahic card, but the Radeon 9000 is more than enough for a laptop IMO. And the SXGA+ 14" display is supposed to be very good, with a high contrast and wide viewing angles. Perhaps not as impressive as a WUXGA 15.4", but certainly sufficient for normal tasks people do (like, working) on their laptops.

The only little problem is that it cost roughly 2800U$ for the 1.6GHz Pentium-M model with the Radeon 9000. Add another 200U$ for the high capacity battery.

 

[Tea]

Ahh we actually agree, Coug.

I ordered a run-out special Thinkpad because it had a Celeron 1200 in it - i.e., my last chance to get a notebook without getting a power-sucking Pentium IV derivitive in it.

OK, for me performance is not really an issue in a laptop—it's only going to be for when I want to sit outside and surf Ztorage Forum via a long network cable— and power consumption doesn't matter too much either, I can just run it off the mains. But just the same, I didn't want a P4 or (worse) a castrated P4 derivitive like a Celeron 1800. (If I want to go fast, a Celeron 1200 is faster than the 1800 and I have the Athlon with the X15; I upgraded the 1900 to a 2400 yesterday because I had to pull the fan off to clean it and it zeemed like a good idea at the time.)

Anyway, they were cheap zo on impulse I ordered a Celeron 1200-based Thinkpad. But now I've cancelled it and I'll wait about six months till I can get an entry-level one with the dressed up P-III core instead. Maybe 2000MHz or zo. Anyway, it's going to be too cold to sit outzide zoon. I'll have to wait till November anyway.

 

[Fushigi]

OK, for me performance is not really an issue in a laptop—it's only going to be for when I want to sit outside and surf Ztorage Forum via a long network cable— and power consumption doesn't matter too much either, I can just run it off the mains. But just the same, I didn't want a P4 or (worse) a castrated P4 derivitive like a Celeron 1800. (If I want to go fast, a Celeron 1200 is faster than the 1800 and I have the Athlon with the X15; I upgraded the 1900 to a 2400 yesterday because I had to pull the fan off to clean it and it zeemed like a good idea at the time.)

Tea, only a monkey would take a laptop outside & leave it tethered to a LAN cable. Real simians use wireless.

- Fushigi

 

[Buck]

Wireless reception with all those Eucalyptus trees around is not very good.

 

[Mercutio]

Trust me, a long network cable - if it's your only tether - is not a hinderance.

I like my 802.11G just the same.