Benjamin
Sat Aug 26 15:13:59 CDT 2006
* - Bobb -:
> Well, I THOUGHT I was all set: I was gonna get an AMD box, but now the
> reviews seem to say Intel is better ! Does someone know of a SIMPLE
> online comparison of the CPU products from a potential user viewpoint ?
>
http://exactchoice.cnet.com/Type.aspx works pretty well , but doesn't
> tell me why it chose those models and if one is better than other. I'm
> not sure that those companies didn't just pay to be selected.
Well, of course they won't tell you ;-)
> Like everyone I'm looking for the best return for my money. I'm not up
> to all of the differences/ benefits of AMD X2, Intel Pentium M , Intel
> Core Duo CPUs these days and when I TRY to evaluate them (either online
> or by reading PC magazines), I'm inundated with comparisons of gaming
> speeds.Means nothing to me! For instance, I don't need to buy the
> latest/fastest CPU for my laptop - I'm gonna use it to run ... IE,
> Office and a few music, photo apps. I would like a 64 bit cpu - just to
> have the OPTION to use 64 bit OS'es.
With todays notebooks limited to 4GB RAM max it doesn't make much sense...
> I think that I'd be better to
> upgrade to1gb or 2gb of memory rather than the "best cpu". I'm not a
> gamer so my CPU will probably be idle 98% of the time. But if I'm gonna
> get a pc that would better/ last me for a few extra years, it would be
> worth it to me to spend an extra $100, $200 now to get it. No need to
> get heavy into details, just overviews/ URLs are fine.
Forget about the CPU. Intels Pentium-M is great as is the Core Solo/Dou
and probably also the Core 2 Solo/Duo. AMDs Turion64 is also great but
the available chipsets (usually something from ATI or VIA) are still not
on par with intels mobile chipsets...
What is much more important than the CPU is the kind of notebook you
choose (subnotebook, widescreen notebook, desktop replacement etc) and
that it fits to your usage profile, and what also is important is who
made it because the manufacturer is the one that decides about build
quality, driver/BIOS updates and service. First, you should think about
what you want to use the notebook for, and then choose a suitable
category. After that you have to decide what you want. There basically
are two groups of notebooks: consumer models and business models.
Consumer notebooks usually come with a lot of software and multimedia
stuff (like TV tuners etc). Consumer notebooks usually also have glare
type displays today. These displays look great in the shop but the
downside is that these panels are basically like mirrors which reflect
everything around you. For working in a standard office environment
these displays are simply useless. However, they are good for certain
tasks like picture editing if not used for long periods. Consumer
notebooks usually are made out of cheaper plastic parts which are not
very durable when used as a mobile device on a daily base, and the usual
silver kind of painting shows signs of wear when used intensively. The
support for consumer notebooks also is usually limited, with call
centers in Asia or East Europe and repair turn around times of several
weeks. Examples of consumer notebooks are HP Pavilion/Presario, Acer
Travelmate, Toshiba Satellite etc...
Business notebooks (like HPs nx-/nc-/nw-Series, IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad etc)
usually lack the goodies of consumer devices like the ton of software,
the TV tuner, and they usually also lack the glare type displays. The
design is konservative and dark (which together with the much better
material quality makes scratches very hard visible), and the service is
usually excellent.
Benjamin