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adamstorch

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I am in the market for a new laptop and would like information on how different processors compare to eachother. Let's take for example, a pentium 3 400, a pentium 2 400, and a celeron 400. Information on this topic would really help me out in my quest for a new laptop, and any tips on buying a new laptop would really be great as well.
 
This topic can be incredibly in-depth, but I'll try my best.

To start, Intel never made a P3-400. The slowest P3 you can get is 450. And since there's no common speed between any particular P3, P2 and Celeron, there's no truly fair comparison.
But if there were, the P3 would be slightly faster than the P2, due to it's added instructions. That would be about the only difference between that speed P3 and P2, since P3s that slow were still based on the Katmai core.
Until the release of the Coppermine core Pentium IIIs, there were only marginal speed differences. The Coppermine reduced the L2 cache by half, but doubled the speed of it.

A quick matrix on CPU differences:
P2 - Katmai core, 512k L2 at 1/2 core speed, 100MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) speed, .22u process

Celeron - Katmai Core, 128k L2 at full core speed, 66MHz FSB, .22u process

P3 Katmai core (500MHz and lower) - 512k L2 at 1/2 core speed, SIMD instructions added, 100MHz FSB, .22u process

P3 'b' - Katmai core, 512k L2 at 1/2 core speed, 133MHz FSB, .22u process

P3 Coppermine - 256k L2 at full core speed, available in 100MHz FSB ('e' coppermines) and 133MHz FSB ('eb'), .18u process

Celeron II - Coppermine core, 128k L2 full core speed, 66MHz FSB, .18u process


Laptop Recommendations

  • Make sure you buy the largest TFT screen you can afford. Don't skimp and go for passive matrix, since your eyes will be teary by the end of the day.
  • Be more concerned with the amount of RAM than the speed of the CPU. Most things you'll do on a laptop will be more RAM intensive than CPU reliant.
  • Don't expect for the laptop to be a replacement for a good desktop machine. People normally think that they can buy a laptop and take it with them while still using it at home, and that justifies the extra cost. Laptops are built for portability, not speed or comfort. If you truly need the portability because you require a computer on the road with you, then fine. But if you just need a mahcine and like the idea of having a laptop, you'll be dissappointed. For the same price, you can get a very nice desktop machine for much less money that will outperform any laptop you can find.


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On an long enough timeline, everyone's survival rate drops to zero.
 
Dan pretty much covered it. Can't really add much except that laptops are usually used for work more than play, so speed is not so much an issue. Even if you could get one for play, the fastest 3D processing you can get is from the Rage128 mobility core. That is SLOOOOOWWWWW compared to the GeForces and V5/6s.

My recommendation is to get something that will allow you to surf the net while on the road, play some games, and do lot's of mp3's, and also make for a portable DVD player. Work stuff requires much less. A laptop based on the K6-2 processor and plenty of RAM will be fine for all of that.

I also recommend a Toshiba or IBM laptop, if you can get them. From those I know with these machines, they have the best experiences.

Good luck to you.
 
Just a note:
My job provided me with a Compaq Armada M700 laptop. This is equipped with a P3-450 and 128MB RAM. However, the thing feels slow because the hard drive is SLOW.
Laptops are not built for performance, they're built for portability.

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On an long enough timeline, everyone's survival rate drops to zero.
 
I'd like to emphasize DD's recommendation on the screen.. Get a nice screen your eyes will thank you for it.

I went w/ a passive matrix a few yrs ago and my eyes hurt everytime i stare at it for over an hr or so.
 
Wow! WaterB actually agrees with my opinion on something technical...

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
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On an long enough timeline, everyone's survival rate drops to zero.
 
Definitely skip any passive matrix screen -- you'll end up hating it after seeing what a TFT can do.
 
This is extremely frustrating, I am in the market for a laptop for about $1500 and have found a couple that look really good, but all these choices and things to consider really make for a hard decision!
 
Toshiba's a usually pretty good choice, and I've seen a few nice ones over at Onvia.com for around $1300 with TFT screens. I think you can pretty much rule out DVD, though, with the price range you've set (if that's something you were looking to get).

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On an long enough timeline, everyone's survival rate drops to zero.
 
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