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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 11/22/2004 : 08:44:11
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So my laptop is now three years old and I'm thinking about stepping up. My question is if anyone has any thoughts about Intel's Celeron processor. It's cheap, but I don't know what the difference is between it and their Pentium M Processor, or the AMD Athlon XP-M or
AMD Athlon 64.
Does anyone have suggestions for what's best for the money?
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2004 : 09:02:50 [Permalink]
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Celerons are terrible for anything but basic word processing. If you ever do anything like gaming or photo editing you would be very unhappy. Pentiums are generally hot and overclocked. Ignore the megahertz hype. My preference would be an Athlon 64. It is 64 bit while Pentiums are 32 bit. That's not a huge amount of information but steer clear of Celerons. AMDs are the best value in my opinion.
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Gravity, not just a good idea...it's the law!
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2004 : 09:07:17 [Permalink]
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| That was my friend's suggestion, too... he said he preferred AMD technology to Intel. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2004 : 09:13:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by @tomic
Celerons are terrible for anything but basic word processing. If you ever do anything like gaming or photo editing you would be very unhappy. Pentiums are generally hot and overclocked. Ignore the megahertz hype. My preference would be an Athlon 64. It is 64 bit while Pentiums are 32 bit. That's not a huge amount of information but steer clear of Celerons. AMDs are the best value in my opinion.
Thanks for the tip. I found in a PCWorld review this comment: "In initial tests, two systems based on the 2.2-GHz Athlon XP 3200+ processor easily outran top Pentium 4-based systems on business applications." Thus, it sounds like even the Athlon XP is better than the Pentium 4, let alone the Athlon 64.
I use an Athlon on my current machine, and have had no problems. But I wondered how the Celeron stood up. Sounds like it doesn't... |
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2004 : 09:49:16 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by @tomic
A Celeron is a cheap version of a Pentium. To save a few dollars they reduced the cache and that means the performance is reduced.
Got it. But it looks like the AMD Athlon XP is slightly better than a Pentium 4, and the Athlon 64 is way better.
I went to AMD's site and found vendors who use them. I found another Compaq with an Athlon XP 3000+ which, with other specs goes for $1200. But I also found an Averatec with an Athlon 2200+ with a smaller monitor for $999. The averitec also weighs ca. half as much (4.5 v 8 lbs). I'm going to look in to how people view Averatec, and if they have a good rep I might take the plunge-- a thousand bucks is right at what I can afford right now! |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13481 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2004 : 12:21:29 [Permalink]
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Of course, if you don't want to worry about getting a virus, and you want the fastest processor made (G5), and a computer that has everthing under the hood from the git go, you might consider an IMac...
The EMacs are really good too. That is what I use. With a G4 processor. Fast and reliable...
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2004 : 12:43:19 [Permalink]
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quote:
I'm going to look in to how people view Averatec, and if they have a good rep I might take the plunge-- a thousand bucks is right at what I can afford right now!
Dunno if the overall price is competitive but Circuit City offers 24 months no interest for purchases over $499. Even a $1200 system can be paid off at $50 a month.
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Gravity, not just a good idea...it's the law!
Sportsbettingacumen.com: The science of sports betting |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9696 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2004 : 12:55:50 [Permalink]
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I used to be one of those AMD-fanatics. Since I bought my first PC in -93, but these last 5 years or so, I've begun to more and more appreciate the stability of the Intel system. Microsoft operating systems seems to integrate smother with Intel processor and chipset. Especially chipsets.
So, last year I retired my old AMD Thunderbird 1200 from main and gaming use, and placed it on light duty as an Internet gateway/firewall and multimedia server/library.
AMD 64bit CPU kicks ass, but require program to be compiled for 64bit for the CPU to really take advantage of the extra power. I haven't seen many, if any, applications especially for it, other than benchmarks of database, and other business apps. and those were impressive indeed.
On the other hand, Intel P4 with hyperthread is also great, since as long as you're not using floating point calculations, it runs the FPU as an extra logical unit thus acting like a dual CPU system. |
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