mobile cpu vs. desktop cpu.

rabidbunny

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I've started looking at laptops for college soon and started to wonder.
What laptop cpu would roughly give me the same performance of my desktop's e6400?
I've looked a little at comparisons of desktop cpu's vs. mobile cpu's, but I haven't found enough info out there on the internet.
I guess i'm just trying to find my 'sweet spot' with a mobile cpu. I love my e6400 and something quite similar, even less powerful than it would be great in a laptop.

Also, which technology (amd or intel) is better for laptops as far as battery management/life and performance?

I have seen that the turion x2 processors generally have lower performance than intel core 2 duo and even some core duo cpus.

Thanks for any insight that anyone can give me.
 

grieve

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What is your limit to spend? Pretty important when we are talking laptops.

Take a look at some Toshiba’s with t7200 C2D's + and make sure it is not integrated video card (shared memory) Also as much as I hate to say it… Dell for Laptops is a pretty decent choice for there Customer support/warranty as laptops do fall/break.

Here is a link to a really nice Asus (its Canada)…Pretty much everything you would want in a laptop …except Asus and it is almost $2000

http://www.memoryexpress.com/index....ProductDetail.php&DisplayProductID=10447&SID=


*** give a price range, and what geographical region you are located, perhaps we can locate some nice ones for you.
 

TheGreatGrapeApe

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Yeah I agree with Grieve, you're looking at a T7xxx series laptop. T7-even#-00 is Napa Based 667mhzFSB CPU and T7-odd#-00 is a Santa Rosa based 800mhz proc. They're the one's you should be looking at. IMO, you want a T7200 or T7300 or higher with their 2.0ghz cores. They will give you really good performance close to your desktop (a little slower).

Also, which technology (amd or intel) is better for laptops as far as battery management/life and performance?

Both have good and bad performace/power in their arsenal. IMO the Old Turions are the Worst, then the Old Core Duos, then Turion X2s and then the Newer Core2Duos are the best. Of course they vary from frequency to frequency, and with larger/smaller cache, but for performance with good power, I'd say stick with the T7s, sure they use more battery power, but they're worth it for apps that need it, but if all you're doing is wordproc documents or surfing, etc. Then a T5 series core2duo would be fine, but nowhere near your desktop.

I have seen that the turion x2 processors generally have lower performance than intel core 2 duo and even some core duo cpus.

Depends on the model, and AMD's model numbers are even worse than intel's. But the C2D is the top of the pack in the T7 series, and then the Turion X2s, but there is alot of back and forth, but look at the performance comparison like taking a ladder then splitting the middle and putting the intel side up a few rungs, the AMDs are competing with just slightly below their intel equivalent, and usually they are priced as such for vendors, and so alot of Turions CPUs are finding their way into those $500 laptops.

I'd link you to my lists, but they're on my work PC, and the ARP list I have at home is giving me a server error. But you get the general picture.

AMDs refresh parts look nice, and intel refresh parts will likely be hotter than their current batch when they move to 45nm, but that's a Fall/Winter issue so if you're interested in buying now or before back to school, then hese are the chips you'll be looking at.
 

rabidbunny

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Thanks for the reply!

limit? I was thinking between $700 all the way up to $1200 usd without productivity software.
I can upgrade the ram and hard drive on my own if necessary to save $$ now.

I live in wisconsin in the U.S. so availability isn't really a problem. I forgot to mention that i'm looking at laptops now for college in fall 2008. I was just curious now because I want to understand the current tech comparisons for cpus so when I go to college in a year, I will know what is best.

I agree that a dedicated card adds to speed, but does it hamper battery life? (if I get one with a low end gpu?)
I have looked at 17" laptops and realized that for portability, they are not for me. A 15.4 inch laptop is what i'm looking for since I want to just take my laptop and go write somewhere rather than in my cinderblock dorm. I would like to find one with battery life of at least 3 hours+ (maybe with optional large battery?)

I don't think I need anything for graphic design or gaming since I don't plan on studying graphics or playing games on it. My sophomore or junior year I might build a new $1000 rig if I can manage it, so that'll get me a decent rig there.

Also, which brand cpu currently performs better than the other?

T.
 

TheGreatGrapeApe

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I woul say for what you want then you want a basic 15" laptop with a T5xxx CPU in it (5500 would be my choice), they are easily available in laptops for well under $1000 and while not as powerful for raw grunt as the T7xxx series, they will give you good dual core benefits, and 64 bit, and good battery life. From the Turion side I wish I had my list handy because it's a little harder, and since it's not the area I'm personally looking at don't know it as well as the T7s. I think the turions you're wanting to look at would be the TK series, but not sure. When I get back from the BBQ tonight I'll see if the ARP list is up or if I can find the ones I'm thinking of. There are some nice Turions out there, just harder to rememebr their coding.

Anywhoo, look at the T5500 and see what you think about power vs efficiency. For a little less power you can get slightly slower T5s like the 5250 that are a little more efficient and even that may be what you're looking for if not doing seriously heavy work on it.
 

rabidbunny

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Sweet!
Thanks Ape!

What are some good laptop brands?
I would like an HP, since I have not had one of their computers. I have a dell dimension and it isn't bad being 4 years old and upgraded/modded, but I'd like to stay away from dell just because....it's a dell. I do not mind their new inspiron notebooks, but I'd rather go HP. Plus, my dad gets a discount through his workplace with HP and Dell. I think my university will also have deals through dell and hp, but I have to wait on that until I actually go to college.

I have looked at ASUS laptops, they aren't bad at all. I've heard that Sony laptops are horrible, but what about toshiba?
 

TheGreatGrapeApe

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Well of the big boys I like HP and Gateway for their Chassis, and both have been stellar for me and my friends for quality and support. I find Dell hit and miss, but good overall and usually wicked cheap after rebates (especially coupon codes), but I don't like their Chassis at all (although the new 17s are better than their old 17s IMO) and had personal bad experience with their customer service, but the very same laptop I resold to a friend, he got it fixed no problem under the 3 year warranty I had for it, and it was UPS that hasled him, not Dell, he loved DELL. Go figure.

I don't like Toshiba, but they review well. I love IBM/Lenovo, but they don't make laptops in the sizes/features I consider, but I do recommend them to friends; speaking of which a friend just bought a 61 and the thing I love most about Thinkpads, the keyboard, is what died on him, and the tech support guys kept telling him to put in the factory install disk when it was a situation where 2-3 adjacent characters would appear from a single key stroke, it toook for ever for them to agree to fix it. Also he had an ethernet card issue at the very beginning that they kep telling him to re-install the factory install (turned out to be an M$ issue). So in 3 weeks those two isues appeared and what I used to love IBM Thinkpads for, customer service and keyboards, seems to be two things that Lenovo has let slip.

I would like an HP, since I have not had one of their computers. I have a dell dimension and it isn't bad being 4 years old and upgraded/modded, but I'd like to stay away from dell just because....it's a dell.

I understand, and that's the usual experience of many people. Almost everybody has bought a DELL at some point because they're quite often just wicked deals. And of those you get the 50/50 crowd, and usually little else. Now 50% love DELL and wouldn't buy anything else, and the other 50 hate DELL and won't be tempted by the deals. I'm in the later half because customer support dorked me around (and when I worked some relay relief shift jerked a deaf customer around so much it just reinforced my bad experience), but like I said a friend had the total opposite experience. So IMO it's very hit and miss with them.

I do not mind their new inspiron notebooks, but I'd rather go HP. Plus, my dad gets a discount through his workplace with HP and Dell. I think my university will also have deals through dell and hp, but I have to wait on that until I actually go to college.

Yeah we get DELL discounts at work, and they're ok for work (I think busines support is much better than consumer support IMO), but I would prefer HP or Gateway.

I have looked at ASUS laptops, they aren't bad at all. I've heard that Sony laptops are horrible, but what about toshiba?

I'm looking at an ASUS for myself just due to features, but if HP and the new Gateways (still no reply from them yet as to whether there will be a 17" refresh) bring some of the features of the G2S to me, I'll go with them in a heartbeat.

I have heard the two extremes about Sony with one friend having owned 6 (including their ultra thin and his recent Blurray 17" model) and loving them all and finding them rock solid, to another friend having owned one and having nothing but issues with it, and very poor build quality (key broke off under warranty, power connector point snapped off internally under warranty). So while I like Sony's styling, I'm not convinced they are worth the often quite large price premium to me, nor would I recommend people pay the extra.

I like LG, and found them very reliable, but found them scarce in N.America, also Fujitsu has been wicked for 2 friends of mine who now swear by them, but they are ultra-portable fans, not gamers.

It also worth looking at smaller builders, but it depends on your comfort level and your need for support.

The main thing is balancing features with the other benefits of builders, right now no one is meeting all my needs, which is why I still wait, but there's alot of solutions there that are getting 7 out of 10 or even 8 out of 10 but with one major drawback (like lack of numpad). My personal preferences for companies goes HP>LG>Gateway>IBM/Lenovo(used to be #1 when just IBM)>Eurocom>Fujitsu>ASUS>Toshiba>ACER>small brand known company>DELL>small brand no-name company. And DELL being towards the bottom is a personal and easily admitted BIAS. But I freely admit when they have absolutely WICKED deals, and they're also one of the few companies that lived by the large UXGA screens so they always had that advantage until Gateway announced a UXGA scren on their 15" (oie the pixel pitch must be insane, but I'd love it if I didn't want a numpad).

Anywhoo, hope that sheds some insight on whom I would recommend.

But most of all get input from alot of people and check out the midsized and smaller vendors too, there's alot of gems out there, but they are harder to find.
 
HP, Gateway, Dell and Asus I would recommend in a heart beat. I myself am a fan of Dell, but will and have bought from other companies (Sager :sarcastic: I'll post that story if you want it)

I agree TGGA, I like the looks of the Sony laptops, but IMO they charge WAY too much for the hardware you get. Definitely not worth it when other companies offer the same thing (in a slightly uglier package in some cases) for near half the cost.
 

rabidbunny

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I have found a great asus laptop, but I'd like to use whatever sic discount that my university has. I know that their software, (i.e. office 2007 premium and vista premium) for around $90 to $130, so the discounts on computers must be sweet too. I'll have to see.

Now that you guys have verified Hp and asus for me, i think i'll stick with those two brands if I have the choice.
Dell will be saved as a backup option...I just don't like how everyone has or has had a dell. nothing special about them.

Thanks guys,
How do mobile cpu's stand up now? AMD vs. Intel?

I've looked at amd's mobile cpu's and they sound great, although they may not perform on the same level as intel.
Any further comments?
 
Intel holds the performance crown for the mobile CPU sector with the T7XXX series. They're aren't bad in terms of battery life either.

I can understand your view on Dell. It's part of the reason I went with the Sager in my sig. Can't wait till I actually get it.
 

MU_Engineer

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The E6400 is 2.13 GHz and the C2D T7400 is also 2.13 GHz. It has a slower FSB speed, but it ought to be close to as fast. The 2.20 GHz/800 FSB T7500 with 4 MB L2 cache is probably faster than your E6400 as far as processing goes. But you do need to realize that a laptop's Achilles heel is hard drive speed. Even a good laptop HDD will only put through maybe 50 MB/sec peak, while a crappy desktop drive from four years ago will beat that. A decent new desktop drive will do 70-75 MB/sec and a good drive like a 10,000 rpm Raptor ADFD will touch 90 MB/sec while having half the access time delay of the notebook drive. Not to mention a good 7200 rpm notebook drive costs more than some of the Raptors and many 7200 rpm desktop drives, all of which will be much faster than a laptop's drive. The best performance you can get out of a laptop HDD is to use some very fast Flash EEPROM in a solid-state disk. These can get into the mid 60s MB/sec in throughput and have very low access times, but a 32 GB SSD will set you back $530, what two to three desktop drives and a RAID controller costs.

P.S. I've not had a Dell laptop. I've used umpteen million Dell desktops at work and school, but only ever used a Dell laptop for about five minutes once. I've briefly used HPs, Sonys and IBMs as well. HP used to make crappy consumer laptops, but they've gotten much better lately. However, there's a bunch of bloatware on HP consumer units. Their business line is top-notch and largely bereft of the crapware. Sonys are decent but the keyboards are too light for my liking, although I use a 14-year-old IBM mechanical keyboard at home (and love it.) The old IBM ThinkPads were excellent machines but very expensive; Lenovo has cut the costs a little but the parts are usually good. I have heard some real horror stories from them, so apparently you either get an excellent machine or a complete lemon with them. I had one Gateway laptop for five years and recently ordered another to replace it. They make decent parts, especially if you order directly from them instead of buying retail.

And remember the sale rule: the week's specials are posted on Thursday and run through Wednesday for almost all manufacturers. If there's a good sale going on, buy before Wednesday. If there's not much, wait until Thursday. I saved $200 that way. Also, Dell has umpteen million coupon codes floating out there. Just search for "Dell coupon codes" and you'll generally get a $300 off of $1000 or $500 off $1500 coupon. The only bad part is that they generally only apply to consumer machines, not the better-made and generally bloatware-free business-class Latitudes.