Pentium M 780 - how does it compare to c2d or core dual?

quanger

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Hi. I bought a barebone laptop two years ago after my first laptop died. Swapped all the parts over, yada yada yada. But since my laptop is in near mint condition and I want to give it another 2-3 years of life, I am looking into upgrading it.

Currently have a Pentium 750 which is 1.86ghz @ 533bus. I have 2gig ram, 80gig hd and an ati x700 which is quite decent for basic gaming.

I was wondering how the Pentium M 780 (fastest that my chipset can handle) compares to newer mobile cpus such as Solo core, dual core and core 2 duo. Since there aren't any direct comparison online (or atleast that I know of) can anyone help me out with valid information?

I basically use my laptop pretty much for everything. A bit of Warcraft 3, some torrents, surfing the web, and some photoshop work. I am using windows XP pro as well and don't really intend to upgrade to vista.

I am just wondering if it is worth putting another $100-200 into my laptop or just buying a whole new one. The two cpus that I would really only consider is the Pentium 770 and 780.

If I were to upgrade laptops, I would really be spending $800+ since I want a decent video card such as something from ATI or nvidia. None of that BS onboard.
 

dwellman

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Intel Core Solo / Core Duo are not much better than the 533 Mhz FSB Dothan as they consume more power than the Pentium M. The Core 2, on the other hand, gives about a 20% overall performance boost over Intel Core at the same clock speed.

The best possible processor upgrade for you involves getting a 400 Mhz Dothan and trying the "pin trick", which fools the BIOS into supplying a 533 FSB instead of a 400 FSB, thereby overclocking the processor-- up to 2.8 Ghz. Your milage WILL vary.
 

quanger

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does this increase power consumption as well as heat im assuming? will it still be 27W?
Im not sure my laptop cooling can handle it. I cant seem to find any information on this "pin trick".
 

americanbrian

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The pin mod is crap, bone it myself. The problem is that it doesn't change the "external clock" only the internal one.

This means that your NB and SB bus is capped artificially low.

I had better luck overclocking a 533 Mhz 1.73 Ghz chip. I have taken it up to 2.53Ghz using clockgen. It idles @ aroung 45degC and maxes @ 55degC full load.

Stable as can be. I suggest that if you are looking at buying a new one anyway, experiment with OCing the rig. At the very least you will learn a lot and you may get the performance boost you are looking for for free.
 

americanbrian

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if you want to try the pin mod for yourself look for "400 533 fsb pin mod dothan" on google.

But like I said I got much better results OCing the 533 CPU in mine.

In fact I will give you the 1.8Ghz 400MHz FSB chip I don't use anymore if you want. This is stable @2.4 Ghz when pin-modded. (assuming your cooling is ok.)

Mine is a toshiba satellite pro M40, heavily modded. but the cooling seems really good (all copper).