# Question about Intel Centrino vs. Pentium 4



## doogdoog (Apr 15, 2001)

Hi I was wondering which is more powerful for a laptop/notebook. Intel Core Centrino duo processor vs. Pentium 4 with hyperthreading. I know they both have different speeds like 2300-2600 for the centrino one and pentium 4 3-3.8ghz but when I asked some coworkers which they thought is better, all said the centrino one because of the powersaving and the duo processor. However, when I search Alienware's site for laptops, the pentium 4 processor computer seems to be significantly higher in price with all other options configured the same. Why would this be if the Centrino duo processor is faster and uses less power? Which is generally a better chip? What would the 
Intel Core Duo Processor T2300 1.66GHz 2MB Cache 667MHz FSB 
be equivalent to in terms of a Intel Pentium 4 Processor 531 w/ HT Technology for example speed wise? I'm so confused right now. I would greatly appreciate a response! Please forgive me if it's a no brainer.


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## doogdoog (Apr 15, 2001)

Bump


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## steveb1492 (Nov 5, 2005)

What will you be using the computer for? The pentium 4 is going to use a whole lot more power, and therefore, your battery life will be a whole lot less. The T2300 is more efficient, but slower overall. It will sip power, allowing your battery to stay charged much longer with a small decrease in processing might.

Could someone verify the benchmarks? (i some them at http://www.mersenne.org/bench.htm)


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## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

The centrino would be better for people who spend a lot of time working without access to AC power--on a long flight, taking notes in class, etc.

Some users, however, use their laptops at a desk and may go only from office to home to other places where AC power is available all or nearly all the time. Those users would enjoy the speed and extra performance a P4 would give them.

As for speed, I strongly prefer the P4 of the two you mention. Personally, I own a Compaq with AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and an Averatec with Sempron 2800+. The Athlon would be comparable to the P4 and the Sempron to the Centrino in this case.

By the way, avoid Celerons and Durons. You will harvest regret after regret down the road if you don't.


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## doogdoog (Apr 15, 2001)

Hi Steveb1492, thank you for your reply. I am planning to use the computer to travel with so battery life would be important. However, I also play some games too so I would want something that's able to handle the recent ones. I did some research in other forums and reveiw sites and it seems that everyone has only good things to say about the centrino duo processors. I understand that the performance might be a little under the pentium 4, but I've also read that the duo processors handle multitasking better so it might be better for me. But I've read something about a merom processor that will use a 64 bit chip like the AMD's scheduled for release soon (August?) so maybe I should just wait until that's released. I'm not planning on getting the merom processor but my hope is that the centrino duo and pentium 4 laptops will get a little cheaper after the release of something faster. Thanks again for your reply and my dates might be off but isn't 1492 the year Columbus was given credit for discovering America?


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## doogdoog (Apr 15, 2001)

Hi Alex Ethridge and thank you for your reply. Since the time I posted this I did some checking around and everyone has really good things to say about the centrino duo core processors. I even found sites that say the centrino 2300 is almost equivalent to a pentium 4 3.2 although I don't know where they got their data from. But I'm glad you answered because there must've been a reason Alienware sells their pentium 4 laptops for over 500$ more compared to the centrino duo cores. But if the battery of the pentium 4 is that much less, I think I might stick to the centrino duo core processor. I also read that a new 64 bit merom is coming out in a couple months. I am thinking about waiting for that to be released in the hope that the other processors will drop a little in price. I can hold off for a little while just to see what happens. Again thank you for your reply!!


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