Centrino question.

[techs]

I am not exactly sure what the Centrino processor is. I think it is an upgraded Pentium3 core with additional power saving features and wireless capability. Is this true? Or is it a modified Pentium 4?

[kato2274]

Originally posted by techs
I am not exactly sure what the Centrino processor is. I think it is an upgraded Pentium3 core with additional power saving features and wireless capability. Is this true? Or is it a modified Pentium 4?

me either. and I don't understand the concept building wireless compatibility into the CPU. wouldn't this actually be a card built into the notebook mobo. their marketing is confusing.

[geoscomp]

seems to be a wireless setup, northbridge chipset, and processor all designed to work together..at least according to this

[ephmynus]

I've got one of these at work and (regarless of what they say it's supposed to be) it's a Celeron... without a doubt. It's a 1.3ghz and there is no way that it could perform like a P4. Don't get me wrong, great notebook and good setup but I started encoding video (divx to VCD) and it ran neck and neck with a similar Celery

[techs]

Originally posted by A+Tech
I've got one of these at work and (regarless of what they say it's supposed to be) it's a Celeron... without a doubt. It's a 1.3ghz and there is no way that it could perform like a P4. Don't get me wrong, great notebook and good setup but I started encoding video (divx to VCD) and it ran neck and neck with a similar Celery

If its like a celery it is at least different in that it has a full mb of cache unlike the celerys 128k(at least in the p3 core).

[Radical Dreamer]

Originally posted by A+Tech
I've got one of these at work and (regarless of what they say it's supposed to be) it's a Celeron... without a doubt. It's a 1.3ghz and there is no way that it could perform like a P4. Don't get me wrong, great notebook and good setup but I started encoding video (divx to VCD) and it ran neck and neck with a similar Celery

Centrino is this
Pentium M Processor
Intel Chipset
Intel Wireless Nic

Yes A+ it is going to run like crap when encoding video, video relies more on raw clock speed than cache and fancy architecture.

Now in normal office apps and very much so gaming, where architecture and cache is everything the centrino setup runs like a beast

[ephmynus]

Don't get me wrong, I love it and it's a great setup. But in terms of what I've used previously and what it seems to run like, a Celeron would be about the closest classification I could give.

[mrl1te]

Centrino is supposed to bring everything together. But, what a lot of people don't know yet is that this is the new P4 (Now officially the P-M for notebooks) that has 1MB Cache and runs at 200Mhz Bus. So a 1.40Ghz is running somewhere around 200 X 7 and with a Quad Pumped Bus. Also uses DDR instead of old SDRAM.

From where I stand, it is not the best rival for a beefy desktop, but makes one heck of a fast mobile Machine. Plus, the Dell I am using has a nice Wide LCD.

[flyguy42]

The Pentium-M is great for people who need a truly mobile desktop. Unlike the P4-M, the P-M was designed to be strictly mobile. From what I understand its power management is really cool, down to the point that if its only using 512K of its 1MB cache, it can turn the other half off. Its able to power down portions of the processor your not using... I think thats neat-o. In order for a laptop to have the Centrino label, it has to have the intel wireless NIC, Intel Chipset and Pentium-M. So you might see some non-Centrino Pentium-M's out soon if a manufacturer went with a diffrent NIC or something...

[davepoet]

Everything I have read indicates that the Centrino or Pentium M chip is not a modified anything. Instead, it was designed as a new processor Strictly for notebooks and nothing else.

The reviews that I read said it destroyed the P4-M chips in almost all the tests.

These were reviews on TomsHardware & Anandtech.

[flyguy42]

I havent looked at the Toms Hardware tests, but I know that intel is going around showing these benchmarks way above a P4-M 2.4Ghz against a Centrino setup thats only running 1.6Ghz or something. But something I noticed is that they were primarily using a benchmark called MobileMark, which is like SystemMark for Notebooks. However, one the tests in mobile mark that seperates it from SystemMark is that it heavily considers battery-life. When I asked how well the same two computers would fare in SystemMark or 3dMark, the intel rep said that usually the P4-M would surpass the Centrino. Intresting eh? Soooo.... if your a mobile gamer or are usually able to plug in... but want to watch that occasional DVD on a long car ride.. go P4-M. If you need mobility for office apps and wireless connectivity, go Centrino.

[davepoet]

Originally posted by flyguy42
I havent looked at the Toms Hardware tests, but I know that intel is going around showing these benchmarks way above a P4-M 2.4Ghz against a Centrino setup thats only running 1.6Ghz or something. But something I noticed is that they were primarily using a benchmark called MobileMark, which is like SystemMark for Notebooks. However, one the tests in mobile mark that seperates it from SystemMark is that it heavily considers battery-life. When I asked how well the same two computers would fare in SystemMark or 3dMark, the intel rep said that usually the P4-M would surpass the Centrino. Intresting eh? Soooo.... if your a mobile gamer or are usually able to plug in... but want to watch that occasional DVD on a long car ride.. go P4-M. If you need mobility for office apps and wireless connectivity, go Centrino.

Very true. I think it is a smart chip to use. How many true mobile heavy gamers are there anyways? People will primarily use a laptop for what they are designed for, business & business software (office etc...). So in that regards, it is the best chip for the mobile user.

If someone is looking for a desktop replacement laptop, then they would want to get either the P4-M or the Athlon XP chips.

[The Computer Valet]

The Pentium-M bests some P4s for some things. You can look this up in a lot of the benchmarks.

It is a new architecture. Whether it's based on something, I don't know, but it definitely has capabilities to do things other P or Px-M processors can not do. For instance, sections of the processor can be shut down, if they're not in use. This conserves power.

The target market is relatively straightforward: mobile professionals who use standard "office-type" applications who need/want integrated WiFi.

I wouldn't necessarily call it a "desktop replacement," but I guess it depends on what you do on your desktop. If you encode MPEG-2 all day, I doubt you'd like the Centrino.

Really the one biggest advantage, to my mind, is the increased battery power, but we've yet to see if this will really take off. Most laptop owners have bought the accessories to plug into cars, airplanes, etc. Still 6-7 hours of battery life (on at one model in tests) is a nice chunk.

The integrated WiFi is neat, but even for me who is going around to offices often, it's not that practical and all those recent Intel ads regarding "un-wire" and people working outside I think is a bit of a pipe dream.

However, some of my clients are speakers and they could use it quite well considering they frequently go to hotels that offer Wayport or something similar.

I think also the speed of the processor for office-like tasks is pretty darn good, but you pay for that "feature" right now. You can still save money with an Athlon-XP-M from Fujitsu.

m

[Radical Dreamer]

Originally posted by davepoet
Very true. I think it is a smart chip to use. How many true mobile heavy gamers are there anyways?

Me for one, thats why i have a P4-M 2.0, 512 DDR and a radeon 9000