Pentium 4 vs. Pentium M

lesterdiamond · Post by **lesterdiamond** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:41 am

Can anyone who has experiences with these processors shed some light on their disadvantages/advantages, I have been noticing that more of the newer laptops have the pentium but with less ghz. Is it always better to go with more ghz?

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:55 am

Pentium 4 is a desktop processor, that is being used in some laptops these days... like the laptop I recently bought.

Pentium M is a laptop processor which Intel developed specifically for that purpose. The Pentium M runs cooler than the Pentium 4. It is also more efficient, so a lower clock speed Pentium M can still hold it's own against a faster clock speed Pentium 4. You can see this in the Live Performance Test threads.

I think for most people, the Pentium M is a good choice:

If you're looking for a laptop with good performance, for a low price.... the Pentium M is for you.

If you want a lightweight laptop with good performance, the Pentium M is for you.

If you want a laptop that doesn't get super hot, and run fans all the time... the Pentium M is for you.

The advantages to Pentium 4:

Pentium 4 chips tend to be put into larger laptops, that offer more internal gear like multiple hard drives, multiple DVD or CD drives, larger screens, better graphics cards, etc...

I recently bought a Pentium 4 laptop, to use specifically with Ableton Live. I chose Pentium 4 because the laptop I got has 2 hard drives, that are both SATA drives.... and they are in a Raid 0 config. Raid 0 doubles your hard drive speeds, by splitting data between 2 drives. So I have 160 gigs of space, and it's very fast.

Drawbacks are that my laptop is big and heavy, and gets hotter than the hubs of hell. But since I use this box solely while plugged in... I'm not very concerned about the battery life, or weight. It easily fits in a Targus laptop backback I have, along with my MIDI controller and soundcard.

liquidfx · Post by **liquidfx** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:45 am

agreed. pentium M are better for laptops.

timothyallan · Post by **timothyallan** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 4:58 am

I had a Pentium 4 3.06Ghz laptop and just bought a P-M 2.0Ghz laptop.

The 2.0Ghz does have a faster bus speed and blows the pants off the Pentium 4. I didn't think it would be that much faster, but it is. It's also so bloody quiet unlike the P4 which needed some pretty big fans.

-tim

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 7:55 am

There is also the case with the poor guy in the performance thread that bought a P4 laptop from HP (?) that was nominally 3 GHz, but deliberately underclocked to 2 GHz so it wouldn't melt. Borders on fraud if you ask me.

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:06 pm

I have a pentium M 2.0 and a pentium4 2.5ghz desktop.

the pentium M is almost exactly twice as fast for Live.

I wouldn't buy a p4, too hot, too fat, too slow.

elemental · Post by **elemental** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:47 pm

read an interesting article about how the P4 technology is at a dead end, and the Pentium M is actually based on the PIII achitecture, and is the best path forward for faster processors from intel.

cant find the link now

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:08 pm

I have a 1.6Ghz HP Pentium M. It's thin, quiet and small. My point of buying a laptop was having a MOBILE rig, and that should be your goal, If you ask me. I see no need for hyperfantastic earth shattering specs on a laptop. If I wanted to have the coolest, fastest, computer of the neighborhood, I would assemble a normal PC on my own. But to each his own I guess...

Oh! And get a backpack for carrying the thing, more comfortable than those "mail bags", you won't regret it!

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:27 pm

history of the development of centrino by the Israeli wing of Intel ... no, not Mossad

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=1800
geekage

poshook · Post by **poshook** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:42 pm

yes, my PentiumM1.6GHz was as fast in Live as my desktop AMD64/3000+.
P4 is the worst processor in Intel history

doctorbooty · Post by **doctorbooty** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:55 am

subterFUSE wrote: I recently bought a Pentium 4 laptop, to use specifically with Ableton Live. I chose Pentium 4 because the laptop I got has 2 hard drives, that are both SATA drives.... and they are in a Raid 0 config. Raid 0 doubles your hard drive speeds, by splitting data between 2 drives. So I have 160 gigs of space, and it's very fast.

subterFUSE: where did you get your laptop? I'm searching around for a new one, and those specs sound mighty nice.

Also, I didn't quite understand why you went with the Pentium 4 over the Pentium M - is the 4 better for your HD configuration?

Thanks!

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:22 am

Are Pentium M CPU available in desktop configs then?

rasputin · Post by **rasputin** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:20 pm

elemental wrote:read an interesting article about how the P4 technology is at a dead end, and the Pentium M is actually based on the PIII achitecture, and is the best path forward for faster processors from intel.

cant find the link now

I think that's actually true; again I read somewhere that Intel abandoned plans for a 4 GHz (?) P4 since they couldn't get it to work within the power and heat constraints they needed... If I were to buy a new system now it would be a P-M / Centrino portable; in a couple years I think there will be a new technology.

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:06 pm

doctorbooty wrote:
subterFUSE wrote: I recently bought a Pentium 4 laptop, to use specifically with Ableton Live. I chose Pentium 4 because the laptop I got has 2 hard drives, that are both SATA drives.... and they are in a Raid 0 config. Raid 0 doubles your hard drive speeds, by splitting data between 2 drives. So I have 160 gigs of space, and it's very fast.
subterFUSE: where did you get your laptop? I'm searching around for a new one, and those specs sound mighty nice.

Also, I didn't quite understand why you went with the Pentium 4 over the Pentium M - is the 4 better for your HD configuration?

Thanks!

I got my laptop from M-Tech. http://www.mtechlaptops.com

I chose Pentium 4 because you can't get dual hard drives on a Pentium M laptop. I wanted the Raid config.

liquidfx · Post by **liquidfx** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 7:23 pm

I say who cares. Pentium shmentium. P4 has already been declared a dead end. New architectures are already waiting to replace it!

I'm waiting for my new Powerbook with the Apple Specific/Intel designed Modum chip running at an amazing 5 watts!

Not only that but, they will probably incorporate Blu-Ray DVD technology into them (as recently announced jointly by Apple, MGM, Sony, Columbia, Disney, etc).

Next gen Powebooks will finally arrive in mid-late 2006/early 2007.

I already have my checkbook out.

Pentium 4 vs. Pentium M

Pentium 4 vs. Pentium M

Pentium M in a desktop?