Legit Reviews

What is faster a low speed processor with a high cache memory or Higher speed processor with a lower cache memory.

It really depends on what you are trying to do. The safe bet is the fast CPU with a large cache!

Welcome to the forums!!

Like apop said it all depends on the application you want to run. Generaly games, and compilers, some video applications do well with lots of cache as well. most rippers, and encoders, office apps work better with higher frequency.

Centrino's come with low CPU speed but very high Cache memory. I can get a normal laptop (which is wifi upgradeable) with a high CPU speed but half the Cache memory of the centrino. Example: A 1.6ghz with 1MB Cache or a 2.8Ghz with 512KB Cache??

are you planning on doing any high level encoding?

If not i would go with the larger cache.

It's for all rounder. Not for games though. Will be doing sound editing a lot and maybe dvd burning and general internet usage.

I recommend going for the higher clock in that case

lower cache cpus are rarely worth it.

You are better off spending a few more bucks for more cache

as afr as I know - the large cache mobile chips are dothan core (newer manufacturing process)
theese have great performance
they also have better speedstep technology
this will save on battery power compaired to a higher MHz cpu, also run cooler

in the end you prob won't notice a performance difference but will notice the battery!

You can't compare the Ghz speeds of the Pentium M to that of the Pentium 4. They are totally different archatectures. The Pentium M notebooks have better battery life and run cooler than a Pentium 4 "desktop replacement" notebook. If you are getting a laptop, go with a Pentium M. The 1.7 GHz Dothan (Pentium M 735) will probably out-perform the 2.8GHz Pentium 4 in almost all cases.

Illuminati wrote:You can't compare the Ghz speeds of the Pentium M to that of the Pentium 4. They are totally different archatectures. The Pentium M notebooks have better battery life and run cooler than a Pentium 4 "desktop replacement" notebook. If you are getting a laptop, go with a Pentium M. The 1.7 GHz Dothan (Pentium M 735) will probably out-perform the 2.8GHz Pentium 4 in almost all cases.

If you get more cache, you can always overclock the hertz, but you can't increase the cache.

Justin, I haven't really kept up with Intel, but how are the socket differences for the Pentium M and P4? My laptop has a P4 and gets up to 60* when I game. I'm just wondering if I'd even be better off getting the new Dell setup that's in the XPS2 / 9300 rather than my current setup that is the 9100 / XPS. I'm doubting I can just throw a Pentium M in the same board.

dpend on the notebook some notebook can take Pentium-M S478 (not S479) on the p4 notebook,

P4 = S478 (older notebook) L775 (newer)
P-M = S478 / S479

It's a newer notebook. Inspiron 9100 (Or AKA the XPS)

He actually bought a Dell.......*GASP*

f*** dell...

the only reason why i dont buy one of those sweet dell lcd monitors is because i dont want to give them my business ever again. yeah, i'd be buying the monitor used and all, but i'd have the logo on my monitor, thus showing support of dell..... not gonna happen.

I bought this Dell b/c it was cheap, very powerful, and I can change whatever I want... Anyway, can I somehow stick a Pentium M on this board, or am I SOL?

You won't be able to stick a decent Pentium M on that mobo, they are Socket 479... and you have Socket 478.

and if its gaming on a laptop that you are worried about, you need to look into what kind of graphics your laptop has and not as much on what CPU you have... although I would still recommend a Pentium M over a Pentium 4 for a gaming notebook just because of the heat factor. And only the newest top-of-the-line notebooks have the ability to upgrade graphics... and even that is up in the air.

So really you are SOL as far as upgrading that laptop for gaming purposes.

It's already a gaming laptop. It runs BF2 great at medium settings for cryin' out loud! I am possibly getting a new video card in 2-3 weeks. Somewhere along the line of the highest available AGP Mobile Video, such as an X800 or X300, or a 6800? He swears he saw that some company makes an AGP version of the X800, so if I got one of those, score! I honestly haven't seen one, but whatever... I've got a 64MB 9700 which works awesome, but I would like to have better. My friend who works for Dell may be scoring up a "cheap" laptop and is gonna sell me the card for dirt cheap.

I guess I won't really worry about the CPU other than possibly upgrading to a 3.2GHz or higher later down the road, depending what heat is like, or if I can find any good cooling solution.

- P4 2.8GHz w/ HT - 800MHz FSB
- 64MB Mobile Radeon 9700
- 2x 1GB PC3200 DDR - Dual Channel Enabled
- 15.4" WXGA Screen
- 95WHr Battery w/ "Subwoofer"