Topic: Celron or Pentium 4 ???

[airbladder]

I am going to enter the world of laptop recording and don't have the balls to buy used.  So I am looking a cheep dell.  It is comming down to this.  Intel Celeron Processor 2.6 GHz or Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor 2.8GHz.  The 4 is going to cost an extra 115$.  How much faster are we talking about?  Is it worth it?  Pros cons?  Any help would be great.  I don't know that much about computers so spell it out for me.  Do I need the 4?  Will I be glad that I got it? 
Thanks,
Ed

[bhtoque]

The celeron is slower at the same clock speed since they have less (or no) cache.

Here is my standard line of advice to anybody going to buy computer stuff:

Research on www.tomshardware.com before you buy.

JAson

[mirth]

FYI - people in the past using Dells have run into issues with glitches being introduced into their tapes when the laptop lids are opened/shut.

[Nick in Edinboro]

Details puhweese.  Got links?

There are several "flavors" of both of those processors.

Regardless, the Celeron will be slower then the P4 due directly to it's slower bus speed (400mhz vs. 533/800mhz*) and it's lesser amount of cache (128k vs. 512k/1MB*).

Cache is very important.  It equates to a faster version of RAM which is stored directly on the processor.

The analogy of a workshop does wonders in explaining how important cache/bus speed is.

You have a workbench where you create widgets, and then 50 feet away you have a shelf where the parts are located to create widgets.

The bus speed (FSB) could equate to a wagon you use to carry parts from the shelf over to your work bench.  The faster the wagon the less time it takes to get parts from the shelf over to the work bench to be used.

The workbench itself is your cache.  The bigger your workbench (cache) the more parts you can hold at the point where work takes place and the less you have to go back and forth over to the shelf to get more parts.

You get more work done with a bigger bench and a faster wagon because you can assemble more widgets because less time is wasted.

Does that make sense?  I believe its worth the extra $150.  However the requirements for laptop taping as I know are probably well within the limits of the Celeron.

Take care,
Nick



* Depends on flavor of P4 and Celeron

[pfife]

unconfirmed anecdote:  celerons don't maintain the same performance as well as a pentium does either.

[scb]

wouldn't the celeron require less power?

[Nick in Edinboro]

wouldn't the celeron require less power?

Actually probably not.

I'd assume that these are both "mobile" chips, but again, we haven't seen any real specs from the person who issued the question.

If you compare the Pentium 4-M 1.4ghz chip to the Pentium 4 Mobile Celeron 1.4ghz chip the standard P4 requires less voltage (1.3v 26watts)  then the Celeron (1.3v 30watts).

It also appears as if the newer P4 Mobiles have the ability to half step their bus speeds, which would require less voltage.  For instance their 3.2ghz chip can run at 1.6ghz and requires only 1.2watts at "half speed" compared to 1.5watts at "full speed".

So we'd, again, have to see exactly which to chips to compare, as a blanket statement won't fit.

Take care,
Nick

[C.Clark]

i got my 2nd laptop about a year ago, toshiba satelltie, w/ 2 ghz celeron, 512mb ram and 40 gb HD, and
the thing runs like a champ out in the field, never had any problems with performance and even run
the processor at half speed to save juice, whether you go celeron or p4, there is hardly any performance
issues for application out in the field.  now if you were gonna use it for high performace video games, CAD drawing or high processor speed applications, its lower bus speed might affect it, but for taping, you'll need less than half of that 2.6ghz processor, whether its celeron or pentium class, hope this helps. oh and to add, as long as you have a bunch of ram, it will pick up some of the slack of the processor
-chris

[nic]

i got my 2nd laptop about a year ago, toshiba satelltie, w/ 2 ghz celeron, 512mb ram and 40 gb HD, and
the thing runs like a champ out in the field, never had any problems with performance and even run
the processor at half speed to save juice, whether you go celeron or p4, there is hardly any performance
issues for application out in the field.  now if you were gonna use it for high performace video games, CAD drawing or high processor speed applications, its lower bus speed might affect it, but for taping, you'll need less than half of that 2.6ghz processor, whether its celeron or pentium class, hope this helps. oh and to add, as long as you have a bunch of ram, it will pick up some of the slack of the processor
-chris

this is true.
for audio work, cpu and ram are the least of your concerns(anything over 1Gz and over 512RAM is more than fine). however, if you plan on doing anything else with this unit, expecially heavy CPU action, then go with the P4 or a AMD(not Duron) and a good graphics card(graphics cards are inconsequential to audio work)

[creekfreak]

I have found the battery life I get using a centrino processor is amazing, can get close to 3 hours of recording out of one lappie battery.

[sygdwm]

fwiw. i use a p3 667mhz w/ 128mb ram at 24/48. you should be fine either way.

[the yokel]

gotcha beat.  P II 400mhz w128mb ram @ 24/48.  & it's a junk dell @ that.

FYI - people in the past using Dells have run into issues with glitches being introduced into their tapes when the laptop lids are opened/shut.

I've heard that but isn't the case for my Latitude LS. 

[mirth]

got all y'all beat so far... I taped MMW last weekend using a Celeron 400 w/64MB Ram

[creekfreak]

With the gateway lappie I use for taping I don't have issues when opening or closing the screen, but if I change screen brightness at all it makes all sorts of weird souds in the recording, something I learned the hard way.

[airbladder]

I went with a mobile intel pentium 4 processor 538 538 3.20ghz.  I figure that the hard drive and ram can be upgraded.  Thanks for the info I will be back for more.  Next on the list: battery, multitrack interface, and software. 
Ed

[BWolf]

wouldn't the celeron require less power?

Actually probably not.

I'd assume that these are both "mobile" chips, but again, we haven't seen any real specs from the person who issued the question.

If you compare the Pentium 4-M 1.4ghz chip to the Pentium 4 Mobile Celeron 1.4ghz chip the standard P4 requires less voltage (1.3v 26watts)  then the Celeron (1.3v 30watts).

It also appears as if the newer P4 Mobiles have the ability to half step their bus speeds, which would require less voltage.  For instance their 3.2ghz chip can run at 1.6ghz and requires only 1.2watts at "half speed" compared to 1.5watts at "full speed".

So we'd, again, have to see exactly which to chips to compare, as a blanket statement won't fit.

Take care,
Nick

nick, great advice and awesome job explaining cache, i may have to use that example some time when i'm explaining.  only one thing i noticed in your post.  the chips require the same voltage across the borad (1.3 V), but different power factors.  This causes a difference not in the amount of power that needs to be provided, but instead current.  This is something to think about for lappie guys, especailly guys who are trying to use external batteries to power their computer.