Mobile Pentium 4 vs Centrino Pentium M

[odel0022]

I am looking at purchasing a laptop for school. I have narrowed it down to these 2 options.

Toshiba Satellite - m45-s269

Gateway - 7330GZ

They have relativiely the same specs but I just wanted to know the difference between the processors. THe toshiba is a Intel Pentium M (Processor 740) with Centrino technology which runs at 1.7 ghz i believe and the Gateway runs a Mobile Intel Pentium 4 (Processor 532) which i think they said runs at just about 3 ghz. WHat is the difference between these processors...which one would you go for when your budget is less than $1200.

[thefultonhow]

I would definitely go for the Toshiba -- it's a better brand and I would not get a Pentium 4 in a laptop. The P4 runs too hot and sucks up too much power for laptop purposes.

Frankly, though, I think you would be much better served by a Dell system. Dell has gotten a bad rap in recent years, but in my experience it's still more reliable and has better service than Toshiba. You should look at the Inspiron 6000. For $1207, you can get the following (after you apply the $500 off $1499 coupon that's currently out):

Inspiron 6000
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 750 (1.86GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
15.4 inch WXGA LCD Panel
512MB Shared DDR2 SDRAM 2 Dimms
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics
80GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
3Yr Ltd Warr,At-Home Service,and Tech Support plus Nights and Weekends
CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service

If you're willing to spend $54 more, you can get the following for $1261 after a $750 off $1999 coupon:

Inspiron 6000
ntel® Pentium® M Processor 760 (2GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
15.4 inch WXGA LCD Panel
1GB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics
80GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
3Yr Ltd Warr,At-Home Service,and Tech Support plus Nights and Weekends
CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service
9-cell Lithium Ion Battery (80 WHr) Additional Battery

The coupons are as follows (from http://www.xpbargains.com/dell_coupons/):

$500 off $1499 on select Inspiron notebooks, limit 4000 uses: HQTHBLRS9PBVF3
$750 off $1999 on select Inspiron notebooks, limit 4000 uses: G76?BXMPC5919D

Expiration: 2006-01-11 5:59am CST

I think you'd be getting a lot more for your money with either of those configurations. Even if you were to take something off the cheaper config (tax might be charged, so it might be over budget), I think Dell is still a better option than Toshiba.

[odel0022]

Anyone thing I would like my laptop to have is a very bright and vivid screen. I was looking at BestBuy and both the Gateway and Toshiba had an amazing screen using TruBrite and UltraBright technology. I was look at the inspiron 6000 and you can upgrade the screen to dell's UltraSharp screen...does anyone know how that compared to TOshiba's Truebrite?

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by odel0022 Anyone thing I would like my laptop to have is a very bright and vivid screen. I was looking at BestBuy and both the Gateway and Toshiba had an amazing screen using TruBrite and UltraBright technology. I was look at the inspiron 6000 and you can upgrade the screen to dell's UltraSharp screen...does anyone know how that compared to TOshiba's Truebrite?

It's not glossy -- that's Dell's "TrueLife" screen. You won't get as many discounts on it, but the Inspiron 630m (available through Dell Small Business) offers a TrueLife upgrade. Frankly, LCDs in general are going to be bright and vivid. I had a TrueLife screen on my Inspiron XPS2 and my new ThinkPad T43p doesn't have one, but the screen is still very good.

[flawedreality5]

My friend just got a Toshiba Satellite and the screen is freaking amazing. I was blown away by the clarity. I was fiddling with it for a while and it seemed very stable. I've been steering my friends away from Dell in the recent months due to many horrifying stories I've heard with their customer support from people from work and other friends.

[kram 2.0]

Intel Pentium 4-M is a Desktop Replacement (DTR) - Pentium-M is a processor built from the ground up for mobility in mind. The Centrino will give you better performance and battery life. As well, I've used a few Toshiba laptops over the years - decent laptops that are generally reliable in the long-term. I recommend the Toshiba.

Happy New Years.
kram

[chewywun]

I have 2 things to add to this post, first is that I have a Toshiba Satellite with a celeron 1.5 gig, 512 mg of ram that is approx 3 years old. I upgraded the hard drive to a 60 gig and after my ex girlfriend got mad at me and STOMPED on the top of the laptop, I had to replace the LCD, so after going on line and purchasing/replacing the LCD with a used one (done 1 year ago) that's it, I haven't had one other problem even after it was stomped on several times by a severely angry woman. I have absolutely no problem recommending Toshiba laptops to anyone, the only gig I would give them is that they won't sell you any parts, you have to buy them used from an outside source, but even this I understand, it's all a business.

Now for the 2nd thing to add, I work for a consultant and we have a customer who spec'd out and ordered an XPS desktop which is now sitting on my bench awaiting work done. This box blue screened for memory after 15 days, then blue screened for hard drive after 23 days and then 10 days later blue screened for the motherboard. Now, this customer has owned the box for less than 2 months and after at least 10 phone calls, Dell finally decided to replace the system, and for a 2000 dollar system they sent a REFURBISHED unit. I have been working for this company and my last company that recommended Dell models exclusively (laptop or desktop no matter) and I have been dealing with Dell for 3 years straight and have visibly seen their support/service go downhill right in front of my eyes. I don't know if they can right their sinking ship, but if they don't they're going to probably wind up folding. I have to recommend Dells for the company because right now that's the way my boss wants to head, but for my friends and family that ask, I exclusively tell them NOT to go with Dell. Sorry for those of you out there who have not had problems with Dells, but I've had too many to be comfortable with them as a company any more.

[pc master]

from personal experience with Toshiba i would reccomened them. They have fantastic customer support and any repairs are done very fast as well.

[Marke522]

Toshiba all the way. I've worked on a few satallites as well and I was AMAZED at the quality of the LCD and the speed it had once it had a clean install. Of course a clean install helps any computer, but this one inparticular was simply amazing, it could keep up with my deskptop I'm sure. I wouldn't try to play COD on it or DOOM, but before I saw those I always thought of laptops as big address books or daytimers. Toshiba was the first company that convinced me laptops could be real computers.

I agree about the woman jumping on one, they can take an amazing amount of damage. Drop it, kick it, heck, even pour coffee on it, soak it in a tub (while its off of course, and take out the battery), and after it's dry it will be just fine. I'm sure you can do that with any hardware, I'm just saying with a Toshiba you don't have to feel like you're carrying around a dozen eggs.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by pc master They have fantastic customer support and any repairs are done very fast as well.

Not in my experience -- my brother's Toshiba has been into the shop three times for the same problem and we're not sure if they've fixed it yet. Luckily the Toshiba repair center for our region is about 20 minutes away, so it's easy to get it there and back, but I wouldn't call that good service. Support-wise, we've received very little sympathy from Toshiba for our problems.

In contrast, I've been treated very well by Dell; when my XPS2 (which was refurbished but had a good warranty) was rebooting because of the graphics card, they built me a new one and sent it to me advance exchange. I was very impressed.

[chaosiscandytome]

i happen to own the 7330gz, bought it open box at best buy for 929.00, with a warranty of course. this is my first laptop and i love it! the speed is incredible, i have no problem cranking through stuff. for example when i try to extract rar files for large files say about 1.5 gig, the laptop in question takes about a minute. my desktop, same as one in sig, takes a tad longer. which is trivial, but i love the speed of this thing. i will admit, i did add another 512 mb of pc 2700 ram because i felt i should. i didnt really need to because the onboard graphics do not support most current games with pixel shading. however, i play old star wars games from the jedi knight series and this thing is a monster for those....same as my desktop. my girl friends sister bought some new toshiba laptop with harmon kardon speakers onboard. it seemed pretty nice, but trying to sort through the antivirus software upon initial startup i realized one thing. i need all the power i can get. see i went from a pIII 800 512 pc133 to this laptop, and ill never be able to tolerate a slower machine. i had to restart her machine several times, and great expense in time, just to get it to finish setting up the internet security, and that is with 1 gig of ddr2 ram. i think you should go for whichever unit suits you better, but my 7330 is used primarily at home on a plug, but occasionally on its own battery, which is generally good for 2 hours. i love this computer in this capacity, but i will probably get an additional battery before taking it on a long flight. i note, best buy just started carrying the 2 hour battery for 70 bucks, and battery plus i think has the 4-6 hour battery for 180. ill keep u posted when i decide which will be my choice.

[BigAndy05]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow In contrast, I've been treated very well by Dell; when my XPS2 (which was refurbished but had a good warranty) was rebooting because of the graphics card, they built me a new one and sent it to me advance exchange. I was very impressed.

Nice...

I've had the opposite. My XPS2 laptop had windows reinstalled and now its messed up and they won't do anything for me so I'm stuck with a 3000 dollar computer I refuse to use.

I'm probably switching to mac, you should look into them odel0022.

I've lost all hope for PC's