laptop processor speeds...

[Red96TA]

I picked up an athlon xp64 3200 because I was leary of plunking down an equal amount on one of the Pentium M processors that only operate at about 1.5ghz. Are these processors like the athlons that run at 1.5ghz but moves like a much faster processor, or would I have gotten a 1.5ghz machine...

[ViRaL1]

Pentium M chips are supposed to be comparable to Pentium4 chips running at higher speeds. They do scale back processor speed (to save battery life) when not plugged in. On the other hand, the Athlon (was it an XP or a 64) chips have a higher rating than their actual speed, but should be comparable to a Pentium4 chip at the same speed as the rating, i.e. a P4 3.2. You may want to check some benchmarking sites or review sites for more info.

[Cobra]

It depends what you are likely to be using the laptop for. Video, gaming or general purpose?

[rallynavvie]

Actually the more important factor between the "Mobile" processors and the normal laptop/desktop processors is how often you're going to run on battery. The Athlons have been generally kinder on power consumption but the A64s do eat a fair share of power when operating. The mobile processors like the XP-M and Pentium-M scale back clock and power when not being utilized fully, and actually they're both very advanced beyond their desktop counterparts. People were using XP-Ms to overclock their Athlon systems as they were unlocked chips and drew less power. I think the Pentium Ms would be used too but I think they have a different socket altogether.

So actually in the realm of laptops I'd get a fast processor like the P4 or A64 if I were to be close to an outlet and running on that power most often, or I'd get a mobile processor if I like to run on battery a lot. A friend of mine just got a new Dell laptop with a 3.0 P4 and it burns off his battery pretty quick when he's doing 3DS Max renders (what he bought it for), but he's almost always plugged in and only uses the battery for office apps and internet surfing when on the go.

[Red96TA]

Cobra, I use my laptop for crusing the internet and intense video editing in Vegas5...not to mention the 4 hour encode sessions.

[Cobra]

I am basing this answer on the assumption that video editing in Vegas is a non-repetitive task like gaming where repeated pipeline flushes are time-expensive. If this is wrong, can someone please shout?

For the encoding, a Pentium would suit you better. However, for video editing the A64 would be a better choice (on-die memory controller is quicker, and it is faster than a Pentium at non-repetitve tasks).

One could argue that since you will notice the increase in speed with video editing more so than encoding (where you are likely to leave the PC alone) you would be better with the A64.

In your case, both CPUs seem to be evenly-matched. Which one costs less?

Cobra