What processor to get?

[nufan292]

Basically I am planning on getting a new computer, but I was wondering what processor to get (while being price conscience). My question is, I'm planning on getting a Dell Inspiron 8200 notebook, with either a 1.6/1.7 pentium 4-m, and was wondering if the 1.7 would be much better performance wise (capturing/encoding/editing). Thank you for any and all replies.

[offline]

Any speed increase helps if you think the increase in price is
worth it. The problem is that power management and
internal gauntlets make laptops under perform on intensive
tasks like transcoding.

[smearbrick1]

I got some advice:

Forego the entire idea of buying a laptop...

Build yourself a dual 2.0ghz xeon system!

You might be surprised how cheap you can do it!

[Craig Tucker]

and if he needs portability ?

[nufan292]

Yeah, I do need the portability. I am in college right now, and I need something that is portable. But I have always liked video-editing and making movies. During encoding, how much time will the 1.7 save? Thanks.

[Mirror_Image]

It's roughly proportional; the 1.7 would probably trim encoding time by around 6 percent (not very much) compared to the 1.6

[offline]

You can run into problems just by comparing the cpu rating. That is, of course, just one part of a series of interconnecting hardware assests which
can affect speed.

The 8200 comes with about 5 diff mainboards, 2 diff video chips, 2 types
of socket memory..etc ect. Each is packaged so that buyers can see
the difference between a 1.6 and a 1.7 & 1.9 p4mCPU notebook - otherwise the only difference would be the cpu rated speed which mirror_image mentioned.

[smearbrick1]

For portability:

Buy a gas powered generator.

[gf]

Don't forget AMD's Athlon cpu's. They have pretty good power and it could save you a few bucks.

[gll99]

Cpu cache of 512 vs 256
mainboard chipset you will have to compare ratings
ram bus speed (DDR) 333 (vs 133 or 266)

Just some of the more important factors that can impact on the processing speed much more that the small diff between 1.6 or 1.7. pentium 4

I took the 1.6 with 512 cache and the board that accepted DDR 333 ram.
Got a 512 DDR 333 ram right away. Also took a board with plenty of pci slots for expansion. Watch those boards with all built in but only 1 pci slot. Built for less than $1000 can. but its a mid-tower.

[subber]

The story I hear is that the P4 mobiles aren't that much faster than the P3 mobiles and you can get one from less. This might not be true, but I remember reading it in Pc Mag. I would check into it so you can save some money.

Good Luck