Celeron or P4 laptop?

[SLO-BOB]

I'm getting ready to get a laptop for mainly wi-fi email access and ebay transactions. Of course access to this fine forum as well. I have no experience with Celeron processors. I have P4 desktop units and I had a G3 ibook-hated it. I like the way my desktop works and would be happy with the same performance in a laptop. The brand is Dell for my home desktop and prospective laptop as well. It seems pretty cheap at about $800 for 15 in screen, 2.6 processor, 40 G HD, 512 memory, CDRW/DVD, wireless, etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[island911]

You don't need much for the internet. Machine speed ecllipses modem speed.

For the appp's; it all comes down to chip speed. Celerons are pretty much identical to the faster chips . . . though they have simply been told to run w/ a slower clock-speed. (many buy these cheap, and overclock them . . .. but then you need more cooling, et cetera. )

My suggestion: use a POS cmptr for the internet, and something nicer for all other app's.

[Joeaksa]

Sebring,

Sounds like you need it for traveling and internet access when on the road. I used to travel 220 nights a year in hotels, now its slacked off to "only" 120 a year so have a bit of experience here.

I have used the gamut of Dell and IBM laptop's. Like the IBM better but my boss works for Dell so you can guess which ones we buy! I have a Latitude 600 now and like it a lot better than the old one I had. This one is a 2 mhz machine and nice. Reason I have it is the older one had a built in floppy and weighed 8 pounds with the charger and that is just too damm heavy.

Newer one weighs 4.5 without the charger and has no floppy. Do not really need nor want one and use the DVD/CD drive or WiFi or network to something that does the job. Get the largest HD you can on the puppy and extra RAM is your friend, otherwise they are not that much different.

Buy it with an AmEx or MC/Visa card that has the "extended warranty" on it that doubles the factory warranty for free. If you do not have it on your CC, then call them and ask as the Dell or IBM "extended warranty" costs too much IMHO.

JoeA

[SLO-BOB]

Great advice guys-thanks. I ended up getting the Dell 1150 (cheap pos) and upgrading the memory, HD, and warranty to the full year for $14 bucks. You're right-for another year add $150-too much. So now it sounds as if I have a two year warranty. Or is it double just the original 90 day warranty?

[azasadny]

I'd get the P4 over the Celeron... unless the difference is significant.

[id10t]

If you go with Dell, buy it as a small business -the lattitude (and optiplex desktops) are much better than their "personal/home use" line (inspiron and dimensions)

[Joeaksa]

Whatever the normal factory warranty is doubled with certain credit cards, for nothing. Well worth the price!

JoeA

[Milu]

The advantage of a celeron on a portable as I understand it, is that it runs cooler and batteries run longer between charges.

[red-beard]

You want a centrino/Pentium M - which is designed to change clock speed to save battery life. I have my eye on an IBM R50.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Celeron = junk. Why they'd deliberately "dumb down" a processor is beyond me.

[bryanthompson]

Apple iBook or PowerBook. Your life will be much better without winders.

[SLO-BOB]

Originally posted by bryanthompson
Apple iBook or PowerBook. Your life will be much better without winders.

I appreciate the advice but......maybe better w/o windows, but miserable with the Apple. I had a G3 ibook that I purchased new about a year ago. Within 6 mos I went through 6 (!!!!) logic boards. After the first five, Apple sent me a new ibook. When that one went bad too, I waited patiently for it to return (from apple repair).....again..... so I could sell it for a huge loss on Ebay. Never again will I own Apple anything.

[dd74]

Originally posted by red-beard
You want a centrino/Pentium M - which is designed to change clock speed to save battery life. I have my eye on an IBM R50.

Good machine. I have an R40. I'd buy no other Wintel machine than an IBM. Otherwise, it'd be an Apple.

[952]

I have had 3 Compaq notebooks with celeron... its junk. My latest is a Compaq / HP P4 and its much quicker.

PS Compaq is junk, the reason I am on my 4th is because the previous ones failed. Good choice on the Dell!

[928ram]

Celeron = junk. Why they'd deliberately "dumb down" a processor is beyond me.

Dumber chip = smaller chip = more per wafer = lower cost per each = higher profit margin

[SLO-BOB]

I've been using the new Dell 1150 for a couple of days now. So far, so good. It's the 2.8 Celeron w/512 and to be honest, for my needs I can't really tell the difference between it and my P4 1.8 desktop. I guess I don't really place much demand on my laptops at all-mostly internet stuff. I plan to use it as a wireless MP3 player for my home audio system as well.

Quality and ergonomics are a bit off, however. The thing is huge and weighs nearly 8 pounds. The keyboard is pretty cheapy, but the monitor ("15") is excellent. Considering it was $800 I'm impressed so far. Also it runs waaaaay cooler than my ibook.

[jyl]

Originally posted by Sebring77
I appreciate the advice but......maybe better w/o windows, but miserable with the Apple. I had a G3 ibook that I purchased new about a year ago. Within 6 mos I went through 6 (!!!!) logic boards. After the first five, Apple sent me a new ibook. When that one went bad too, I waited patiently for it to return (from apple repair).....again..... so I could sell it for a huge loss on Ebay. Never again will I own Apple anything.

Ouch! I sympathize. A lot, actually, since our G3 iBook is at Apple getting its logic board replaced as we speak. Still, we're buying a iMac this XMas!

[SLO-BOB]

Sorry to hear that. You'll get to know the sound of the UPS truck well. Even the guy at the Apple store finally confessed that his G3 ibook had had several logic boards replaced. When your warranty is up, I would move on.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by 928ram
Dumber chip = smaller chip = more per wafer = lower cost per each = higher profit margin

Doubtful. The Celeron is merely a P4 with less L2 cache. Most likely simply down binned after testing and the excess cache disabled.

A higher profit margin would require the device per wafer count to increase faster than the price decreases.