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pent. 4 vs pent. M

MADianito

ok, so, im going to upgrade my laptop (im buying a new one), mostly checking ALIENWARE, DELL, and there's one Toshiba round there...but im very confussed what's best for graphics...Pentium IV or Pentium M???? ¿?..... ok, im going to use mainly, rhino, maya, 3d max, and photoshop...i would like to hear ur comments and/or ur suggestions of best configuration/model...thanks guys

 
Jul 28, 04 7:19 pm
Marc Pittsley

Pentium 4 runs very HOTTTT.
Those chips were designed for desktops, and the M was designed for portability.

cnet's comparison

I've also heard that Intel is phasing out the 4 by the end of 2004.

Jul 28, 04 7:22 pm  · 
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Marc Pittsley

Oh yeah, and the Pentium 4 is a battery hog.

Here's that article.

Jul 28, 04 7:24 pm  · 
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mbr

The Pentium M and the Mobile Pentium are part of the Centrino family, which are Intel's modile range. I believe the equivalenct models are something like a 1.4 = a 2.4 P4 chip, as far as speed is concerned. Could be wrong, but it's close to that.

If you are going to be really mobile, then you don't want a P4 in a laptop.

Jul 28, 04 7:31 pm  · 
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MADianito

nah actually im going to use a normal (cable) ethernet... i dont really care if its mobile or not...i preffer good graphics/3d modelling performance

Jul 28, 04 7:43 pm  · 
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maxwonder

MA Dianito,
I was looking to buy a Dell laptop for grad. school. Unfortunitly everytime I priced it out the laptop was about $2,200. Is that your price range?

Anyway, for good graphics and 3D modelling performance I think you need to focus on the Video Card (128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY RADEON) and Memory (1GB).

If you buy a Dell, search for Dell coupons online, just do a search. Dell sales refurbished laptops to help lower the cost.

Jul 28, 04 8:47 pm  · 
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mbr

Get a better graphics card than that! Really, if you are going to use Max or Maya, you should look at some of the newest GeForce's with 256 mbs. I've been using a Quadro 700 xgl (so so), a Quadro FX 500 (pretty good), and a GeForce 5900 with 256mbs ram (the best out of those, but the newer ones should be MUCH better).

If you do go laptop and money is no issue, look at www.boxxtech.com 's laptop. 17" screen, 256 mb graphics card (the best I've seen in a laptop), available RAID (again, only one I"ve seen offer that). It's costly, though. Sony has a new 17 incher, too. Alienware's got a nifty one that you can change the graphics card easily, which is a great idea!

Jul 28, 04 10:25 pm  · 
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I was wondering...are there any architecture schools with a "render farm"?

Jul 28, 04 10:54 pm  · 
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MADianito

render farm??? what u mean?

Jul 28, 04 11:12 pm  · 
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MADianito

actually yeah my top is 2,200 more like 2,000 bucks.... allienware is not that cheap...im finding cheaper dell than alienware...

Jul 28, 04 11:13 pm  · 
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delicrafts

your budget? it's the first thing, i think. if it's not the issue, here are a short-list.

- HP/Compaq NW8000
- Dell Precision M60
- IBM Thinkpad T42
- Boxxtech Mobile Workstation

they all have a high-end mobile graphics card like quadrofx go, mobility firegl and at least centrino 1.7 cpu. but as always, they all cost too much.

Jul 28, 04 11:14 pm  · 
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MADianito

i dunno...im not oriented to centrino... what actually started my confussion was that i read an article where it said Intel tested pentium M with graphic software (like photoshop as quoted) and it worked better than a Pentium IV....but the weirdest thing (after that) is that i saw at some manufacturers websites that they specified "Pentium 4M" processors ¿?

Jul 28, 04 11:20 pm  · 
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mdler

cincinnati has a render farm

Jul 28, 04 11:34 pm  · 
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delicrafts

MADianito, you've got confused just like I did before. Confusing indeed.

Pentium 4-M is Pentium 4 for mobile computing, meaning that its power consumption and heat radiation is lower than P4 for desktop computing. You don't really care power and heat problem, then you might not need P4-M. But as Marc Pittsley said, P4 is really HOT!

And P4-M is also different from Pentium M so called Centrino. Centrino marked slightly higher performance than P4/P4-M in graphic softwares, but it may not be noticeable when using it.

Jul 29, 04 9:09 am  · 
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norm

dell just replaced all our firms laptops that were running pentium 4's with pentium m's.
something about a danger of melting.

Jul 29, 04 9:49 am  · 
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MADianito

yeah well i have a co-worker/friend who uses an ALIENWARE and also had problems w/over heating and actually our personal technician (of the office) told him that most laptops heat up when they r being used mainly for graphic tasks, so he gave us a "gamer-tip" just put a small ventilator behind ur laptop and u will cool it down....

ok, so it seems that P 4 is the option, right???

Jul 29, 04 1:59 pm  · 
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MADianito

seems a P4M or just Pent M is the choice if i wanna avoid overheating...or my laptop in flames.,..cool guys, thanx...

weird that when u have no clue u just buy whatever, and when u know something about it it just make it very complicated to choose from options

Jul 29, 04 6:40 pm  · 
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gog

I'm searching for a new lap top right now as well.

I came acros this web site that while dated, seems to provide more information than you need regarding the differences between the different pentium chipsets out there.

http://www.cpuid.com/PentiumM/index.php

after reading this, I'm leaning towards the pentium M - probably the 1.6 Ghz which seems comparable to a 3.06 Ghz pentium 4.

I think they have been out long enough so that the price is pretty reasonable.

I am now looking into graphics cards. I haven't seen any on laptops (notebooks) that are more than 64 MB.

Right now I am looking at the Toshiba Satellite with the Pentium M (17" screen) or the HP Compaq X1000. with what I am looking at these range between 1,600 - 1,800.

Alienware and Dell seem to be more expensive (with dell you are paying for all this extra stuff you don't want.

Aug 3, 04 1:25 pm  · 
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mmm3

actually pent.house is the best

Aug 4, 04 7:23 pm  · 
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mbr

Dell's laptops have the option of 128 video card or 256 mb (the workstation)

Boxxtech (www.boxxtech.com) has a 17 incher that comes with a 256 mb card and optional RAID (read: expensive!)

Alienware has a removalbe graphics card for upgrading

You will pay a lot to upgrade your card!

Aug 4, 04 7:53 pm  · 
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lilbils

i've found a brand that i was unaware of until about a month ago....we should all take a look at them...

Sager Notebooks http://www.sagernotebooks.com

and PCTorque sells them http://www.pctorque.com

and the kicker is a sweet notebook forum that pctorque set up for all kinds of notebooks at http://www.notebookforums.com

i'm getting all my answers there and am sold on the Sager 3790 using the new Pentium M Dothan processors....lovely.

Aug 19, 04 7:51 pm  · 
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construct

don't rule out Apple....I know its not the industry standard, but i just bought one and am VERY happy with it. very intuitive, and has everything except 3d studio max on it....(autocad as well, but there is vectorworks...which i like better)

Aug 19, 04 10:32 pm  · 
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