Category: Geeks r Us
I've got a Macbook with a dual core processor and can honestly say I don't notice the difference between it and my Pentium 4. But when I use my bf's Pentium 2 with XP, the only thing I can really do with it is my Greek lessons, which just involve opening two documents in Wordpad and switching between them. Going online with it is a nightmare, and we've both agreed that he needs to get a newer machine as soon as possible for his own sake. In any case, I've seen several really nice Pentium 3s online and am interested in buying one. But I'm scared that I'll have that really slow reaction that I do with the 2. I mostly go to sites like GMail, Facebook, Livejournal, Wikipedia, various news sites, Youtube and a few other interesting sites here and there. I don't use Powerpoint, XL, Microsoft Word or any graphically-heavy programs. I don't download movies but do download songs that I like. I'm sure that I use under 30gb of my hard disk, since all my text, music programs, pictures etc. only took up about 16.5 gb when I saved them to a folder for backup on my cf card and the really important stuff is less than 6gb. So could I get away with a p3 for XP or should I stick with a p4?
stick with p4.
Were this seven years ago, I'd say buy a P3. But any P4 would be advantageus these days, as There are very few Wilamettes still around (less than 2.2 GHZ). For the record, it is possible that you mgiht find a computer in yoru local big box store for about as much as a used P4. If so, just do it, have good warranty times.
What are Wilamettes? I'm buying from ebay. So pretty much, p3 is the same as p4?
P4 especially if you use you tube .. flash is a resource hog so get as much power as you can .. i agree with nick on finding like a $200 computer at your big box store
I've never even heard of Big Box. Are they online? It's alot easier for me to shop online than to have someone take me to a store etc. That, and What is Pentium Mobile, Pemtium M Centrino, Celeron, Celeron M… I mean, what are their numbered equivalents, if any?
would I experience the same kind of slowness with a P3 as with a P2 or just on certain sites like youtube? I'm on wireless via Fios from Verison if that helps.
You can't just say p3 p4, you have to give speeds. If you have a late p2 and an early p3 then the difference would be small. Harddrive space isn't important at the moment - although such machines are going to have old and slow harddives in them that are probably going to be noisey and will slow your computer down considderably.
Get a p4, there really not that expencive anymore.
Just to confuse things, p3's are widely regarded as being better than p4's but still, get a p4.
P4.
Why are P3s regarded as being better? And if I were to get one that differs from the P2s what kind of speed are we looking at?
My Acer Aspire One had a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor and I never had problems with surfing the web or going on youtube etc. It wasn't sluggish at all and I didn't find anything lacking in it, though some have claimed that netbooks aren't really that powerful. So I looked up Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 on Wikipedia to get an idea of how fast these processors run. For 3, it said the speeds were from 450 MHz to 1.4 GHz. For the Pentium 4, it said the speeds were from 1.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz. So basically, my netbook was a low-end P4. In real use, what's the difference between 1.4 GHZ and 1.6 GHZ?
Excuse me for being harsh here, but have you tried this wonderful thing called google? Try putting your questions in. You get some amazing results.
Hmm. I didn't know Wikipedia was in my head.
Grrr, I give up with you, I really do.
If someones asking about something that I kno about then I love to help them along there way. But you just ignore everything that I tell you when to be completely honest me along with most of the other people who are trying to help you kno far more about these things than you do.
Its almost like you come on here, post a question and while your typing it you diside what the right answer is and that's the only answer you want to here. What on earth is the point in me continuing to post replies to your topics?
To answer your questions for the last time:
The design process of the p3's along with some other stuff was generally considdered better - the pentium m was based on the p3 and the core 2 duo was based on the pentium m. Having said this, there would be no advantage to you getting a p3 over a p4; its just something that some very technical people have said.
I've run a tweaked version of xp on a p3 1ghz with 512mb of ram, but really, the p4's are so cheap that I really don't see why you would want to get a p3.
Finally, whilst 200mhz speed difference between a 1.6 and a 1.4ghz cpu doesn't seem like a lot, your netbook has faster memory, a faster fsb and a faster harddrive. I've never put a 1.6 atom against another cpu, but don't expect the same performance from a old desktop as your getting from your netbook - there not exactly super computers, but there not the slowist things ever.
I guess I'll just get another netbook or a P4 laptop in that case. I was just hoping for something with more reliable tech than is usually made today and the prices on the older models looked more appealing given what they had to offer. I hate the concept of disposable tech in most cases, and having to buy another of the same thing the next year. Still, I could probably get away with an ever-so-slightly older machine, sold at a good price, that has decent speed for XP and that won't break down after a few months or a year or two of use.
I found this while reading a review of the IBM Thinkpad X31, which I'm strongly considering buying.
"Don't fall for the MHz Myth that happens to Intel fans and those who view clock speeds as the only method of indicating a processor's performance. Pentium M processors at 1.4 GHz are as fast or faster than Pentium 4-M 2.4 GHz counterparts, and can give regular Pentium 4 chips a run for their money."
so it looks like I might have another option, and hopefully more laptops that meet my requirements, to choose from now.
Btw, that page is 2 of 8 and it can be found here.
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Computer-Systems/IBM-ThinkPad-X31-Review/1/
As I have posted in a another thread in my experiences the last gen p3 ran a little better than the first gen p4, that being said i doubt you will be doing the kind of power things that i did with my system so get a P4 it will be plenty powerful and probably slightly bette for stuff like handling flash video. Secondly had no issues with my pentium mobile so i would reccomend one with out a doubt. ok Now for the clock speed issues. You can just rate a processor by its speed .. there is differences in a 1.6 GHZ pentium 4 and a 1.6 Atom processor used in a netbook.. Architectually and and the way it proccess the info are somewhat different .. so you can't just compare them on speed alone.