Hey-o there, me again. That other 'new computer' topic down there made me think. I'm getting a new Laptop soon, since i'm heading to college this fall, and i wanted to get the opinions from massassi on the ones i'm looking at. feel free to give me other options, though. Both of these are from IBUYPOWER.

Prices below are total including shipping.

$1417 Version spec:



Battalion-101 S-Turbo[AMD] Series 15.4" 16:10 Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Original Metallic Silver Color (Shown Above)
Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer
Mobile AMD® Athlon-64 3400+ CPU
Free Napster Download Coupon
Free Half Life 2 Download Coupon (note: i already have HL2, so this doesn't really matter)
Free Deluxe Carrying Case
MS Windows XP Home Edition
1024MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC-3200
Mobility 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 256-bit 3D Video
Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports
Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port
80 GB 5400rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive
4x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Build-in 56K V.90 Fax Modem
Build-in 10/100 Network LAN
Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module
Warranty Service Standard 1-Year Limited Warranty + 1-Year i-Care Deluxe 24/7 Phone Support + Depot Service
No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days


$1730 version specs:




Battalion-101 G-900 17" 16:10 Wide Screen WXGA 1440x900 LCD TFT Notebook w/Subwoofer, Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter Original Metallic Silver/Black 2-Tone Color (Shown Above)
Build-in 6-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer
Intel® Pentium-4 Processor 3.0E Ghz CPU [1MB Cache, 800MHz FSB, HT Ready]
MS Windows XP Home Edition
1024MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC-3200
Mobility 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 256-bit 3D Video
Build-in 4x USB 2.0 Ports
Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port
80 GB 5400rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive
Build-in TV Tuner with Remote Control
8X Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard + Build-in Subwoofer
Build-in 56K V.90 Fax Modem
Build-in 10/100/1000 Network LAN
Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module
Warranty Service Standard 1-Year Limited Warranty + 1-Year i-Care Deluxe 24/7 Phone Support + Depot Service
No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days

That second one isn't going to last 2 hours on a battery. I know you said not to compare, but for god's sake, get the AMD one, which not only cheaper, is better.

Well, ok, let me ammend that, go ahead and compare the two. now that i think about it, i'm not sure why i said that before.

And besides battery life (its a P4, i know its going to suck energy fast), what do you think?

If your going to use it for gaming, AMD is your only choice.

I'm not doing a Pentium M. its either P4 or AMD. PMs would kill me with gaming, highest they go is about 2.1 gigs

Oh ye of little knowledge. PM's work more per clock than any processor in their class. They outperform AMD 64's.

DO NOT GO AMD. DO NOT GO P4.

Pentium M is by far the way to go.

ok, then, benchmark wise, what would be better? PM 2.1, p4 3, or AMD 3400? discounting price and power usage, just pure power.

Edit: Scrap that. PMs may be powerful, but they're waaaay too expensive. same models as above reach over 2000 with them

Pm will ALWAYS BEAT EVERYTHING. Seriously. Clock speeds mean nothing.

1. BV, you're really not swaying me at all by saying that.

2. Ok, since they're better, what speed PM would compare with the 3 gig P4 in terms of performance?

Here's the only benchmark I could find.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2129&p=8

Probably the 1.6 GHz or the 1.8 GHz. You missed out on a good chance to get a Pentium M based system really cheap a few weeks ago when Dell was giving $750 off of most of their laptop models.

The 2.1 GHz Pentium M is a beast, and is can pretty much stomp the highest of high end P4s and Athlon 64's as far as laptops go (and can come close in a desktop when used with an 865 chipset).

BV handled that one pretty much.

But yeah, never, ever go on clock speed to compare two different processors. Hell, the AMD 64's go as low as 1.8ghz...and spank anything that Intel has that's 'equivalent'.

Not to mention that when you OC your dothan to 2.4 ghz, it rapes the FX 55.

I knew about that, but with the AMDs they give you numbers (i.e. the 3400+ i have up tehre) which make it easy to compare. the PMs don't help any, so i figured they were the same as the other pentiums in terms of power.

Ok, this is a new one now with the PM. what do you think of this?

$1545:



Battalion-101 ML Series 15.4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Case Original Metalic Silver Color
Build-in 4-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer
Intel® Pentium M Processor 745 [1.8GHz, 2MB Cache]
Free Deluxe Carrying Case
MS Windows XP Home Edition
1024MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC-3200
Mobility 256MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 256-bit 3D Video
Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports
Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port
80 GB 5400rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive
4x DVD+R/RW & 16X CD-RW Combo Drive [ML-Series]
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Build-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem
Build-in 10/100 Network LAN
Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module
Warranty Service Standard 1-Year Limited Warranty + 1-Year i-Care Deluxe 24/7 Phone Support + Depot Service )
No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

P.S. Also, for a little bit more ($25, to be exact), i can get kingston or Corsair RAM istead of the standard. think its worth it?

Do you know how much they weigh generally?
I've been shopping for a gaming laptop for a while (even bought one and returned it) and finally decided that I would rather have a small, light notebook with an extended battery life for school.

Will you be lugging it around to classes?

I will, but i'll have a shoulder-step case for it, so weight won't really be a problem. and anything that'll help me get into shape isn't bad :p

Edit: Oh, and thanks for that article, BV. that was exactly the sort of information i was looking for. Helped a lot.

And here's my final customization, i think, unless i find a better dealer (which i doubt)

$1678:

Same picture as the last one above

Battalion-101 ML Series 15.4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Case Original Metalic Silver Color
Build-in 4-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer
Intel® Pentium M Processor 755 [2.0GHz, 2MB Cache]
Free Deluxe Carrying Case
MS Windows XP Home Edition
1024MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC-3200
Mobility 256MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 256-bit 3D Video
Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports
Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port
80 GB 5400rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive
4x DVD+R/RW & 16X CD-RW Combo Drive
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Build-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem
Build-in 10/100 Network LAN
Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module
Warranty Service Standard 1-Year Limited Warranty + 1-Year i-Care Deluxe 24/7 Phone Support + Depot Service
Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days

And thanks again, BV. That site was great, and completely turned me against the P4.

Sounds like a plan.

See, people at massassi wonder why we try to dissuade people from doing certain things. It's because sometimes, it works.

hardocp has some nice articles on the Pentium M, check out what they say about the new Dell XPS 2 lappy. That thing is ridiculous... Your laptop is good but for 1700 I would look for somehting slightly newer in the graphics card department. The 9700 while a beast in its time is sadly aging along with the r3xx core.

i checked out dell with the same specs, and it came out over $2000. and plus, i despise dell. Any other dealer you' suggest, Never?

That laptop's fine. Seriously, the 9700 is still a great card, and can run ALL modern games no problem, many of them at higher resolutions/settings.

I agree, if I get a laptop for college ( I haven't decided yet) I'd much rather have an actual laptop, not a gargantuan monster that barely fits in my lap.

I was given an iBook for a laptop...

...I'm unhappy.

(edit: actually, it's so easy to carry around. But I assume, because its a Mac product, it was pricy.)

Pentium M's, suprisingly, do rock hardcore. Probably because Intel decided to go back to the drawing board with those cores, and threw in a metric assload of L2 cache along with it.

AMD's multicore chips will probably be its only competition, whenever those come out.

Except multicore chips are hardly portable items, which pretty much leaves the Pentium M's alone in their class. As far as for gaming, yeah, but only TRULY hardcore enthusiasts have Pentium M's in their desktops in the first place.

6800 Ultra Go is worlds beyond the 9700 mobile... thats a fact

Especially in price. Also fact.

Yeah, never, IBUYPOWER laptops with the NVidia go about $300 to $400 more

At the moment maybe. P4s weren't exactly laptop chips for a long time either. But look how that changed.

I'd imagine a good multicore chip would turn off cores it was not using to save power. So it could still be battery effective.

Uh...then it'd defeat the purpose of being multicore really.

Size and heat are the factors of its lack of portability.

No it wouldn't. It would be like stepping down the megahertz. When you need the speed, it kicks all cores online, and gives you full power. When you don't, it'll turn off what it isn't using.

As for heat, it probably won't be as big of an issue as you make it out to be. If they can get it cooled with fans like current CPUs, it will not be too hard to get it inside a laptop also.

As for size, well, stuff is getting smaller by the day. It may not happen immediately, but it won't be too long.

Crossbar latch.

Well, dual-core Pentium M's have been in Intel's plans almost as long as dual-core Pentiums have, so...

Well, considering you'll be at college, where I can't use it, I suggest not buying any of them, and instead giving me the money. I'll take cash, in a sack with a dollar sign on the side, thank you.

Well, sorry chaz, but i jsut ordered it. it was with the last cionfiguration above. Thanks for the help, everyone!