Why is the AMD Turion 64 CHEAPER than the Intel PM 740?

Looking at the new releases of the Fujitsu S6240 and the S2110, I can save a lot of money getting the S2110 with the AMD processor. But is saving that extra cash to get, say, more RAM (768MB upgrade to 1GB), worth it? Would I be better off getting less RAM but Intel PM processor?

 

AMD processors tend to be cheaper than the comparative intel processors. That said the Turions run hotter and use more power than the Pentium M's, so if that is an issue for you then you might be happier with the Pentium M's. On the other hand they also tend to be faster, and are 64-bit capable, which means a growing number of applications will run significantly faster on them.

 

aren't they gonna upgrade the bios or sumting for intel pentium m chips soon??...because i know there are hundreds of thousands of people who have the pentium m processor..and still are getting them

 

I will be leaving the laptop on for extended periods of time and it will almost always be plugged into the AC. Battery life isn't an issue. So is having a processor that runs hotter, detrimental to the longevity/performance of my laptop?

 

No they won't. Intel tries to make everyone buy a new motherboard everytime they upgrade something unlike AMD. An example would be the Pentium D dual core processor. Instead of making it compatible with 915 chipset, they had to come out with the 945 chipset.

AMD processors are also cheaper because they aren't as heavily marketed as their comparable Intel counterparts. That equals to lower prices, but not many people are familar with AMD products and choose Intel products instead because of this, even if they are inferior. Since the Fujitsu you're talking about uses the MT instead of the ML processor, battery life should be equal to or better than the Pentium M with comparable performance.

 

I am very intrigued by the new s2110 series...I am strongly considering selling my s6231 for the s2110. If I can somehow just verify that you can get close to 4 hours using the AMD processor as advertised, I may pull the trigger....

I see no reason why the s2110 series can't ran as well and possibly better than the s6240...

 

The s2110 uses the Turion MT which runs at 25W versus the Sonoma Pentium M which runs at 27W.

 

Does anyone know if there will be any reviews for the new Fujitsu S2110 and S6240 on notebookreview.com soon?

 

One of our moderators with contacts with fujitsu is trying to get a s2110 for me to review, but I don't know how soon...

stay tuned

 

Hi Everyone,

New to the forums. I had a question about the S2110 (turion) vs the S6240 (centrino), and if you could answer it quickly it'd be appreciated as I'm planning on ordering one of the two today ASAP. First, let me just say, I am not going to be running any programs that are system hogs ... just basic word processing, mp3s, and internet surfing. That being said, is there a reason to get the ~$150 more expensive S6240, and not the S2110? I guess what I really want to know is, does the turion have any effect on how hot the palm/wrist rests will get on the laptop? Heat around the palm/wrist rests is the main issue for me, any heat on the bottom of the laptop unit is pretty negligible as I don't use laptops on my lap. Will the turion model be any less reliable than the centrino? From what I can gather, since the Turion is MT-28 1.6 ghz, it should get comparable/better battery life than the 1.73 ghz Intel 740, correct? Will the performance be comparable? And finally, does getting a turion create any complications in the future as compared to a centrino in running programs and whatnot? Thank you for your replies.

 

Hi nesbo,

It'd be great if you could also make some comparisons between the new s2110 and the older models such as the s2020 (xp-m 2.2+). If they're significantly better, I'd have to kick myself harder as I bought my s2020 on the same week as the s2110 was announced. TIA.

 

Can't say anything about longevity, although one might think that if you're leaving the laptop on for extended periods of time, it might heat other components, especially the RAM, and that's not good. It all depends on how Fujitsu has laid out the motherboard.

The only thing that I can say is that if the CPU runs hot, then it will require more cooling, which probably means that the fans will run faster and louder. This is absolutely something that you should think about. For example, I love my n6010 but, as it's been noted in this forum, it's quite loud and after eight months of use I'm still not totally comfortable with the fan noise.

 

Mobile cpus run hot they are made to pentium Ms can stay at 120c without frying and between 40c and 80c is normal for those chips depending on how hard you are running the pc. the only part that heat really kills is the hardrive that will fry it faster than anything.

 

120c!? I'm certainly not a notebook guru, but I almost laughed at that. According to Intel's own documentation, the maximum core temperature of the 2.26GHz Pentium M is 100C. MAXIMUM. Kind of like red line for a car engine. It's certainly not designed to operate for any appreciable period of time at maximum. Perhaps a typo?

As far as the Turion 64 is concerned, I don't know off hand what its maximum temp is but I suspect, as others here have pointed out, it's probably higher than the Pentium M (ie runs hotter, therefore louder).

As for the 64-bit thing... I guess it might be a selling point, but I usually upgrade notebooks every 2 years or so. Absolutely not necessary, but I like having new toys. I just think that by the time 64-bit Windows comes out and manufacturers have released drivers for everything and the majority of applications are all 64-bit it'll probably be time for another notebook anyway.

 

i actually got the number from the asus forum by some of the asus pc experts i think one of the guys from proportable.com i thought it was high myself but i would not put it past that it was tested at that extreme temp.

 

So how much cheaper is a Turion compared to an equivalent Pentium M, in general? Or AMD processors to Intel, for that matter?

 

Well, mwave sells both P-M's as well as Turions, so comparing similar spec processors



Intel Pentium M 730 $199

AMD Turion ML 30 $156

 

So, anything new on that review of the S2110? Can't wait to see what it's like. Seems like it comes with a radeon x200 and should perform better than the S6240 in the graphics department.

 

should be getting a review model any day now...

the graphics is actually an integrated solution by ATI, supposedly better than Intel's integrated, but not as good as a dedicated card...I am anxious to find out for sure what kind of games it might be able to play.

 

Well, it's kinda half dedicated. It's got 32 of dedicated and it would be a good enough compromise for me.