AMD Turion ML and MT questions.

What's the difference between the AMD Turion ML and MT series? I assume that one would be preferable over the other, but which one is it, and why? If I were to get one, could I upgrade to the other later? Thanks!

 

The only difference between the 2 is power consumption. The MT consumes less power than the ML series but provides the same performance. The MT has a TDP of 25W and runs at 1.2V whereas the ML has a TDP of 35W and runs at 1.35V. There really is not much differences between the 2 but the MT has the advantage in terms of better battery life. There arent many manufacturers who offer the MT series. Upgradability all depends on BIOS support. Some laptops do support some dont.

 

So the only difference is batter life? Not FSB, speed, etc? About how much better will the battery life be on it? A few minutes? half an hour? Thanks!

 

The ML and MT series differ in a few key areas.

The most OBVIOUS difference is the price. According to monarchcomputers.com's prices (cheapest processor site I've found, good rep too), the MT line is about $30 more than the ML.

However, in my opinion the ML line is useless.

The MT line is more power efficient. Its wattage is 25W - actually 2 watts less than the Pentium M! The ML line sucks up much more juice at 35W.

The ML is also available in a 2.4 ghz model, while the MT is available up to 2.2 GHz. I'm not sure about clock for clock performance differences between the two.

A notebook is built for either ML or MT, usually only one will work.

I would recommend going with a notebook that uses the MT, and make sure you buy one with a 1mb cache as opposed to a 512kb. The ML is only good for someone who wants a less expensive gaming rig, that they won't be taking around much (hotter, lower battery life). But if you're in that category, why not just get an Athlon notebook?

 

Yes. They are the same other than the fact that the MT's are able to consume less power. Here's a list of all available Turion processor and the specifications. As you can see the only difference between the MT and the ML is the TDP...
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_12651_12658,00.html

Battery life depends on the usage. If the cpu stays in power saving mode(800MHz) most of the time, then the power consumption on both the MT and ML will be similar. The MT will give better battery life if the cpu stays at its full speed for most of the time and the cpu resources are being used. So the improvements in battery life can be anwhere from a few minutes to about half an hour or more.