Difference b/w Intel Pentium Dual-Core and Intel Centrino Core Duo?

This question is really bugging me and am unable to decide on my new lappy.

What IS the difference between Pentium Dual Core and Centrino Core Duo?

The only thing I have come to know is that Pentium Dual Core has 1MB L2 Cache while the Core Duo one is 2MB L2 Cache.

Would this cause a noticeable decrease in the Pentium Dual Core machine's speed?

And which one would be cooler and better to work with?

I have seen many resellers that claim Pentium Dual Core as the same as Centrino Core Duo. Are they right, in terms of their performance?

Core Duo is costing more than Pentium Dual Core and for some strange reason there are not too many lappies with Core Duo here in India. Most are either Pentium Dual Core or are Core 2 Duo..

Help!!

 

An higher L2 cache will help you in help you in CPU intensive apps like encoding/video and photo editing/number crunching/businessapps ect but a good amount or ram and a fast(5400rpm or 7200prm) helps too.

Also most PDC have a FSB of 533mhz while C2d have 667mhz which would also result in a performance loss.

The Pentium DC is a budget processor which is suited for office apps/word proccessing/basic multitasking/web surfing ect.

 

Pentium D series runs a lot hotter and consumes more power than the C2D's.

 

But isnt the Pentium series for desktops (or was suppossed to be for them)?
And the Centrino was for laptops. Would there be any problem with the Pentium in terms of reliability?
I would mostly be needing it for web surfing, PPTs, movies and occasional games like GTA or Age of Empires III...

 

FOr what you are doing the Pentium Dual Core will suffice. I read somewhere that Pentium Dual Core is just the new name for Pentium D, yet intel had redesigned it for better performance and cooling

 

Pentium Dual Core is just a name. It has not relation to Desktop processors. IMO its a just another name for Celeron(M) since it also had a reduced L2 cache and was also considered a budget processor.

Since your gaming make sure your GPU(video card) can handle those games.


http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3484

 

Thanx for the link!

Right now am basically confused between three notebooks:
1) Toshiba A100-1301D with Pentium Dual Core T2080, 1.73GHz and 512 MB RAM. Vista Basic.
(Not very interested in this because of Vista, 512MB RAM)

2) Compaq 6211 with AMD Turion X2 TL-50, 1.6GHz, with 512MB RAM. Vista Basic.
(Again the same problems as above PLUS the AMD heat and speed issue)

3) Compaq 3335 with T2080, 1.73GHz and 1 GB RAM. Vista Basic.
(Better choice than Toshiba only coz of the 1GB Ram. But as this is more expensive, in the same price I can upgrade the Toshiba's RAM to 1 GB as well)

4) Toshiba M100-1121D with Centrino Core Duo T2250, 1.73 GHz and 1 GB ram. XP Home
Now this lappy suits me the best. It has XP Home as well 1 GB ram. However it is costing me 140-150$ more (converted to US currency) than option (1).

Want to know whether
1) RAM can be easily upgraded? Is it a DIY?
2) Can I replace Vista with XP conveniently?
3) Hope there are no issues with the cheaper Pentium Dual Core.

 

Yes ram is easily upgradeable. those models should have ram cover slots at the bottom. Basically you turnoff and take out battery and flip it over(you should see the bottom of the laptop). Then find the Ram cover slot(rectangular lid with 3/4 screws) Unscrew it and pull the clips away from the ram(outward) to remove the ram.

You can upgrade to 2gb(1gb in each slot[2 slots] total. CD/C2d/Pdc take PC5300/PC5400(same thing just diff name) DDR2-667 200pin So-dimm or PC4200/PC4300 DDR2-533 200pon So-dimm

To replace Vista with Xp you would need an XP disc and then you would just reformat the Hard drive and isntall XP just you might have problem finding device(sound/keyboard/ect) drivers

There shouldn't be any issue unless you plan to do some intensive CPU apps.

 

Does Pentium Dual Core have SpeedStep? If it has, it should be a great competitor to Sempron.

 

Sorry for being totally ignorant, but what is Speed Step?

 

Speed step is a technology used by Intel to allow a microprocessor to dynamically slow its frequency (Mhz) and lower its voltage when the maximum processing power isn't needed, it is used to keep temperatures down. Once full processing power is needed it will automatically ramp back up to full speed.
You can read more about it here .

 

Um, I believe they are not in the same class, one has 2 core, the other has one. May be you mean Turion x2.

It is a good question though as both companies like to cripple the power saving features in budget CPU and by the way, sempron has a very crippled power saving feature.

 

Thats not accurate. All mobile Semprons have the same power saving features as the Turions. The only difference between the Semprons and current Turions is that they are single core only & lack VT.

 

According to some users running the powertop linux utility(which reports how long a CPU in which C state well the deeper the more power saving), sempron don't have as much ACPI C state as other higher price mobile chips. This also not just applies to sempron but celeron M.

So the features may be the same(cool&quiet or speedstep) but with something quietly disabled(either in the chip itself or by the manufacturer in BIOS). Well, may be sempron don't care too much about ACPI C state and manage the CPU state itself.

 

Hmm...maybe a poor ACPI implementation from the manufacturer. But from what I have noticed(I haven used Powertop) from within XP(perfmon) it does report the mobile Sempron to have C1, C2 & C3 states and I cant see anything different from my Turion X2.

 

Being a multiple Sempron user myself, I feel they are actually more power conserving than some of the older Turions (25W vs 35W). How a contemporary Sempron stands up to a new 65nm Turion X2 in the power efficiency department, I can't say (but I will find out in a few days when I get my TL-58).

 

hi i am thinking of getting a notebook but i am a novice to this technology. can u say which is better intel pentium or AMD Turion? thanks.

 

Depends on which models you are comparing. The lower end Turion X2's(TL50,52,TK53) will be more or less equivalent in terms of performance to the T2060/T2080 while the higher end 1.8GHz and above Turion X2's will be faster than the Pentium dual cores. Intels generally give better battery life but depending on your uses the battery life on Turion X2 based systems are not too bad either.