newb: centrino vs core duo, wireless giga-LAN vs wireless N?

Hi,

1) AMD vs centrino vs core duo - what's the deal and does it matter?

2) Wireless specifications: I've seen "wireless-N" as well as "wireless giga-LAN" on ones I'm considering. Does it matter?

3) What is turbo memory and does it matter?

4) will I notice a difference between a hard drive with 5400rpm and one with 7200rpm?

5) casings - I've been warned of HP Pavillion plastic casings/build qualities that won't last? Does this really matter? I mean, do casings really not hold for 2-3 yrs? I find that hard to believe.

fyi: usage is mainly surfing, writing/blogging, movies, some software development, not much. But laptop will be heavily used...

many thanks in advance...

 

Hullo. Your questions about AMD vs Intel might be answered in the threads listed in the hardware forum's sticky thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=125803
Just for quick reference, Centrino refers to "a particular combination of mainboard chipset, CPU and wireless network interface in the design of a laptop personal computer", with all three components being made by Intel. As Wikipedia has it: "To qualify for a Centrino label, laptop vendors must use all three Intel qualified parts under each platform, otherwise using only the processor and chipset will carry the Pentium M, Pentium Dual-Core, Celeron, Intel Core or Intel Core 2 label instead."

Hope that clears that up some.


My cousin told me that AMD processors tend to have overheating problems though personally I have no experience with AMD Turions--it's certain that they're less battery efficient compared to the Intel processors, though, as Lithus points out in his Ultimate CPU guide thread (stickied in the hardware forum). Anyways the Core Duos are old tech and obsolete, along with the AMD Turion 64 and AMD Athlon 64, Intel Core Solo and the Celeron 410-450 --nowadays nearly all laptops except the budget ones come with either AMD Turion or Athlon 64 X2 processors, or Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Again, Lithus's Ultimate CPU Guide has the details.

Your question on turbo memory was answered in the thread explaining about dual-channel RAM, also stickied in the hardware forums. As the sticky says, read before posting.

Wireless-N is a new standard for wireless connectivity--the buzz surrounding it is because of increased bitrates allowing the use of Wi-Max, therefore faster downloads and transmissions, I believe. Unless you're an avid downloader or speed freak, cards with the standards 802.11b/g or a/b/g should be just fine for the uses you mention, I think. In any case, unless you're an impatient brat like me, waiting might be a good idea, as the current wireless-N cards are only built to the draft-N specs, as the standard has yet to be finalised--the official standard is expected by the end of this year, barring further complications.

As for the casings: not sure about the HP, first I've heard of HPs not lasting, actually, but feel free to look around the forums. Most of the questions you posed have likely been asked and answered before.

Also, if you need recommendations as to what laptops are good buys, the "What laptop should I buy" forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16 has lots of people from around the world ready and happy to help you discover your ideal lappy. Good luck!

 

Answers in bold.
You won't need much with those requirements.

EDIT: Turion's don't run much hotter then C2Ds, it's never been noticeable to me.
I recomend an HP dv5z(AMD) or dv5t(intel).
The dv5z gives better performance for the price.