Confused about CPU's

[rscosworth]

Guys,

Ok, gone are the days where cpu speed was king,,,,im now totally confused over which is better.

Currently i have the following
p4 2.53 system
p4m 1.6 laptop
p4m 1.8 laptop

all have 1gb ram - which is actually faster for general use?

also, considering getting a mac mini, solo or due, where do these fit in? is there a comparison table somewhere?

cheers

 

[Gashman]

i would have to say you pentium M 1.8, its proberbly a dothan core so it does more IPC than the pentium 4 2.53 like AMD chips, dothans are right little powerhouses especially if you overclock them, overclock it and it'll flatten you pentium 4 and most AMD processors

Edit: solo and duo are intels new processor names, Core Duo is dual core yonah processor, basically two dothans together with a few upgrades, Core Solo is basically single core yonah, proberbly a bit faster than dothans, more overclocking headroom on both as there 65nm

 

[rscosworth]

can i overclock the laptop?

can i overclock the mac mini?

hmmm

 

[Gashman]

im not sure, but the pentium M is the most powerful processor out of those mentioned, its far more efficient

 

[fuzzy]

I think that most people so far have been confusing the Pentium 4-M with the Pentium M centrino. The former is just a low voltage version of the pentium 4 architecture. So in response to the first question, the quickest should be the 2.53. Both the duo and solos would be substantially faster than all the systems you have listed. As to overclocking: not sure about the mac mini. However, overclocking a laptop is possible but usually needs to be done in windows (with clockgen or similar) and also isn't a great idea because in such a confined space heat becomes an issue very quickly.

 

[Gashman]

there a pentium 4-M? whats the point in that then...low power would make it pentium 4s worse than they already are

 

[fuzzy]

Quite, but full pentium 4s don't lend themselves well to laptops where extensive battery life is key.