help w new laptop hardware technologies

[bantots]

my laptop is finally giving out. So, I looked in the store the other day, and was overwhelmed by the new things there.

I'm looking to get a laptop with a good cpu, decent battery life, and good durabiity.

The new things I don't know much about and that I'm hoping some experts can give me a good description of each are:

centrino vs duo core vs amd(I don't remember what their new processor was called), what's the strong and weak points of each and how do they compare with a p4 processor.

thanks!

[-pops-]

Personally, I feel that there is a lot of hype, snobbery and one-up-man-ship about this Intel vs AMD debate.

I've built machines using both brands and I found, more or less, that for similar performance figures, there is little or nothing to choose between them. OK, on a test bench under conditions unlikely to be met in real life, there will be differences in performance, perhaps big differences but are these of any practical consideration?

My philosophy in selecting a CPU for machines I build is to buy the one which which is appropriate for the chosen motherboard and is second or third down the latest model list. This way I am getting an item with a proven track record at a price considerably below that of the latest model as the makers are trying to get rid of stock.

[bantots]

Personally, I feel that there is a lot of hype, snobbery and one-up-man-ship about this Intel vs AMD debate.

I've built machines using both brands and I found, more or less, that for similar performance figures, there is little or nothing to choose between them. OK, on a test bench under conditions unlikely to be met in real life, there will be differences in performance, perhaps big differences but are these of any practical consideration?

My philosophy in selecting a CPU for machines I build is to buy the one which which is appropriate for the chosen motherboard and is second or third down the latest model list. This way I am getting an item with a proven track record at a price considerably below that of the latest model as the makers are trying to get rid of stock.

I dunno too much about which company is better, but for example, I know a few years back, a celeron processor with the same cpu speed as a p4 processor still did things much slower while the p4 and amd seemed more or less the same... (although I think the celeron lasted longer and had less problems)

hmmn, how about those new laptops coming out that are even under $600. Do you think those are worth it? or are the materials too cheap? I mean, they do say they use the latest technology, and their cpu speed is much faster than the laptop I'm using now, but how about the quality? do you mean getting "last year's" model is a better buy than this years sale?

[-pops-]

I don't know much about laptops - never had one and don't want one. I do know a little bit about hardware though.

Again, my personal view is that with modern super high speed this, that and the others, at least some of the development is done for its own sake - just to prove that it's possible. User perceptible improvements are difficult to assess in, say, the difference between a 2.0GHz CPU and a 2.2Ghz whereas when I started with computing a 0.2GHz processor was beyond the ultimate in speed.

Regarding your remarks about last year's and this year's model, I was referring more to components particularly CPUs where the model that has just been superseded will be a bargain when compared with the price of the later version or development. With complete machines, the same broadly applies but I wouldn't necessarily mean such a large timescale.

On a general view of pricing, there is always the adage "you get what you pay for". If you pay low prices you will get a correspondingly low quality product. Always buy the best you can afford but, always shop around and, if possible, try and bargain to get a better deal.