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"Centrino vs Turion"

I’m thinking about getting a Laptop to see me through the basics of computing – I just want something that I can surf wirelessly with, something that’ll get me through typing long documents and a little bit of gaming on the side. I’m now faced with a decision that needs to be made pretty quickly. Here are the two candidates:

[URL]http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/320_253499.html[/URL]
This one is Centrino, with an 80 GB HDD, and a PCI-E X700 mobility.

For around 50 pounds more, I can go for AMDs attempt at the mobile laptop scene:

[URL]http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5021WLMi_LX.A4605.055/version-1.asp[/URL] this one sports the Turion 64 chip, around about the same speed as the Centrino above, a 100 GB HDD, and the same graphics card.

The Centrino’s mobo chipset, apparently, is an Intel 915PM where as the Turion 64 model has an ATI Mobility Radeon XPRESS 200, which sounds cooler, but I’ve no idea which one will be better. I’d imagine that Turion 64 should be better at playing games due to the 64bit processing, combined with that chipset – am I right in saying this?

50 pounds more buys me 64bit, which will allow me to run Windows XP at a later date, but it will probably loose in the battery war against the Centrino. The other benefits include a larger HDD, but I could manage nicely with the 80GB so this isn’t an issue really. So do we know if the Turion is any good? Any advice would be welcomed!

Thanks!

Some really helpful comments here, thanks for replying! I agree that Norton is a beggar for stealing memory. Funnily enough, both of these Acers come with Norton pre-installed. Brucey Bonus, or what?

Anyway, I've been down to look at one of the Acers in the 16xx series, not the exact model i'm contemplating on buying because they didn't have it in, but it allowed me to get a good feel for the series on the whole - its actually quite a nice machine. They didn't stock the AMD 5021 model either :(.

However, i called into this little grotty Computer shop on the way home, and picked up a Turion leaflet. I read through it, and I've been sucked into the spiel. I did learn that the Turion processor in the 5021 is the lowest Turion chip available. Its a '28' - I don't see this as much as a problem considering the price though.

To add another spanner to the works, the Centrino model on the Comet website says its a X700 128mb graphics card. I've looked on other sites that stock the same laptop, and they are supplying the laptop with 64mb X700s (some retailers even say a 64mb X600). This is leading me to believe that Comet have simply made a mistake. For some reason, i just cannot take Comet seriously :P.

"Thats Comet Sense!"

o_O

That's quite woeful. The graphics must be using system RAM in that laptop for it to be so low. I agree with you that it's worth getting 1GB, but 512mb wouldn't be so bad if it was guaranteed that the graphics chip had its own dedicated RAM.

It is actually 128.8 free after it boots up. It does have Notron Internet security instaleled as standard, which is obviously taking up a ot of resource, greedy beggar that it is.

With firefox and msn messenger running too, it's dropped to 90 mb free.

Dunno if it's a Packard Bell thing, but the committed memor seems much higher than my desktop at home, but I don't use Norton.

Bonus wrote:
> because once all of the preinstalled software and drivers
> etc. for the laptop run, there's only about 120Mb of RAM left to run
> programs.
>
> This is partly due to the graphics chip sharing memory with the main
> system, so those 512Mb values need to have 64MB or 128Mb deducted.

I doubt it's as low as 120mb.
And the graphics thing isn't necessarily true because both those laptops have mobility X700s which support 128mb of dedicated video memory as well as 'HyperMemory' from the system RAM. In the description for one of them it says "128MB dedicated graphics" so I'd imagine that it doesn't use HyperMemory.

I just noticed that it's the same laptop as the Turion one you've got there, just with ore RAM, and the Acer page says to phone them for deals on adding more RAM at low cost, but it's definately worth that investment.

For exampe, DOOM 3 and Half Life 2 page from the hard drive, making them suffer bad slow-down if you have less than 1Gb Ram on decent quality settings.

[URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=9021969969&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=91207[/URL]

There you go, no worries :).

Maybe a little more expensive than you wanted, but a much better option if you ask me :).

No doubt there are PDA's and mobile phones which will let you game and surf for far less moolah.

To be fair, I'd buy neither of those the way they are.

My girlfriend has a Centrino laptop, with 512MB RAM, and it's cramped. She doesn't know diddly squat about computers, so it's up to me to educate her.

It only takes 5 IE browsers open to start paging virtual memory from the HDD, because once all of the preinstalled software and drivers etc. for the laptop run, there's only about 120Mb of RAM left to run programs.

This is partly due to the graphics chip sharing memory with the main system, so those 512Mb values need to have 64MB or 128Mb deducted.

Save up until you can afford 1Gb of Ram in a laptop, I really would recommend it, especially if you want to play ames on the thing.

512MB is not enough in a Windows XP laptop, IMHO.

Memorandum! wrote:
> er...maybe you mean Windows x64?
> The P-M is probably faster and they have the same graphics chip.
> Unless you're really desperate for 64-bit save your cash.

Yeah, thats what i meant ;)!

Thanks for the info mate.

So basically ... don't buy 64bit until you can actually use it.