Laptop/Notebook: Athlon64 vs. Centrino vs. P4 ???

Posted on Jun 27, 2004 04:17 am
pappo
Member Since: Jun 27, 2004

hi everybody i'm looking for an audio laptop but i'm really concerned about which cpu to choose: I need LOT of power but a QUIET machine (strange indeed, isn't it?). I'll use lots of plugins for mix and record and samplers and soft synth for live performance.
I looked for tests on the internet and found that a centrino seems to be not as fast as i believed (look on Tom's Hardware and portatili.hwupgrade.it/articoli/1009/6.html non acer laptops are based on 1.5GHz Centrino).
So i'm looking at Athlon64 or newest centrino (Dothan)...
Does anyone have a real-world comparative test? How a 1.7 centrino performs against a P4 or AMD64? Are Athlon64 quiet?
i currently only tried a Sony vaio athlon XP-M 2200+ and seems to be really quiet but my new laptop should be a lot more powerful and maybe fans will be noisy.
thanks!!!

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vdalehubbard
Lost for words with all to say.
Contributor
Since: Sep 12, 2003

Jun 28, 2004 09:31 am

Not sure about the quietness of the different Laptops, guess it depends on the brand and what fans they use. As far as to what CPU to get, I have always been an AMD fan. They are cheaper then Intel and work just as good. I would go with the Athlon64's. It's the newest processor with 64 bits, where everything else has been 32 bit till now. A 64 bit Operation System hasn't came out yet to work with the 64 bit processor nor applications that really use it, but in the near future there will be. Windows 64 bit XP is said to be coming out by the end of the year (most likely first of next year). So, that way, you will be prepared for the future as having a high end machine to handle the most up to date applications. That's my suggestion.

LetMeBeat
Member
Since: Jun 15, 2004

Jul 20, 2004 12:54 pm

I've got a similar problem. I already spent two weeks comparing things and the 'best setup' for my future laptop is not yet in sight. The P4 seems more powerful but the batteries of its laptops are apparently not lasting very long. The Centrino has advantages here but less performance but its more quiet.... and so on. One guy told me about his P4 3,0GHz (Toshiba Satellite), which he obviously liked, and said its performance was the same as on its 3GHz desktop machine. Dunno about the AMD, would like to here more. Another question seems to be how hot the different laptops will get.
I definitely need a good performance but durability of battery is also very important. Again:
"Does anyone have a real-world comparative test?"

vdalehubbard
Lost for words with all to say.
Contributor
Since: Sep 12, 2003

Jul 20, 2004 01:09 pm

Check out PC World. They do comparisons all the time if that is what you are looking for.

SuperK
Member
Since: Jul 20, 2004

Jul 20, 2004 08:48 pm

I heard Antec Cases are the quietest, im building an Anthlon 64 DAW this week so I just did my research on that.

Walt
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
Member
Since: May 10, 2002

Jul 20, 2004 11:14 pm

Good luck guys! Please excuse my less than enthusiastic view of laptops for recording, but from my research options are few, and cost is high. Of course depending on application. Much easier with PCA cards for soundcards and room for extra hard drives etc. Obviously I don't know your application but another option might be using a pc in a rack mount case. When I am on the road I carry compressors, tube pre-amps, rack mounted DI's, rack mounted headphone dist amps etc. With a flat screen carrying a rack pute is not that much more difficult than a laptop. Just something to consider.