AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile vs 1.83 GHz Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile?

Question

I have a home office for a small non for profit. I have a desktop but rarely find myself using it (though it will usually be available as a backup). I tend to do everything on the laptop... mostly word processing, email etc but do find myself using it for web design and photo editing simultanouly so want something that can deal with this work load - dreamweaver, frontpage, creative suites, picture it - usually 2 or 3 at a time.

My confusion is whether to sacrafice half gig of ram to get the intel chip... which do you think is a better fit for me.

Option 1
Intel ® Centrino ® Duo mobile technology featuring Intel ® Core ™ Duo processor (1.66Ghz)
1536MB 667MHz DDR2 System memory
120GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive

Option 2
AMD Turion 64x2 Mobile Technology TL-56 and 512kb L2 Cache (1.8GHz)
120 Gig Hard drive
2048MB DDR SDRAM (2 Dimmm)

Answer 1

I prefer AMD, it is fater than Centrino, but use more power

Answer 2

In all likelihood the Core 2 1.5 will be pretty close to the Turion 1.9 since the Core 2 can do more work per cycle than the Turion (and the Core 2 might even be a bit faster). The Core 2 Duo will give you better battery life though (assuming the other components don't use more power and both computers have the same size battery). The one with the Intel processor has a bigger hard drive which is a good thing and a fingerprint reader while the AMD doesn't seem to have one (I've found a fingerprint reader to be nice to have though I wouldn't decide based solely on that factor). The big issue I'd say would be what graphics each of them has, if the one with the Core 2 has Intel graphics it won't be any good for gaming (and if it doesn't have Intel graphics it will be) but with AMD systems you have to be much more careful since some of the nVidia and aTi chips that go into AMD laptops are even worse than Intel graphics (and it's usually the cheapies that have the bad ones). From what I can tell Choice 1 might be either Intel Integrated crap (though the X3100 is the least worst Intel graphics chip ever) or a GeForce 8400 which is a good chip. The second one seems to have an old GeForce 6200 (though you should check) which is a bit dated now and a google search indicated a lot of people unhappy with that particular model. As for Vista, whilst it is crap and should be avoided if at all possible you probably won't get too much choice in the matter.

Answer 3

check out this website for comparisons between the 2 processors.

They're roughly similar in performance. If I had the budget tho, i would prefer to get Intel's new mobile processor Core2Duo. It leave's AMD's Turion behind.

Also, bear in mind there's are other things you might want to consider besides what you listed above. Since you're wondering what would make one system better, I would look into what graphics card the laptops carry. I would advice that the laptop has discrete graphics rather than integrated. Also, consider getting a hard drive with 7200RPM at least. These 2 items i just mentioned adds more noticable improvements compared to the 2 CPUS from AMD and Intel which performs roughly the same.

Answer 4

the processor is the heart of the machine



the turin has only 512 kb l2 cache, compared to the 2 mb in the centrino duo

this is a massive difference



clock speed 1.8 v/s 1.66 ghz is marginal & immaterial



another comment i'd like 2 put in is avoid the 1.5 gb ram

just go for 1 gb in single slot

add another 1 gb later when u feel the need to, they allways work best in equal pairs !

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one answer says ford & chevvy

another reads celeron for centrino, lol

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if you can afford, go for the core 2 duo t7200

> 2.0 ghz, 667 mhz fsb & an awesome 4 mb l2 cache



please post complete details of specification sheet or post url

> can try making suggestions !

_____________________



am posting a dream machine



dell inspirion e1505

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=E1505S1&s=dhs



Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB)

Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005

Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium from XP Media Center Edition

15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™

1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm

120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™

Integrated Audio

Accessories

53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Dell Wireless 1390b/g (54Mbps)

Software

No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD

No Security Subscription

Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo

Service

1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service

6 Months America Online Internet Access Included

Also Includes

Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0



>> $ 1,063



you'll never need 2 gb ram this way

u'r processor, ram & graphics work in tandem

> was just to give you an example !

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well u'r aditional info was informative

the turin was not as bad as i thought it to be

>> it means the allocation is 512 kb per core & not 512 kb shared between the 2 cores



> intel too had a few chips where the l2 cache was divided into 1 mb per core, meaning 1 mb + 1 mb

>> most intel dual cores have 2 mb l2 cache which is shared between the 2 cores

the second option is better, cause then they share resources & in case only one core is in operation, the entire 2 mb is available to it & not 1 mb



>> check out from processor number on intel site !

Answer 5

Turion X2 would be faster, and the cache doesnt matter at all... the only reason intel processors have higher cache is because they use old FSB architecture... and that has lots of bottlenecks... that's why increasing L2 cache will increase performance because it gives that extra increase to the processor and chipset communication... 1mb of cache for a centrino would be ok.. but 512kb for turion x2 would be perfect... it is all about architecture... the Amd turion has 1ghz - 2ghz HTT while intel has 677mhz !!!??!! FSB speed...... clearly intel's FSB is slower than HTT therefore it needs more cache so it can have less bottlenecks.



I would go for the Turion because it is 64bit and it has a faster bus speed thus increasing the overall performance of the PC

Answer 6

ford or chevy? i like the turion myself it seems a bit quicker than the centrino

Answer 7

if you have only one choise, forget celeron. celeron it's the worst processor ever. they are power hungry, slow, unstable, and HOT ! so keep in mind all these facts.

if u want, check tomshardware : www.tomshardware.com