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Can someone explain the benefits of Centrino technology? Like would it be better to get like a 1.5ghz centrino over say a 3.0 ghz regular laptop?

Centrino laptops have a wireless network card plugged directly into the chipset. The range on the cards isn't brilliant, but it doesn't clog up the PCI bus.

The Pentium-M processer is about 40-50% faster, clock-for-clock than a Northwood-B at the same clock speed (dunno about Northwood-C or Prescott). Also, it has far lower power consumption, so whereas most 3.0GHz notebooks will last about two hours at most, I can get double that out of my 1.5GHz Centrino laptop.

Basically, if you want a desktop replacement, go for a Pentium 4 or Athlon 64. If you want something that runs cool(er) and has plenty of battery life, go for a Centrino/Pentium-M. You could also try and find a low-power Athlon 64 notebook, but I think they're still pretty rare.

"Centrino" refers to a complete package of the Intel 855 (or newer) chipset, the Pentium M processor and the Intel 2100 or 2200 wireless chipset. Some companies bundle a different wireless adapter (IBM does this often) so the laptop can't be marketted under 'Centrino' -- but you're still getting that CPU.

I would absolutely recommend getting a laptop based on the Pentium M.

Centrino = Pentium M with built in wireless.

Benefits: faster per ghz due to extra cache (1.5 ghz Centrino is probably = to a 1.8 ghz P4), much better battery life (4 to 8 hours compared to 2-3 with a normal P4 in a laptop).

I can't stand the "Centrino, Mobile Technology" commercials. Centrino is just a processor that takes less power, and a common wireless card.

I'd take centrino over P4, due to battery life and it still has good performance.

A P-M 1.5GHz is probably a lot faster than a P4 1.8GHz and there is quite a bit more differentiating the two besides cache. The P-M is something like a super-powered Pentium III with some P4 features and aggressive power-reducing design.