Celeron vs. Pentium and other options

[gibs]

I'm looking into getting the dell inspiron 8600. So what is the difference between the celeron and pentium processors? The pentium costs about a $100 more, so is it worth it? Also I'm wondering how much memory and how big of a hard drive I should get.

To help with your suggestions, I am getting the computer so I can 4 table on a laptop. The only other things I will be using it for are surfing the web and writing papers, no games. I will be running poker tracker so I know that can take up some space as my database gets bigger, and my friend has a bunch of mp3's that I'd like to copy onto my computer (he has thousands of songs). So based on this what would your suggestions be? Thanks in advance

[mikeyKay]

hey there, i just got an inspiron 8600 from dell and upgraded the display so i can 4 table on party/skins. the standard display causes a whole lot of overlap, and the middle upgrade pretty much as no overlapping on buttons, but you cant see the chat windows...if you know what i mean. as for processor, the celeron is kinda a crappy processor, but if you arent doing much with your computer its def worth the price discount. the major difference of the celeron processor is the amount of cache memory on the chip, which i think is only 512k. the pentium 4's have a 1MB cache (double the celeron), and the centrino's have a 2MB cache. centrino also has better power consumption and has more integrated wireless features. the clock speeds of the centrino are about half that of the celeron and p4, but the large cache, and good internal architecture make up for it, and the centinos perform about as well as the p4s for normal use kind of stuff. that said, the p4 does much better for processor intensive stuff, ie photoshop, video editing, games.

soooo, to answer your question, if you budget is tight, i think you can get by with a celeron doing what you want. but if you want more battery life, and mobilty, the centrino is best. i upgraded to the centrino and i love it. get atleast 512MB of ram, more if possible, and i think you should be fine.

-mike

[gila]

I four table (with an additional monitor) with my 1.3g Centrino with 512mb Ram and love it. It has plenty of power.

[pokercraze]

Celerons rock dude!

Anyone who says otherwise is a playa hater.

[gibs]

Thanks for the help Mike!

[gibs]

Got another question for ya Mike. Should I get the 1 dimm or 2 dimms for the 512 MB of ram. Also, would you recommend the 64MB or 124MB video card. Thanks.

[JEM7VSBL]

do not get 2 dimms. 1 dimm will allow you to upgrade to 1 GB of RAM. and some people advise you to get the cheapest RAM option and upgrade with aftermarket ram because it's cheaper, but it will also void the warranty on your laptop. also, unless you plan on playing graphics intensive computer games, the 64MB video card is perfectly fine.

[gibs]

Thanks for the help JEM

[rivered]

celeron = total crap. Avoid at all costs. It may be fine to play at party but later you might want a decent computer and the extra $100 isn't much

[CountDuckula]

Pokercraze:

[ QUOTE ]
Celerons rock dude!

Anyone who says otherwise is a playa hater.

[/ QUOTE ]

Rivered:

[ QUOTE ]
celeron = total crap. Avoid at all costs. It may be fine to play at party but later you might want a decent computer and the extra $100 isn't much

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, so we have two differing points of view on Celeron vs. Pentium. Would you guys care to offer more substantial reasons for them than "Tastes great!" vs. "Less filling!"?

-Mike

[Isura]

If you can afford it, go for the Pentium. It's a far superior processor especially if you will be running other applications at the same time as your poker tables (ie PT). Intel calls it hyperthreading in their new Pentiums, much improved multi-tasking performance. For storing your PT database and songs, etc the processor you choose is irrelevant. Just make sure you have plenty of hard drive space (40G, 80G is pretty cheap these days).

[Pawtucket Pat]

I just bought a new pc to upgrade from my laptop, and I ended up going with the $500 circuit city special, the eMachines, afer I saw the PC Magazine review that gave it an editors choice award. I needed it for the same reasons you do. Anyway, its got the AMD chip, which many say is faster than the pentium, 512 of Ram, 160gb of hard drive space, and a DVD burner. It runs pokertracker at 1 hand/minute with gametime on 4 tables with no problem. Throw in the $600 2001fp monitor from dell and for around $1100, you have the whole thing for just a little more than what the dell tower costs. Its a great computer and you can't beat the price for what you get. Keep it clean of spyware and it'll last you a while.