Just how bad (if at all) does a Celeron suck??

[teddyFBI]

I'm helping a friend pick out a laptop (no poker capability required).
I was always told to avoid Celeron processors at all costs...but they're so damn cheap -- For basic functionality, will he really see much of a dif between a Pentium M and a Celeron (assuming I soup the celeron up with 1GB of RAM)??

[OrcaDK]

That really depends on the definition of basic usage... If it matches basic in my head, nope, a Celeron should be just fine.

[Terry]

The Celeron is a low powered Pentium. The Pentium M is a low powered Pentium with a slick marketing angle – it increases battery life. It doesn’t increase battery life through some cutting edge new technology, it does it by using less electrical power which it accomplishes by being a less powerful Pentium, pretty much just like the Celeron.

[TheTROLL]

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That really depends on the definition of basic usage... If it matches basic in my head, nope, a Celeron should be just fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, if basic means Office apps, web browser, email etc it'll be fine. If you want to play the latest games or edit video, it probably won't.

[smoore]

it will also watch DVD and DIVX, play mp3 and ogg just fine. Don't expect it to do very well for any kind of 3d rendering.

[ QUOTE ]
The Celeron is a low powered Pentium. The Pentium M is a low powered Pentium with a slick marketing angle – it increases battery life. It doesn’t increase battery life through some cutting edge new technology, it does it by using less electrical power which it accomplishes by being a less powerful Pentium, pretty much just like the Celeron.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, yes and no. Celeron is basically a crippled Pentium. Intel disables half the instruction cache on the processor. The pentium M chip isn't a crippled pentium 4. It was in some ways an extension of the Pentium 3. The instuction pipeline in a Pentium M was about half as long as what was in the 4 and Celeron processors. If I remember correctly it also included twice the instruction cache and the ability to shut down portions of the cache and other portions of the chip when not in use to save power. Additonally the pentium M also contianed the ability to throttle is speed back to save power.

Intel also had a pentium 4M which was their desktop chip with power throttling ability, but it was not a pentium M.

edit: Also intel has junked their netburst architecture used on the pentium 4 because of diminishing returns in regards to speed/processing power. As I understand it, their new desktop chips are building on the original pentium M design and include new process techniques to limit signal leakage, power consumption, and heat.