Batty4info
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F.S.B. VS. L2 CACHE
I am in the market for a laptop, mostly for research with a battery at least 2 hours for watching a dvd, and am confused which is a better way to go, a faster F.S.B. (800) with a smaller L2 cache (512)
>
> OR
> a slower F.S.B. (400) with a larger L2 cache (2048) ?
I am guessing a larger L2 cache gives you better/larger read/write access for h.d. instruction/retreavale so this might be better for more multitasking events? but a higher F.S.B. means faster instructions for all c.p.u. tasks ? Does this sound about right ?
Thx.
Derek
lreay@cogeco.ca
E.E. = Batty4info
>
> OR
> a slower F.S.B. (400) with a larger L2 cache (2048) ?
I am guessing a larger L2 cache gives you better/larger read/write access for h.d. instruction/retreavale so this might be better for more multitasking events? but a higher F.S.B. means faster instructions for all c.p.u. tasks ? Does this sound about right ?
Thx.
Derek
lreay@cogeco.ca
E.E. = Batty4info
You should go with the lower FSB and higher Cache... The 800FSB CPU you are talking about is a Pentium 4 Mobile, which is basically just a pentium 4 squeezed into a laptop. It runs fast, but it also runs HOT, which is bad for your circuitry... And it's very power consuming, giving you about 2.5 hours on battery at the absolute MAX... The 2048KB Cache CPU, which is the Intel Pentium M Dothan, is designed specifically for laptop computers... It runs cooler, and it will give you 5-7 hours of battery, depanding on what kind of laptop it is. And now for the magic selling point: Yes, the Dothan IS faster than the Pentium 4 Mobile. A 1.8GHz Dothan will perform as fast as a 2.6-2.8GHz Pentium 4 M (largely, because of it's increased cache). Hope this all helps you!
The cache helps, but the main reason the Pentium-M is faster at a slower clock speed (PM 1.4 ~ P4 2.4, PM 1.7 ~ P4 3.0) is because the core is completely different. See these articles:
http://www.cpuid.com/PentiumM/index.php
http://www.powernotebooks.com/centrino.php
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1800
http://www.cpuid.com/PentiumM/index.php
http://www.powernotebooks.com/centrino.php
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1800
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