hari-bhari

My current laptop's (P4 1.6ghz) mobo seems to be on its dying ends so I was looking to replace the laptop with something else. My budget is pretty low, around 200 or so, and I looked around ebay and there seems to be some decent laptops around for that pricerange, either with screwed up LCDs or missing optical drives and hard drives, none of which really matters to me. I think I can get an older P4 or Pentium M system in my pricerange, but I don't want to go as crappy as celeron. How are the AMD Athlon/Turion/Sempron processors? My current system runs fine for my needs, and I dont do anything really processor intensive, so do you think and AMD processor in that pricerange would suffice?

FusionFanatic

why do you think your mobo is dying? gernally they either work or they don't. when the die they usually die suddenly, not slowly.

to answer your question, all modern AMD processors are good. it's not going to take much to outperform your 1.6GHz P4, any AMD processor above an AthlonXP 1600+ will perform better.

the Sempron is the budget AMD lineup. the Semprons were/are either rebaged older models or current models with limited/disabled features. even the slowest/oldest Sempron (rebaded AthlonXP3000+) is still twice as fast as your current processor.

the Athlon64 processor replaced the AthlonXP. it outperforms the AthlonXP and all Intel models prior to the Core2. AMD held the performance crown for years with the AthlonXP and the Athlon64 (that is, until Intel released the Core2 models)

Turion is not a processor, it is a package of components (including an Athlon64 CPU). it's just a marketting move to compete with Intel's Centrino line (which is also not a CPU, but a package of components including a CPU). there is no performance advantage to these packages.

also, you shouldn't write-off the Celerons so fast either. The Celeron is not it's own CPU model series, it is a generic name Intel uses for it's budget CPUs in certain models. each Celeron model is based off a higher priced model (Pentium4, pentiumM, Core, etc). to properly judge how well a Celeron will perform you need to find out which P4, PM, or Core model it comes from.

as an example, the laptop I'm using to type this on has a 900MHz CeleronM which in benchmarks performs as well as a 1.5GHz Pentium4. that is because it's based off a newer, more efficient arcitecture that gets more work out of each clock cycle.

in general, unless you get a really good deal, try to stay away from Pentium4s. they are inefficient, power hungry, hot running, and require high clock speeds to perform well. this is also true for the Celerons that are based off the Pentium4's.

if you get an Intel then go for the PentiumM's, Core's, and CeleronM's. these processors are much more efficient, consume less power, generate less heat, and don't need to run at high clock speeds to perform well.

good luck

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previous carPC setup

hari-bhari

Thanks for your tips on the AMDs. I think I may go for an IBM T40 with a pentium M which I think I should be able to get for around 200 without an optical or hard drive.

As for why I think my mobo is dying, over the past few months, I have been getting interference in my VGA out while plugged into power but not while running on battery. This interference has been getting progressively worse, and has nothing to do with the wiring because it happened outside of the car too.

Also, all my USB devices mysteriously shut off when I try and switch out devices, and I've tried switching hubs with the same result. When they shut off, I have to reboot, unplug them all, and then replug them all slowly with a minute or two gap in between. Otherwise, they all shut off again. It's not a hub issue like a mentioned before, and its not a power issue because I have it hooked to external power. A couple of months ago on the bench, I had 7 devices hooked up and working fine.

So yea, I think its time for a replacement, lol.