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I've got to buy a budget notebook for a friend. The choice would be between two virtually identical machines (Asus) with either an Athlon XP 2500+ (SIS 740 chipset) or a 2.66MHz Pentium 4 (SIS 650+962). Both are priced about the same. What would be the best choice (a.o. performance and battery-wise)?

Is it a Pentium 4 Mobile? If so, the CPU will be able to switch to different speeds in different situations to conserve power (ie, slower when without AC power)

If I remember correctly, up until recently AMD didn't have an equivalent to the P4-M. It was simply their Athlon chip packaged for laptops. Which means the Athlon runs hotter. I have a P4-M 2Ghz laptop and an Athlon Duron 645Mhz laptop (not sure what the "marketting" number is, maybe it's 800+), and the Athlon laptop runs a little hotter than the P4-M when just idle. Under load, it's about the same.

Socheat

I'd recomend the P4 laptop. P4's have much better performance than the Athlon XP's.

However, if it were Celeron or Athlon XP, I would say Athlon XP. I have a 2200+ in my laptop and it runs fine, but I bet a P4 would run better. I got the Athlon XP because it was a lot cheaper.

aviationwiz wrote:I'd recomend the P4 laptop. P4's have much better performance than the Athlon XP's.

However, if it were Celeron or Athlon XP, I would say Athlon XP. I have a 2200+ in my laptop and it runs fine, but I bet a P4 would run better. I got the Athlon XP because it was a lot cheaper.

Aviationwiz, I wonder what makes you say that P4 runs better than Athlon? Are your limiting this to notebooks or it applies also to desktops?

Btw, LG Xnote or Dell P4 based notebooks offer a price/performance balanced alternative.

integspec wrote:Btw, LG Xnote or Dell P4 based notebooks offer a price/performance balanced alternative.

Yes, I know. Just got a Dell myself, but I went with a Pentium-M. My friend isn't as lucky (he has to pay for it himself). I can get these ASUS laptops for a good price, so I don't have to shop around. Based on the info I got sofar, I think I'll go for the P4.
Too bad I can't find any reviews of the SIS chipsets used. Those will most likely be the deciding factor in which one runs the best.

aviationwiz wrote:I'd recomend the P4 laptop. P4's have much better performance than the Athlon XP's.

However, if it were Celeron or Athlon XP, I would say Athlon XP. I have a 2200+ in my laptop and it runs fine, but I bet a P4 would run better. I got the Athlon XP because it was a lot cheaper.

For the most part, the Athlon XP's have been faster than P4's. I'm not so sure about the newest line of Athlon XP's though... I've read that AMD is pushing their current core to the limit at 333 FSB (or is it higher now?), whereas P4's are still running fine at 400 FSB (but at roughly twice the price). However, these are desktop processors. The Athlon's and P4's (both non-mobile versions) for the laptop are a little bit behind in speed than their desktop counterparts, so i would expect that Athlon's, performance-wise, on a laptop is just as fast if not faster than a P4.

I did notice that AMD has announced an Athlon Mobile. I'd be interested in seeing some comparison tests on that one...

Socheat