does anyone know about processors?

[Ms. Scrappy Pants]

So I'm reading in the paper about different processors..... does anyone know about them? I'm interested in the the Intel Centrino (mobile technology).... does that mean that your computer would have a wireless connection? We have a router in our house, so would that be good? I wouldn't need an additional piece for a computer with this processor? Is that right? And is there a processor that is "better" for someone who works with a lot of still images (like a digital scrapbooker)? Can anyone compare any of these, or comment on any of these, I don't particularly understand how they are different (are they just different brand names and models? do they perform differently?) And finally, does the GHz matter? I assume more GHz is better? Or faster? So much to know.................

AMD Athalon
AMD Turion
AMD Semperon
Intel Celeron (I've heard this one is not very good???)
Intel Centrino mobile technology
Intel Pentium

[ljbarden]

I don't know about the AMD chips (although my ex, who is a computer engineer, raves about them) but here's what I know about the Intel chips...

Intel Celeron is the cheapest and geared towards a low end user. I would only recommend this chip to your typical person who just wants to surf the web, type up letters, etc or is really on a limited budget.

Intel Centrino is made specifically for laptops. It doesn't automatically mean that it is wireless though - you'd need a wireless network card installed (this is true for all chips). Most systems with a Centrino chip should also have this as it's specifically geared for mobile users. This chip probably won't be an option on a desktop system.

Intel Pentium is the high end chip. Designed for those who have very demanding programs (like Photoshop) as the newest ones (over 3.0 GHz) have HT technology - meaning it can process more tasks at once.

The higher the GHz, the better/faster the chip is. My advice for both this and RAM is buy as high as you can afford. Also, since you brought up wirless networking - regardless of which chip you choose, if you want to run wireless, you would need to check that your router has a wireless function as not all of them do.

[rh_scrapbooker]

Lauren has some very good advice - exactly what I'd say.

If your intention is to use the laptop for digital scrapbooking and graphic intensive pursuits, look at ones that say "gaming".....computer games usually push the graphics envelope, so a laptop geared towards playing games is usually pretty loaded with stuff that can handle graphic intensive stuff.

Rachel

[Ms. Scrappy Pants]

This is awesome information you guys.... thank you so much!! EXACTLY what I was looking for!

[Ms. Scrappy Pants]

OK, so I went to best buy and circuit city and got "educated" from their "experts" and I use that term very loosely (my apologies if you work there). I started out looking at their gaming computers, that had pentium 4 processors WITH hypter threading (HT) technology. I'm not too concerned about the RAM because that's really easy to upgrade, and you can generally find RAM on sale at some time, so if I can't find the right computer with 1gig of RAM, I'm ok with 512... I'll certainly survive. So, what I learned at both places, is that basically pentium 4 is the most "powerful" processor, and that the hyper threading is only available with pentium 4, but it's also the most draining on a laptops battery, so any laptop with this processor is only going to get about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of battery life, depending of course, just because the battery is working so hard. Also, these computers are heavier and thicker, once again because of the processor. The hyper threading basically allows the computer to multi-task a little easier.

Both "experts" (ha ha) at each place told me that the centrino processor was developed AFTER the pentium, and the way they described it to me sounded sort of like an environmentally friendly processor..... it's pretty powerful (not AS powerful) but uses a lot less power, so the battery life is longer (3-5 hours depending...). It's the only processor developed for a laptop specifically.

The AMD Turion is also a gaming processor, which means that the graphics will look "gorgeous" on the monitor, but I don't know enough else about the AMD processors.... it was only 1.8GHz which seems kind of slow to me, but he said that most lap tops processors were in that range.... does anyone have more info about that?

I should be closing the deal soon..... I can't wait!!