pentium 4 or celeron ?? what does this mean

jamminjamaica

Please help..

I know nothing about computers I have been looking to buy a computer but when you know as little as I do all the offers out there go right over my head.

basicallly what type of processor should I look for?

what is the difference between

Intel Celeron processor
Intel Pentium 4
Intel Pentium M

i would be grateful on any advice and where to look for good deals on computers / laptops.

rchddap1

Celerons & Pentium 4's are processors. Essentially it is a chip that partially helps to determine the speed of your computer. There are many other factors to watch out for (memory, graphics, hard drive etc...). Personally I prefer a different brand of processor..the AMD Athlon. Celeron's tend to be slow and not worth the money, and Pentium 4's tend to be over priced. A Pentium M is (I think) a mobile processor, ie, laptops etc...

When deciding upon a PC a good starting point is to work out what you want it for, eg, high end graphics gaming? Word processing? Internet? etc.... Then you need to work out how much you are willing to pay. After that its a case of research, research, research. The more knowledgeable you are about PCs the greater the chance that you will spot a good deal when you see one.

shrek101

Hi, might be wise to tell us what you want to do with the computer. If its games there are very demanding, perhaps a Pentium 4 then would be best. The celeron is basically a cut down version of the Pentium 4 (I wont go into more detail here as it may be confusing for you) although the celeron's aren't too bad and I have two pcs that use them even playing latest games.


If you can afford the extra and play games a lot (particular latest generation games) then go Pentium.

If you play the odd game write letters and surf go for Celeron.

If you are on the move a lot and want to write letters, surf the net perhaps a laptop would best suit.

The Pentium M is a mobile processor that being is designed for laptop and runs slower, generates less heat than Pentium (always a good feature for a laptop having confined space), the speed I think slows down when less demanding applications are used and thus saves cpu cycles which as a consequence doesn't get as hot (hot being a by product of processors running fast which in turn has to have a heat sink/fan to disburse heat).

fatboyonadiet

Celerons aren't worth the money and are very slow. I have a desktop with AMD and a laptop with P4 both work fine and no worries

jamminjamaica

All I intend to use the computer or laptop (havent decided yet) for is surfing, digital camera, work purposes ie word, excel, power point and I guess the hubby will play the odd game.

does this give you an idea of what type i should go for. also when I have been looking at computers on the net is it advisable to but a warrrant / support package as I know very little about computer or is it better to say skip the 3 year breakdown cover?

rchddap1

The warranty / support package is a personal choice really. Do you know anyone with knowledge about PCs, who could help you fix it if anything went wrong. My latest PC was actually built by my partner. He has also built PCs for his daughters, and fixed problems for friends. PC are just a bunch of components linked together on a main 'motherboard'.

Sounds to me like an average middle of the line PC would be fine. A half decent graphics card (Eg, Radeon / Geforce) would be a sensible idea for the digital camera, and possibly for any games. When looking at PCs there are a number of key areas you need to compare Processor Speed (the higher the number the better.. stick to GHz), memory / RAM...again the higher the number the better, and finally the graphics card (as above).

But bear in mind that whatever you buy will be out of date in a few months, and that you have to work out a budget before you go shopping. No point in spending £1500 on that PC, when you only really need to spend £500 (for example)

As for the laptop / desktop question the key is whether you think you'll need it 'on the road' so to speak. And it is an important question to resolve. Laptops are more expensive and can't really be upgraded. It is very easy to add in extra memory and a new graphics card to a desktop computer, but things get more complicated with laptops.

blinky

The Pentium M is the best choice for a laptop, despite the lower clockspeed they are generally faster than a P4 and use less power. (They are actually closer to the P3 in design).
P4 based Celeron's are cut down versions of the P4, they have a smaller cache and lower bus speed. The P4 based processors rely heavily on the cache and front side bus for performance, so the Celeron is not a good processor, although I believe the newer Celeron D's are better, but there could be heat issues.

AMD processors are worth a look.

shrek101

I have the newer Celeron D and 2.83ghz slightly overclocked to 3ghz kids use latest games and works fine and it isnt hot either, runs cool.

Sound like at the spec you now give a celeron would do fine unless you can afford to spend that but more. Go for plenty of ram 512mb+ and decent graphics card.

£$&*"($£&(

On the laptop side things are bit more complex. You can get laptops with Celeron-D processors which are the same type used in desktops. You can also get many with Celeron-M processors. These are based on Pentium-M processors (the M stands for mobile). These are cheap but quite good (only slightly slower than Pentium-M processors with the same speed). The speed of these mobile processors is less than desktop Pentiums and Celerons but the performance is very good and equivalent to much faster desktop processors. One advantage is that the laptops are lighter and require less cooling and are therefore quieter. The battery also lasts longer. A fast Celeron as mentioned above or a Celeron-M with 1.4ghz speed or more will be fine for your needs.

There is one thing to watch for and that are computers using the older Celeron processors which are still being sold - though not commonly now. Avoid these unless it's an extremely cheap bargain. You can tell these because it will say the cache is 128kb.

urbanite

If you buy a laptop then go with the Pentium 4
They handle data twice as fast as the celleron (512mb cache compared to 256)
They also run cooler than the AMD's so less fan noise / risk of heat failure.

If its a desktop pc then i would recomend an AMD 64 processor.