researching laptops.. is a higher or lower Ghz better? and what is cache?

VixxAnn

sorry if it's really obvious but I haven't got a clue

have been researching and comparing laptops and some that I thought seemed good spec have a lower Ghz figure than a slightly cheaper model.. what is Ghz and do I want a high or low number - also - what is the cache _ most seem to be 1 or 2mb???

I am looking for a laptop for basic-ish useage (emails, internet, word, spreadsheets, watching DVDs and possibly viewing photos from my digital camera - this isn't essential as I can wait and do it on my home PC)

the lady in currys said I should probably look for a spec of 512mb ram and 50gb hard drive with a 15" screen - is this good advice?

And also (sorry:o ) do none of them take floppy disks now ??? Am I out of date - are we purely on CDs now?

Have more questions but better stop now!!;)

scheming_gypsy

as many Ghz, as much cache, as much memory and lots of hard disk space. That's what you need so set your budget and get the highest of all those that'll fit in your budget.

esuhl

Look at the chipset too: A Pentium M is better than a Celeron M (quite a lot better!), and AMD 64 is better than AMD Sempron.

I wouldn't trust Currys to give good advice (though in this case it sounds reasonable) - search the Internet or look out for magazine reviews of laptops. The "Acer Aspire 3020" won the Editor's Choice award in the October issue of Personal Computer World Magazine.

It has a 15.4 inch display, AMD Sempron 2800+ processor, 60GB hard disk, DVD re-writer, a memory card reader (for the memory cards from digital cameras etc.) and costs £580. Not absolute top-spec, but not bad, and pretty good for the price.

I'm not necessarily recommending this one, but compare the price and specs with the laptops in Currys to make sure you're not paying over the odds!

Hope this helps :-)

rogerramjet

lol currys staff didn't try to sell you a freezer with an LCD display did they as they thought it was a laptop

The post above...or it was when I started writing....mentions pentium M celeron M processors, basically they are mobile processors which will automatically sep down the processor speed to save on power. Many laptops don't have mobile processors (AMD do also produce them) and therefore although their speed maybe better the battery life suffers. With regard to sales people ignore them and go fo what you can afford The entry level systems they have is more than adequate for most users needs. I've two laptops, one the all singing all dancing Dell (the one they offered instead of the inspiron 1150 ) and an old Toshiba celeron 600 (Not Mobile processor obviously) whith 198mb ram and a 6gb hard drive running XP both are ok for what I do with them, it just takes a little longer for things to start and run on the tosh

Just noticed your comment on floppy drives.....most people use a usb pen drive now....very cheap and better than floppys. However; you can pick up USB floppy drives for around £20.00 from currys etc and possibly a lot cheaper on ebay if you realy wanted one.

I really should read fully before posting
cache is the memory which is built into the processor, the higher the amount the quicker it will enable the processor to make calculations and process commands.

mike_paterson

Check the dell deals (https://www.dell.co.uk) - lots of postings on MSE usually. They have laptops from £329 plus a ridiculous delivery charge - but still great value!

£$&*"($£&(

Don't rely on GHZ figures especially with laptops. Intel do processors for desktops which are also used in laptops which may have Ghz numbers of 2.4 to 3 or more. However they also make processors especially designed for laptops (Pentium-Ms and Celeron-Ms) which have Ghz ratings of 1.3 to 2. A 1.6Ghz pentium-M is much better than a Celeron-Ds even with Ghz rating in the high 2s. A 2 Ghz Pentium-M will be similar to a 3Ghz normal Pentium.

A Celeron-M is not significantly worse than a Pentium-M as suggested above. The main difference is that they half the cache, which is a sort of holding area for instructions the processor needs. If there's too little cache this area gets filled up and the processor has to wait longer for the instruction to arrive. However the Celeron-M can have 512kb to 1mb of cache which is plenty. Those dektop Celerons only have 256kb cache which reduces performance.

The Currys advice is not revolutionary. I'd always recommend 512mb RAM (you can buy one with 256mb and easyily add some more) whatever your doing.

VixxAnn

thanks for all the replies - things are getting a little clearer for me!!

The two laptops I did look at at Currys were...

A Packard Bell R4650 at £639 with Intel Celeron M370 15ghz
15.4 diamond view display
1024mb DDR Ram
50gb Hard Drive
64mb Intel graphics
wireless enabled DVD rewriter multidrive 3 x USB

and a Toshiba A60-157 at £699 with Intel Pentium 4 HTT processor 538
3.20ghz 533mhz FSB and 1mb cache
15" TFT screen
512mb DDR Ram
60gb Hard Drive
64mb Graphics ATI Radeon
DVD rewriter

so going off the info I have been given by you kind folks - am I right in saying that (out of these two) the Packard Bell is the higher spec with better processer even though Ghz figure is lower than the Toshiba? Didn't say if it had any cache on the Packard Bell though.

I will be having a good look around yet but would like to know what you think of the ones I have looked at so far

£$&*"($£&(

No the Toshiba has the higher spec. It has fast normal Pentium processor which will have a 512kb cache. The Celeron 1.5 isn't bad but it would probably be similar to a 2.2ghz Pentium. The Toshiba has a smaller screen but I'm not convinced there's much advantage to widescreen except perhaps playing DVDs. The Toshiba also has a seperate graphics card which work better than shared graphics (which uses some of the main memory rather it's own memory) but this is only really important for games and intensive graphic programs.

One thing you might want to bear in mind is that laptops with processors normally used in desktops like normal Pentiums are heavier and make more noise as they require more fans to keep the processor cool. If you want long battery life look for a Pentium-M laptop.

VixxAnn

thanks for all advice, have been out browsing again today and think I will go for a Toshiba, they seem to do what I need and I like the machines.

either
L10-300 at £650

or M40X-189 at £750
will try to shop around online and get those prices down first. Would prefer the M40x I think as its a Pentium M with bigger hard drive but it might come down to money.

If anyone has any more advice (or knows where these TOshibas are cheaper) please let me know

Xio_2

If you can afford it, go for the Intel Pentium M or AMD Turion 64 processors. They are designed for laptops with battery consumption and heat output in mind. This means they throttle down when not being used (in other words, they run at a slower speed when the full speed is not needed).

This helps your battery last longer and means that your laptop is producing less heat (and will be quieter).

Don't always be fooled into thinking that Ghz is everything. Especially in the case of the AMD processors. They use a rating system which compares the performance of the chip rather than the raw clock speed (you will see things like 3500+ rather than 3.5GHz).

The toshiba m40x would definately be the best buy for your money performance wise, but remember you may need extra software (eg antivirus) or a carry case, all of which would be extra.

Also, there's no harm in asking if there are any offers on at the places you've been to. Often its the case that there are promotions on but aren't advertised.

F1F1

Xio wrote:

Also, there's no harm in asking if there are any offers on at the places you've been to. Often its the case that there are promotions on but aren't advertised.

Yes, say you're looking around and comparing prices and what's the best price they'll do. Curry's do knock some money off but it could vary from store to store and salesperson to salesperson. But guessing you'll find a cheaper deal on the net anyway..:)