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by Hillary Chan, Malaysia

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Why I'm glad I held off buying my notebook--the difference between Intel Centrino and Intel Centrino 2

Jul 18, 2008 02:28

I have been needing to get a new laptop for months, but everytime I am about to make a purchase decision someone will come along and advise me to hold my horses for a wee bit longer. Am I so glad to have followed that advice, because now, my new laptop will have the Intel Centrino 2 processor inside!

There is so much I would like to share about this technology. I wish you were with me during the presentation to see it for yourself. Three reasons I'm impressed:

It is energy efficient: My current laptop's battery lasts 2 hours which is nowhere near long enough as I am often on the road or in the air for 5 to 9 hours.

It performs faster: I've got daily deadlines, weekly deadlines and odd deadlines, i.e. work that appears out of nowhere and requires immediate attention. That's my excuse for losing my hair whenever it takes seconds instead of nanoseconds for my software to boot up or save.

Quick power down: Since some software take forever to boot up, I prefer to hibernate instead of shut down. The Intel Centrino 2 processor promises to be able to do this faster.

From Intel's press release:
Key new features of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor include:

Intel 45nm Hi-K Metal Gate Silicon Technology: Nearly 2x more transistors and lower leakage than 65nm technologies, delivering new levels of performance and power efficiency.

1,066MHz FSB: Faster performance as compared to the previous-generation 800MHz FSB

Intel HD Boost: Faster performance on intensive multimedia applications like HD video encoding

6MB L2 Cache: Performance improvements for data-intensive applications

Deep Power Down Technology: Shuts down processor cores and L2 cache when they are not needed for greater energy efficiency

Everyone's been saying its product is more efficient and powerful, etcetera, but take a look at this picture which I snapped during the launch.

The presenter played a high-definition film clip on two computers--one with the Intel Centrino and the other with the Intel Centrino 2.

The one with Intel Centrino says:
Time taken: 30:00 seconds
Energy consumed: 267mWh
Average power ratio: 31.34W

While the one with the Intel Centrino 2 says:
Time taken: 16:00 seconds
Energy consumed: 8mWh
Average power ratio: 1.75W

Therein lies the difference.

Now, the question for me is, which of these brands that come with the Intel Centrino 2 should I get?!

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Codet

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Codet says...
I completely agree and I am glad too I waited and didn't buy one till now even though I was itching to get one.

I think I will be waiting another year to 18 months. Maybe just get one with the next version of Windows. Afterall, I think the release is just 18 months away!

Jul 18, 2008 09:47

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evan

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evan says...
The Montevina platform isn't that fantastic as all of us think honestly, it's pretty similar to the Penryn platform except for the potential WiMAX integration, stuff like power consumption, 45nm Hi-K process, Blu Ray playback and the 6MB L2 cache etc. The Intel Demo is potentially flawed, as the comparison platform is a Core Duo T2500, which is old technology introduced >30 months ago.

Power consumption is actually very similar to the Centrino laptops based on Penryn processors...

I see no reason to live up to the hype of the Centrino 2 now, especially when the probability of getting the Centrino laptops on the cheap is high now as vendors scramble to embrace these new notebooks. In fact, it's just about time to grab one of the 'old' Centrinos for a killer price.

Jul 19, 2008 20:48

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