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Old February 10th 04, 04:37 PM
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Yes it is true that in CPU Mark and Mem Mark the 3.06 will run rings around
the 1.7 M chip, however, in real world performance the 1.7 is often neck and
neck with, and in some cases faster than the 3.06. This is true because of
the larger L2 cache on the 1.7s and its brethren.

What performance "freaks", (and I use that term compassionately, for I am
one), often miss with this new chip is real world performance, and I cannot
tell you the countless test reports I have seen that validate that the
Pentium M 1.7 is truly a performance wonder. Speedy and long battery life!

Take a very close look at these test reports and what they say:

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030205/index.html

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109606,00.asp

Quite a surprise. So don't let your friend run around claiming the
performance crown. I chose an 8600 over a 5150 for the reasons behind these
tests.
You bought a good system. Now go frag his butt in Call of Duty. Oh, wait,
his system won't run COD very well. Oh, well....

TD
"Timothy J. Trace" wrote in message
...
I just ran a PassMark Performance Test comparison betwixt two fresh

Inspirons,

1 My brand-new Inspiron 8600, 1.7GHz P-M, 1GB RAM, 128MB Radeon 9600 Pro

Turbo, 60GB
7200RPM 8MB hard disk - appears on the attached chart in Red.

2 A friend's brand-new Inspiron 5150, 3.06GHz P-4M, 512MB RAM, 32MB

GeForce Go 5200, 40GB
5400RPM 2MB hard disk - appears on the attached chart in Blue.

Both systems were freshly loaded with WinXP Pro SP1a, and all the

appropriate updates and
drivers were applied. All unnecessary services were temporarily disabled

on both systems.
SpeedSwitchXP was used to lock both systems at their top CPU speed.

The I5150, with its speedy processor and 533FSB, walked all over the I8600

during the CPU
Mark and Memory Mark tests suites.

The I8600's video card pulled far, far ahead on the Graphics Mark suites -

approaching
400% during the 3D tests. Given the relatively small textures used in the

3D Graphics
Mark tests, I submit that the 32MB vs. 128MB video memory means little,

and which GPU is
used means a lot.

Oddly enough, the I8600's fast hard drive equated to less than a 1.5%

performance
advantage over the slower, but much less expensive, hard drive in the

I5150. I know that
the faster drive with the larger cache makes good sense, but you wouldn't

know it from
these tests.

Summary - need 3D performance in a Dell notebook? Buy the I8600. Need

acceptable GUI
performance, with blistering processing speed for programming or number

crunching? I5150.

(Asides - the I5150 SXGA display is WAAY brighter than the I8600 UXGA

display. And that
frickin' I5150 130w power brick is a monstrosity!)

Now, as soon as I click the "Send Now" button, Dell will announce a Radeon

9800 Pro Turbo
option in the I5150. That option will almost certainly go live the day

after my 30-day
guarantee expires ;-

Best regards,

Tim ==
(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')
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