Question about M Processors vs. P4

[Tyrande]

Im about to buy a laptop for school. however, im not only gonna use it for school but also for ffxi, on occasion. I was looking at sony vaio's and noticed that all of their laptops only come in M Processors. The computer i chose was the A series i believe with a 2.0 M Processors w/ 1 gb of ram and 256 x600 Ati Radeon. Also, i was looking at Alienware's with p4 at 3.0 with also 1gb of ram. My question is ive heard from people not to get a m processor because the speed is slower then a p4 which i believe. How significant is the difference b/w the p4 and the m processor.
PS. I know both of those companies are very expensive but its a gift :-) .... Thanks for your help.

[neighbortaru]

lol no actually the Pentium M is a much "faster" processor than the Pentium 4.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=2342&p=15
notice that 2.0Ghz M run better than the 3.0Ghz P4 in many cases?

[Tyrande]

wow that blows my mind but u see that the other p4s are up and around there so i think i may stick with the p4 3.0 actually for ffxi and such...

[neighbortaru]

your call, but i still believe the M > P4
btw, you should read the whole article. very good info in there.

[Tyrande]

hmmm ya know i gotta think about this becuz heres my situiation
Sony Vaio
Intel M Proc 2.0 Ghz
Ati X600 256 Mb
100 gb
Av Dock


Alienware
P4 3.0ghz
6800 Nvidia
60 gb


What would u go with? im still thinkin about it. How is the M Celeron processor with overall processing, not only gaming but regular programs ie. AIM.

[neighbortaru]

the celeron M is much lower than those 2.

tough choice tho. on one hand the vaio has the better processor, on the other the alienware has the better graphics card.

I think I'd go with the alienware for the graphics card.

[ZeroRadius]

Re: Question about M Processors vs. P4

Please do not waste the money on a Viao ><
The screen resolution that you get with them is crap.
Also the Alienware laptop has little to no battery life, so if you get that don't forget the massive power adapter to plug yourself in.