9100 buy or wait

Hi,

Can someone please help me with some advice. I'm after a notebook and was looking at buying the following spec:

9100 3.4Ghz (Prescott)
1Gb RAM
100Gb HD
WSXGA+

for £1700 incl. VAT

I'll be using it for games/work but will not be traveling with it very much.

I'm not sure if I should just wait for Dothan to come down in price or just buy it.

Thanks

Paul

 

That machine will be incredibly fast and excellent for games. I think you would be pleased with it.

That advantages of waiting for the Dothan include having a lighter notebook, but since you won't be traveling that shouldn't be an issue. However, if you want any sort of battery life, the Dothan will be much better. I do not know how important that is to you.

With the specs you have given, I don't think the Dothan would give you that much better performance.

 

Go dothan. The Prescott was a horrible blunder for intel. It has more transistors than the Northwood so it has a longer pipeline. In about half of the tests performed on it, it is no better than northwood or is slower. Also, it has much higher thermals, which is why the 9100 is 2" thick and 9lbs heavy - it needs to accomodate a huge heat pipe as well as three fans.

The plus is they are large fans so it won't be too loud. I say go Dothan though, it uses less power, will give you a lighter notebook (for when you do take it somewhere), and won't run as hot. Plus, it actually is something of a better performer, doing more calculations per cycle than the Prescott, which is why it doesn't have to be clocked as high. Guess why Intel is moving away from the ghz naming scheme and are building upon the centrino design for future desktop chips.

 

First off, how are you configuring the 9100 with a 3.4Ghz processor? Dell currently only offers 3.2 in the 9100.

Secondly, even if you had somehow gotten a 3.4Ghz processor, it would almost certainly not be a Prescott. They're still using Northwoods for now.

As far as what I recommend to you, get the 9100. It's faster, and, since you won't be moving it much, mobility and battery life are a non-issue. Heck, even if you DO need to move it and run on battery, I can run my 9100 for over two hours. You shouldn't have a problem there.

I'll have to suggest the P4.


DESKTOP: 6150 3DMark03
Home-built
Athlon XP 3000+
1GB RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
LAPTOP: 3DMark03 Score Soon
Dell 9100
Pentium4 3.2Ghz
512MB RAM
Radeon 9700 128MB
AUDIO:
Yamaha RX-V430 Reciever
Twin Floor-Standing NS-555s

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Animasaki

 

Thanks for the advice.

The sales adviser confirmed to me that I will be getting a 3.4Ghz Prescott, he confirmed it with the technical department.

I think I'll opt for a Dothan 2Ghz when it comes out in the UK in June, I think the prices will drop by the July for Dothan.

I just don't want to opt for a notebook that going to give me problems with heat and it’s just too big. Also Dothan the new chip where northwood/prescott the old dated design.


Thanks

Paul

 

I have a 9100 with a gig of ram, 60 gig hd and a 2.8 prescot and i have no problems at all so far.. had it for about.. a month and a half. I do alot of gaming and web development, runs it all very very very well.

Heat-wise.. the brick has gotten really hot so far.. about once. the machien doesnt get to hot. there is always one fan going, and the ohter 2 go on when i play games. they never go on high though, so it is dispensing the heat reletivily well since the fans hav never went on high.

.:Inspiron 9100:.
-:2.8 P4:-
-:1GB 400 MHz RAM:-
-:60GIG 7200 RPM HDD:-
-:128MB ATI Radeon 9700:-
-:800MHz FSB:-

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by briggs_ca

 

well, my main reason for getting the 9100 was because it could handle alot of games. i need a machien that can do anything i wanted to do on it, since its my only machine, so id be doing gaming and all my work on it.

Since i doubt you need it for games, you could get away with getting something smaller then a 9100.. but i dont know.

i geuss it depends if you only plan on using it for work, if thats the case maybe you could get an 8600 or something with a dothan processor when that comes out.. and lots of ram. its smaller then the 9100 (what isnt?) so it wouldnt be to bad to haul back and forth to work im sure.

My other choices werent that great.. a toshiba m-30.. and an hp zx5000 (actualy not bad, i jsut couldnt get my hands on it) I was also lookign at a presario 3070.. somethign like that (it has a 7 in the model name lol)

.:Inspiron 9100:.
-:2.8 P4:-
-:1GB 400 MHz RAM:-
-:60GIG 7200 RPM HDD:-
-:128MB ATI Radeon 9700:-
-:800MHz FSB:-

 

i should add, i ended up getting the dell because it was better then all three machines (especialy the video card and ram), and because it was a hell of alot cheaper then any of those three machines

.:Inspiron 9100:.
-:2.8 P4:-
-:1GB 400 MHz RAM:-
-:60GIG 7200 RPM HDD:-
-:128MB ATI Radeon 9700:-
-:800MHz FSB:-