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@annubis wrote:
Hi:

I'm not into gamming I write J2EE apps. I need CPU power and portability.

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Then you're going to want an Intel Core Duo processor, or you're going to want an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor. The Pentium D is, perhaps, our era's most abysmal processor architecture. It consumes an incredulous amount of power, thanks to what is essentially two, 90nm Prescott cores glued together and it's high clockspeed (and addition of a second core) warrants that each Pentium D ought to get, at least a 1066 MHz front side bus.

The Athlon X2 3800+ is the slowest of AMD's consumer-line desktop dual-cores, an it generally outruns the Pentium Extreme Edition 840. Only the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 (released days ago at a price of $999.00 to the 3800's $300) has been able to finally give the Pentium D reasonable performance competition with AMD's dual-core lineup. That doesn't take into account price AND performance.

Until you look at Yonah, which is now known as the Core Duo processor. The 2.0 GHz Core Duo is perhaps a tiny bit slower than the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (which runs at 2.0 GHz), and consumes less power at full processing load than the Athlon 64 X2 consumes during idle running. You can get an excellently powerful laptop with the Core Duo, and you'll get both the power and portability you require. Similarly, you'll get perhaps a tiny, tiny bit more performance going with an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (which, sadly, you cannot find on Dell.com), but you will sacrifice a lot of the required portability.

Conclusion: Get the Core Duo. It runs far more efficiently, and much faster than it's Pentium D brother. Pentium D's.... really... really stink. It's painfully true.

A_Pickle :

Thanks for the heads up on the Core Duo. I typically don't buy first gen HW when it first comes out , as it tends to be too expensive. I guess I am in for a wait to satisfy my requirements, or i'll have to knukle under and get an AMD Athalon X2 laptop... after the price comes down.

Trust me... the Pentium D's stink... Any X2 beats even the 840EE in majority of benches...

The Duo will be tons better. Also keep in mind the Pentium M's were nearly equal in gaming performance to the top AMD single cores. We should see the same with the Duo...

BTW, is the Duo the same as the Yonah DC?