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@argonaut2004 wrote:

The following hardware details on the XPS Gen2 are a bit confusing to me.

I'm hoping some of you kind folks can set me straight :)

 

The following Dell link says Pentium M (picture) AND Pentium 4 at up to 3.4 GHz (paragraph):

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_xps2?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=hardwaretab#tabtop

 

I thought they were mutually exclusive, meaning it's either a Pentium M or a Pentium 4?

 

Now, when I go to configure my laptop for purchase I'm only given the Pentium M option at

a max speed of 2.13 GHz.

 

1)  Are the Pentium M & Pentium 4 (laptop version) the same thing?

2) If not, does the XPS Gen 2 have P4 as an option?

3) Also if not, isn't the Pentium M slower than the P4 and therefore not as suitable for gaming

as the previous XPS model that had the P4?

          a)  If the answer is yes, can the Pentium M run games like Half Life 2 at hi resolutions well?

          b)  Is there a site that compares the two side by side?

 

Thanks for any clarification that can be provided.

 

Regards,

Argo

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No they are not the same.

Yes it will play games fine like HL2.

The PentM is the replacement for the Moble P4.

I took a look at the link you posted... And it is indeed very confusing...

Until you realize that whoever was in charge of updating the website from the XPS Gen 1 to the XPS Gen 2 simply copy and pasted the information over!! LOL... Someone should be getting in trouble!

Special BIG giveaways that it was a copy & paste job...

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processors with Hyper-Threading Technology
- The Gen 2 uses the Pentium M (2.0 and 2.13 GHz variations)

DDR Dual-Channel SDRAM
- The Gen 2 uses 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM not 400MHz DDR SDRAM

ATI Mobility RADEON Graphics Card
- The Gen 2 only offers the nVidia GeForce6800 Go Ultra at the moment...

LOL... Somebody better fix up that information on the website...

In response to your questions...
1. Pentium M and Pentium 4 (laptop version) which would be called the Pentium 4-M are completely different... The Pentium 4-M is basically a crippled and under-volted Pentium 4. The Pentium M is a completely different architecture... Much more efficient per clock cycle.

2. No, the Gen 2 does not have the Pentium 4 as an option.

3. The Pentium M is slower than the Pentium 4 in certain respects, but it doesn't lose the Pentium 4 when it comes to gaming. The Pentium 4 is fastest in certain audio/video encoding and creation tasks. The Pentium M is no slouch, however, and I believe that offering the Pentium M in the Gen 2 was the correct choice. Less heat output, less power consumption, slimmer profile, lighter laptop... the benefits far outnumber the very minor loss of office and multimedia productivity.

3.a. The Pentium M will rock Half-Life 2 at high resolutions.
3.b. Check out this comparison by Anandtech.com here!

-Andrew

Message Edited by ouminan on 04-16-2005 09:30 AM