Celeron v. P4

[sonyman]

What's the big difference? Let's take a celeron 1.8, and P4-M 2.0, and P4 2.4, and 900M and compare them. Is the 2.0M any better than the 1.8 celeron? Is the 1.8 celeron superior to the 900M? What gives with all these numbers?

Of note: I only use my laptop for MS Office and internet surfing. That's it. Nothing else. Will I see a significant difference here if I choose a P4 over a celeron?

[Ioman]

The difference is the P4 should have more cache and will probably run on a faster front side bus. I am sure there are other small differences, but I think those are the biggest.

[sonyman]

That helps alot Ioman. Thanks. Do you have any idea what the performance difference is in the 1.8 celeron and a P4M processor?

[ECA]

OK,
Fun aint it.
The P4M is a newer set CPU.
The P4 and the celeron of the SAME speed, are only 10% difference in speed. That difference is the cache size on the chip.
There is a 2ghz celeron. and its nice, there was a Chipset change from 1.8 to 2ghz
NOW the new laptop chip thats out(p4 something) is 800 mhz and runs as fast as a 3ghz P4 tower/desktop.
You are NOt doing games or heavy math, major 10 page spread sheet, or 3D rendering. You dont need the extra power, go for the savings.

[sonyman]

Would a 1.8 celeron outperform a 900M processor?

Also, what exactly is meant by cache size? What does the cache do?

[ECA]

The Cache is an area on and CPU for storing instruction to be ran. On the p4 its 512k on the celeron its only 256k.

Im not sure about the M series. there are so many generations of chips that its getting stupid to TRY to keep up. I do know the NEWEST generation of chips are going to carry a better Instrution set. But it may not be released on the celeron series.
For what you have said above, that this is going to be an OFFICE machine, net access and word processing, USE the celeron, you DONT need the extra cost, for only a 10% increase in speed. Go with the celeron 2K, I think its only about $80 compared to the P4 at $150-200(still)