If you have seen all the posts over Cnet in the past couple of days (plus the Sonoma article on Page 1 of Cnet.com itself) you will see that a brand new 3rd generation Centrino (Pentium M) design is out.
So far, only the Dell 6000 is ready for sale right at the Intel launch date of 1/19/05 but you should seriously consider one of these once the models start rolling out in February and March.
Pentium 4M's are hot and heavy and if you are not keeping it planted on a desk in one spot all the time you would be better off with a 15.4" Pentium M notebook.
I have the HPZT3000/Compaq X1000 15.4" Pentium M 6.5 pounds and I like it a lot. However, this has just disappeared from hpshopping.com (and via Costco) but it is now posted here on the boards that a new HPZT4000 (and come Compaq sister version) will come out soon with the new Sonoma architecture (PCI express, new 533mhz bus (400mhz before), faster RAM, updated wi-fi with a/b, and g (only b/g before), etc.
The Dell 8600, for example has the ATI 9600 with 128mb dedicated RAM but that is the old technology ...
Supposedly, Dell will be adding dedicated video options to the new 6000 model in a few weeks.
A Pentium 4M has horrible battery life and is very hot. The only benefit at this point is the hyperthreading for heavy multitasking ...
Note the Pentium M cpus have 2mb L2 system cache which helps them perform at up to 2x their mhz speed in comparison to a 4M (except for the hyperthreading).
Also, you would be better off waiting for the Athlon 64 low voltage chips (called Turion) (out in mid 2005 now reported) to get 64 bit and bettery battery life as well if you don't want to go Centrino.
If you have not tried wi-fi yet you will fall in love with it when you do get DSL or cable internet at home as you can move the computer around anywhere with it on and connected to the internet via wi-fi -- and Pentium 4M's get 3.5-4 hours at least using wi-fi and up to 5 hours and beyond not using wi-fi (and larger batteries beyond the standard 4 cell for a Pentium M like the 12 cell on the HPDV1000 can more than double your battery life as well).
Dell and HP/Compaq can both be custom ordered via Costco.com and you get the same Costco return protection as you did on the retail model
Hi! I got a computer a few months ago from Costco, a Toshiba A65-S1762, it was a special that Toshiba made for them and they only had it like 2 weeks. Well I really have liked it, but do to a few problems I am taking it back (I still have one month on the return policy left). So I have been shopping around on there site (I think they have the best prices and security for comp. buyers) and have found a few that I really like. Currently my comp. has these specs...
$1299.99
Intel Pent. 4 Processor 3.2 GHz
512 MB
60 GB
DVD Super multi drive
15.4"
ATI Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP, 64 MB shared (this has caused many prob.)
Atheros 802.11g wireless, 56K modem, 10/100 ethernet
XP Home
Works suite, 2003 Micro. Office
I think I covered everything. So I'm looking for something like this except with a better Graphics card and 80 GB HD. So I have narrowed it down to another Toshiba model, a customized HP model, and a customized Compaq models. In the past my desktops have been Gateway, and my current notebook is Toshiba, so I don't know how good HP and Compaq computers are, so if anyone has any experience, can you help me please? Here's the specs for each one...
*Toshiba P35-S6292- $1549.99, HP Pent. 4 538 at 3.2 GHz w/ Hyper-Threading Tech., 512MB DDR SDRAM memory (expandable to 2048MB, both slots may be occupied), 80GB EIDE hard drive (4,200 RPM), DVD-SuperMulti Drive: Max Speed - CD-ROM (24x); CD-R (16x write); CD-RW (8x write); DVD-ROM (8x); DVD-R (4x write); DVD-RW (2x write); DVD+R (2.4x write); DVD+RW (2.4x write); DVD-RAM (2x write), 17.0" TruBrite? WXGA TFT LCD display; supports up to 16M colors at 1440 x 900 resolution, ATI

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