I am looking to get a new laptop, hopefully to use as my primary computer. I am a Web programmer, so I will be running programs like Photoshop and MS SQL Server (developer edition). I don't plan on playing many games. I will also likely use an external monitor for additional work space.

The top contender on my list is an IBM ThinkPad T42, however I realize that other Centrinos are probably good as well.

So my questions are:
1. Is a Centrino laptop good enough to use as a primary computer?

2. Are Centrinos silent when not in use?

3. Compared to a desktop running an Athlon 3400, will I be disappointed with the speed of a 1.7GHz Centrino?

Thank you.
Mike Chabot

What you're planning is already being done in record numbers. Laptops are being sold in record numbers, AFAIK, it seems to be the one sector that's really in growth mode. I don't see any reasons against it, including performance in general -- except that you can't really mod a notebook to make it quieter if it is not quiet enough for you while as w/desktops, well you have all the resources of SPCR to help you silence it.

My girlfriend bought a centrino (1.4 banias-130nm ). I think the 1.7 would be the Dothan (which uses even less power)? It runs very cool even when it is running at full speed (not full load, just at 1.4Ghz). Almost all the time, it lowers the clockspeed to save battery power. I have seen it go down to 95MHz Usually it is in the 125~300 range. I have heard the cpu fan *twice* since august, and each time it ran for only about 1 min. It has a teeny tiny aluminum heatsink, by comparison my friends P4 laptop has a three times as large all copper heatsink. The fan runs every time you click something. It is horrible, really stay away from the P4.

As for the performance, my girlfriends machine was the cheapest centrino at the time, so only 256mb ram. Can't say its excellent, but its not bad. It is the first laptop that I don't get frustrated while using. (which is saying a lot, I am very impatient.) I was under the impression that it was fast--until the ram ran out and it had to swap. Stick in another 256 and it would be ok I think. Although I am using an Athlon 1.3 (w 512ram) at the moment so take my words with a grain of salt!

I've got a T40 (1.5 GHz Pentium M), and it's pretty quiet. The CPU fan can be loud when it spins up, but the hard drive is more annoying, since it's usually spinning (it's very quiet, though; like a good quiet fan). Oh, and the keyboard is the best I've ever seen in a laptop. It's hard to go wrong with a ThinkPad.

Laptops are the only area where Intel's new model numbers work. OEMs are not afraid anymore to use low end Celeron-Ms in their cheapest laptops. Which means no horrible "Desktop Celeron 2.8GHz" -space heaters for the cheapest laptops anymore.

Just make sure You get enough RAM. Laptop hard drives aren't that fast when compared to desktop counterparts. Photoshop and SQL are enough taxing for the hard drive. It could be benefical to use an external (firewire) hard drive as PS scratch disk, though the noise will go up in this case.

Cheers,

Jan