Question about laptop processor

[extremesoccermo]

Hi, I am new here and relatively uninformed about computers. (I know how to turn it on and connect to the internet) My son is a high school freshman, he does a lot of homework on the computer and would like a laptop for Christmas so he can get his text books on disc and do homework on the go. My question is about the processors. I have been told by a couple of people that really should get a Pentium 4 if I want it to last the 4 years he will be in highschool, however I have noticed that the price doubles when going from Celeron, Athlon XP, Pentium 3 .... Could someone tell me if it is really worth it and what is the difference between all of them. Is there any other option I should look at?
I also want the following features : wireless, 40 GB, 256 RAM, DVD player/CD RW. Thanks for any help!

 

[jcline]

Do you have any particular laptop models in mind?

When deciding between a celeron and P4, the most striking differences are the Front Side Bus speeds (FSB) and L2 cache which are basically the bottleneck of any computer.

The P4 allows faster data through (because of the higher FSB and L2 cache) this bottleneck especially for video editing, gaming, DVD viewing, etc...so it's not necessarily that it will last longer.

Also, here is a good article to read through for a more detailed difference:
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20020903/

 

[jnev_89]

i'd recomend more that 256mb of ram. the comp will go much faster with 512mb

 

[Nubius]

i'd recomend more that 256mb of ram. the comp will go much faster with 512mb

This is quite true, as now-a-days, 512mb is becomming the minimum requisit for RAM to thoroughly be able to run programs.

Celerons are the lowest end model of the Intel Series. The P3's are the higher end, but are the last model they made, this is why they are at P4's now...Athlon-XP is something entirely different made by a different company although their XP series is the same as P4 basically in the sense that the XP series is AMD's top performance line (except of course for the AMD64's that are now out, which THOSE are absolute top of the line) but anywho, the XP's are basically the previous top-line processors, where as Durons, are AMD's low end. AMD Duron is like the Intel Celeron, both are low end. Next up you have P3's and XP's probably would rank together the best, then P4's and AMD64's...

However, don't let Intels higher clock speeds fool you. A 3GHz Intel isn't necessarily faster than a 2.2GHz AMD because AMD's do more instructions per clock cycle than Intel.

 

[extremesoccermo]

Thank you all this is exactly what I need to help me make my decision!

 

[Cappy]

I havent looked at Laptops Lately but the High end AMD based Laptops with at least 512 mb`s of ram are the better buy for the long run last i checked .Its allways a good idea to keep Upgradeability in mind as well.