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patrick0brien

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
3,246
9
The West Loop
-All

I thought you'd find this interesting...

Intel should never have added Wi-Fi to its Centrino chipset. Now is not the time, and 802.11b is not the protocol. Which is why I'm hard-pressed to recommend Centrino-based machines unless you plan to replace the built-in wireless with an 802.11g PC Card when the time comes.


"How Intel blew it on wireless"

Have at it guys!

<EDIT>PS- I found the threads at the base of the story particularly entertaining :D
 

iJon

macrumors 604
Feb 7, 2002
6,586
229
thats pretty much the only bad centrino thing i have heard. i have read excellent reviews on the centrino and outstandng benchmarks for battery life on these machines. the toshiba got 7 hours of battery life, thats incredible, wish i could have that on my powerbook.

iJon
 

macktheknife

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2002
639
0
Originally posted by iJon
thats pretty much the only bad centrino thing i have heard. i have read excellent reviews on the centrino and outstandng benchmarks for battery life on these machines. the toshiba got 7 hours of battery life, thats incredible, wish i could have that on my powerbook.

iJon

Yup. I've read a ton of glowing reviews on the Centrino and Pentium-M chipset too.
 

britboy

macrumors 68030
Nov 4, 2001
2,655
0
Argentina
Re: David Coursey Negative On Centrino

Originally posted by patrick0brien

<EDIT>PS- I found the threads at the base of the story particularly entertaining :D


Did you read all the comments? Some are fairly ignorant, not least this:
Microsoft gave us the first sound card, and the first mouse.
Microsoft inventing the mouse? Wasn't the mouse first publicly shown back in the mid 60's, before microsoft even came into being? I suppose some people would like to credit MS with every major computer advance of the past 50 years.....:rolleyes:
 

MrMacMan

macrumors 604
Jul 4, 2001
7,002
11
1 Block away from NYC.
Re: Re: David Coursey Negative On Centrino

Originally posted by britboy
Did you read all the comments? Some are fairly ignorant, not least this:
Microsoft gave us the first sound card, and the first mouse.
Microsoft inventing the mouse? Wasn't the mouse first publicly shown back in the mid 60's, before microsoft even came into being? I suppose some people would like to credit MS with every major computer advance of the past 50 years.....:rolleyes:
next will be microsoft made the first PC :rolleyes:
edited for sarcasm.
 

mac15

macrumors 68040
Dec 29, 2001
3,099
0
well, intel and M$ got pushed back agian by using 802.11b (something apple has been on since 1999) . And soon they will be pushing 802.11a (which sucks since the 'g' is better cause its backward compitable)

More pushing people in the wrong direction, what a waste of time
 

patrick0brien

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
3,246
9
The West Loop
Originally posted by mac15
...And soon they will be pushing 802.11a (which sucks since the 'g' is better cause its backward compitable)

-mac15

Don't forget that the equipment for 802.11a is twice as pricey.

For britboy,

The input device that would later be 'branded' a mouse by Apple was patented in 1963 by Douglas Englebart. Who, also introduced the Graphical User Interface in 1968.
 

the future

macrumors 68040
Jul 17, 2002
3,431
5,471
Originally posted by patrick0brien
The input device that would later be 'branded' a mouse by Apple was patented in 1963 by Douglas Englebart. Who, also introduced the Graphical User Interface in 1968.

Yeah, but Apple hat the guts and vision to bring it to the public.

And by the way, it's not surprising that the Centrino stuff is getting good reviews, is it? Most reviewers compare it to the pre-Centrino PC laptops, and the Centrino laptops are obviously better than that. But are they as good as powerbooks? C'mon...
 

patrick0brien

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
3,246
9
The West Loop
Originally posted by the future
But are they as good as powerbooks? C'mon...

-future

I'd have to say definitely not when you look at the "Whole Widget" and everything you can do with it.

However if you look at the three key areas that the Centrino was designed to perform: Battery time, WiFi, and Processor performance - the centrino package is quite compelling - especially that battery time.

Two points against the Centrino though. The first, the point Coursey is making. The secont point is something I learned the other day. When you unplug a Centrino, the machine performance drops by 40%. And that is the new ceiling until you plug it back in.
 

macktheknife

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2002
639
0
Originally posted by the future
Yeah, but Apple hat the guts and vision to bring it to the public.

And by the way, it's not surprising that the Centrino stuff is getting good reviews, is it? Most reviewers compare it to the pre-Centrino PC laptops, and the Centrino laptops are obviously better than that. But are they as good as powerbooks? C'mon...

Many of the benchmarks puts the speed of the 1.6 GHz Pentium-M on par with the 2.2 - 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 Mobile Edition, with the 1.5 GHz Pentium-M falling somewhere within the 2.0 - 2.2 GHz range. As iJon mentioned, the Centrinos also get longer battery life due to a more efficient processor designed to use less energy.

Are the Centrino laptops better than the PowerBooks? Well, here's what I think. Does the G4 1GHz run as fast as the Pentium-M 1.6 GHz? Does the PowerBook get more battery life than the Centrino? Is the PowerBook less expensive than the Centrino? I think the answers to all these questions will be "no," so people will have to justify a PowerBook purchase on the basis of OS X's stability, its design, and the Apple "experience."
 

macktheknife

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2002
639
0
Originally posted by patrick0brien
Two points against the Centrino though. The first, the point Coursey is making. The secont point is something I learned the other day. When you unplug a Centrino, the machine performance drops by 40%. And that is the new ceiling until you plug it back in.

That's not the whole picture. The Pentium-M has a power management systems that throttles down to about half the clockspeed when you're doing simple things like editing text and browsing for files. It kicks back up and adjusts accordingly when more demands are made upon it.
 
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