Intel M or Amd xp for laptop (desktop replacement)?

[Hawk45]

I have a question on which is a better way to go and get a few questions answered. I am looking to get a laptop for work (rookie web develper) and for fun (music / movie production). All I ever heard was Intel P4's are the best and the more mhz the better.... I am looking for something that will handle all my need but will not break the bank....quality is very important. I usually am running 8-12 apps at one time so power is important but so is remote capabilities. What would satisfy my needs as far as processor, RAM and cache.


Questions:

1. Is cache the most important thing to think about when looking for speed? RAM? Processor mhz? Hard Drive speed?

2. How do AMD XP processors compare to Intel P4 or M?

Thanks,
John

[nukes]

1. Is cache the most important thing to think about when looking for speed? RAM? Processor mhz? Hard Drive speed?

Go for DDR ram if you can. Laptop Hard drives are pretty slow anyway (compared to desktops) so you won't get much leyway there. CPU speed can be a big factor as well. Its a combination of all these. Stuff like the graphics chip and RAM will be a factor as well.
Just go for whatever you think's the best deal.

2. How do AMD XP processors compare to Intel P4 or M?

Perfectly. Up to about 2.8 AMD was kicking intel's ass, then with the 3.0 and 3.2 (and HT) the benchmarks panned out a bit, intel in front in some, AMD in others. My advice would be to get an AMD chip unless you're looking at the ultra-high-end stuff.

[Turnip12]

As far as I know, Pentium Ms would be the better choice for laptops (in terms of performance), AMD for best overall (value/performance) and the Pentium 4s coming in last.

I think one of the bigger factors to consider would be hard drives. Everything loads from your hard drive, so even if you have a top end processor and a ridiculous amount of ram, your initial bootup/load times and saving/loading files are still going to be slow. Most laptops use a 4200 RPM hard drive standard, some 5400rpm and is you're lucky you'll be able to find some companies who will stuff a 7200rpm drive in for a considerable price increase.

It sounds like you're looking for a good value laptop, if that's the case I'd poke around for an AMD based system. As far as I know, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, most of the manufacturers who build the 32bit Athlon notebooks try and keep the cost down so I don't think you can find one without an integrated graphics card or a 7200 rpm hard drive. But if you're like me you probably just want one for times when you can't be at your desktop, in which case any of the current packages should be fine. If you have the money, and it's available, I'd go ahead and bump up to at least a 5400rpm hard drive