Is Pentium M a better CAD chip than P4 and Athlon even?

see link

http://tinyurl.com/ey4c3

Could it be after reading this that I should look into
a Pentium M chip over the Athlon and P4? Maybe even
the dual core chips?

I'm confused

Advice?

 

While it is certainly true that the PM is clock-for-clock a bit faster than

Thanks Dale

I'm looking for a PC that uses as little power as
possible. Can be left on all day.

But it must be able to do some heavy duty thing such as
CAD work

Any advice on what CPU to go for?

Should I go dual core athlon? Is it pretty power
thrifty?

Or maybe buy a laptop with a Pentium M chip in it?
Can leave that on all day long without much heat
buildup or power use?

Again the goal is to leave the PC on for days at a
time. Maybe weeks at a time. And not affect my
electric bill much or create a lot of ambient heat in
the room.

 

If you're leaving your computer on for weeks at a time it's going to
affect your electic bill whether it's a P4 or an M.

I have a P4, it generates a lot of heat but only when it's crunching.
If your computer is static most of the time I would think you won't
find the heat a problem. I doubt you could leave it on persistently
without showing up on your bill though.

 

I leave my AMD64 FX53 on 24/7 as I do will many of my systems. Aside
from the electric bill this doesn't seem to affect much and if anything
makes them more reliable.

While Tom's has benchmarked a lot of things they didn't try their SW
benchmark in this particular test. I would be interested in those
results.

 

If you're leaving your computer on for weeks at a time it's going to

True

But want to minimize the affect as much as possible

 

How much power do you need to save? If you spend an extra $1-1.5k on a

yes it is hard to quantify

Cause like you said the premium you might pay for Pent
M may not be recovered in lower elect costs

Still..... I'm looking at it from an environmental view

Call me crazy. But I like the idea of being frugal with
the earths resources

Hence the idea of using a Pent M chip for cad work

And actually.... this PC will be used for mundane
computer things more than CAD work. I just need the
ability to do some CAD at home when needed. Such as
testing new software, trying new methods, etc

But it wont be a full on CAD production machine

 

Anyhow, it sounds like fairly casual CAD usage, so ultimate CPU grunt power

yeah.....

Laptop would probably do me OK

I've just never owned one before and not sure if Id
like one or not

Especially since most of the time it will be used as a
"desktop".... i.e hardly moved

If you were gonna get a laptop yourself....what size
screen would you for? Let me rephrase that.... what
would be the SMALLEST screen you'd live with in a
laptop?

And what resolution?

 

I use the Dell M60 with 1920 pixels and I find it to be emminently
usable, and less "jaggy" than many larger screens with larger pixels.
I work only on laptops now, though indeed, I work primarily on small
plastic products, and their molds. My current mold assembly and parts
open in about 8 key files are over 100 megs, and work well and crisply
on the M60.

I think it depends on ones comfort with the screen and software.

When I first started with 2D CAD, I had up to 3 screens. I do not see
the need to do that now for my CAD work, as the windowing is much
better, and 3D assemblies solve so much of the questions which multiple
screens used to address.

Bo

 

I've got a Dell Latitude C840 (the non quadro version of the M50) with a
15" 1600x1200 screen - it's fine for working on non intensively (just
spent 3 days on a course working on it). The fans will work a lot if
you're doing a lot of processing on it (I got the shop to cut a slab of
6mm aluminium that lives under mine to take some of the heat away when
it's on the desk).
If you do get a Dell laptop and are planning on using for proper design
work - make sure you get one of the "M" range ones with the FX graphics
cards, rather than the Geforce cards - Solidworks doesn't like the
Geforce ones and Dell don't like you using softquadro to mod them - I
never managed to get it to work and don't think others did on Dell's.
Without the Quadro/FX additions, Solidworks goes real slow after opening
a certain number of windows, so you have to save, close and re open a
lot, which gets kind of boring with a 300 part assembly.
For full on work though, you can't beat a decent 20" LCD - you can stare
at that all day without too many problems. Go for one of the single core
AMD chips unless you do rendering or analysis work - they storm....
saying that I'm trying to come up with a logical reason to buy a dual
processor, dual core opteron for doing rendering work on after spending
the last 20 hours watching my dual opteron at 100% processor and 1.6Gb
RAM doing a Maya render.....it's a bit warm in here now.....
On the environment front - work from home via the internet and don't
commute as much - I've cut my commuting mileage by some 8000 miles a
year doing this and get waaay more work done! With fuel in the UK at
getting on for 7$/ gallon, it's also a stack of cash.
Cheers