Dell Inspiron vs. Dell Latitude

Benchmark Performance between the chips is really a crapshoot. Tests are usually created to compare overall systems based on the same CPU chip - not to compare the differing preformance between chips.

If you use the Winstone 2002 Content Creation benchmark the Pentium-M 1.6 scores in between the Pentium 4 2.4 and 2.66.

The SYSMark 2002 Content Creation benchmark has the same Pentium-M 1.6GHz coming in behind the Pentium 4 1.4GHz chip (The SYSMark Benchmark is optomized to run on the Pentium 4.)

If you look at the Winstone 2002 Business Creation (typical business use) benchmark the Pentium-M 1.6 GHz outperforms the Pentium 4 2.66 GHZ.

The Office Productivity SYSMark 2002 gives the Pentium-M 1.6GHz and the Pentium 4 2.66 GHz the exact same score.

(All of these results are listed here: http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1800 along with lots more good technical info on the Pentium-M )

The big advantage of the Pentium-M is increased battery life because it's optomized for low-power use in laptops.


Either the Dell 9100 or the D800 will do what you've said you need and both are very good machines. The only drawback I see to the 9100 is that it has the wireless network card built in. It is a 802.11b/g card so it'll work with teh current technologies but what happens 2 years from now when 802.11g is superceded by the "next great thing"? (I'm not a big fan of lots of integrated devices in systems btw. )

That's really a pretty minor point though.

If draggin' the puppy around is gonna be a frequent deal, I'd go with a P4M machine, and as much RAM as it'll hold and my wallet could stand. If operation is gonna be mostly tethered to an AC line, then cost-vs-features would be the deciding point for me. I'd still favor as much RAM as practical/affordable. Just my two cents, FWIW. Either Dell machine you mention should perform well into the excellent range for a long while to come ... as time is measured in computer performance terms ... coupla years, anyway.