Laptop Processors

Welcome to the Laptop Processors page, the processor is the 'brain' of a laptop computer and the speed of the processor determines how quickly it can process data and therefore the faster the processor is the faster the laptop will be. The processor is also known as the CPU (Central Processing Unit) or even simply as the Chip so be aware that computer shops can and do use any of these terms to describe the processor of a laptop or computer.

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There are two main processor producers which are Intel and AMD, Intel dominated the processor market for many years as they had a near monopoly as there were simply no other major processor manufacturers. Then AMD came along and gave the processor market an injection of freshness just because there was now a choice as to what brand of processor you could choose.

The speed of a processor is measured in Gigahertz (Ghz) and a Gigahertz is made up of 1000 Megahertz (Mhz), the speed of a laptop's processor is often stated like 1.6 Ghz which means 1600 Megahertz. Basically the larger the number the faster the laptop will be although processor manufacturers often have other technology that makes the laptop perform faster than it should. So you will often see a process named like 3200 which implies that it runs at 3.2 Ghz but the actual processor can be slower, with laptops like this they will run at the speed they state as they have other technology that increases the speed of the laptop.

Having a fast processor is all very nice but there is an important consideration that has to be made and that is that the faster the processor is the more power it will use so this can affect battery life. So Intel and AMD both have laptops such as the Centrino laptops that have slower processors but have technology that increase the speed of the laptop and also include other power saving features so the battery life of these laptops is very good. These laptops with long battery lives are geared more towards portability so they are also often small and light so if you need a laptop for your travels then one of these long battery life laptops is ideal.

Mot processors also have what is called a cache which is a small amount of memory that is included in the actual processor, this cache is much faster than using the main system memory so can speed up the laptop quite allot. So the more cache that is included with the processor the better as this can speed things up quite allot, both Intel and AMD processors include cache but the amount varies.

Another important consideration is the system memory that the laptop has as even if the processor is extremely fast it will need enough memory for all of the data that it is processing. So if the processor runs out of memory then this will slow the laptop down as it will have to wait for some memory to become free so if you wish to buy a laptop with a very fast processor then also make sure that it has at least 512MB of system memory.

So buying a laptop with a fast processor makes your laptop faster but you have to consider the battery life, cache and system memory so choose your processor carefully. The speed is the most important factor and the choice between Intel and AMD is not so important, most laptops are powered by Intel processors as they have been the market leader for so long but AMD processors are just as good.

We feel that Centrino laptops are a great choice as they offer a balance of a fast processor and a long battery life so we have listed lots of Centrino laptops on the right which are from to online compute shops. They are also listed with the cheapest first so it is easy to find and buy a cheap Centrino laptop here.

© UK Laptop.co.uk 2007.

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