centrino technology in laptops - worth it?

With the proliferation of .11g and the likely convergence of .11a with the
other protocols, is it worth buying a laptop with the centrino technology or
skip it and just go for a PCMCIA that'll handle wireless?
The way I see it, .11g will become the dominant technology in a few months
and few ppl will bother with .11b. I'd hate to be stuck having paid extra
for something I'd need to upgrade in a few months.

Thoughts on this?
--
---
N.

You don't have to buy a Centrino notebook to have built in wireless
technology.


"Sylvestre" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7Z72b.8371$(E-Mail Removed)...
> With the proliferation of .11g and the likely convergence of .11a with the
> other protocols, is it worth buying a laptop with the centrino technology
or
> skip it and just go for a PCMCIA that'll handle wireless?
> The way I see it, .11g will become the dominant technology in a few months
> and few ppl will bother with .11b. I'd hate to be stuck having paid extra
> for something I'd need to upgrade in a few months.
>
> Thoughts on this?
> --
> ---
> N.
>
>

Sylvestre <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: With the proliferation of .11g and the likely convergence of .11a with the
: other protocols, is it worth buying a laptop with the centrino technology or
: skip it and just go for a PCMCIA that'll handle wireless?

You can get a "built-in" (mini-PCI) wireless card without getting
Centrino. I have one in my Toshiba 1415 (Celeron) machine. It's
really nice not having the PC Card (aka PCMCIA) card not sticking out.

The big benefit of Centrino is not the built-in wireless - it's the
low power consumption/long battery life (mostly courtesy of the
Pentium M CPU, which is part of Centrino). Centrino uses a mini-PCI
wireless card like I have, except that it's a specific Intel card
(2100) they use. I'm fairly sure you would be able to have your
Centrino wireless card upgraded someday to an 802.11g card. Remember,
"Centrino" is just a branding/package that is 802.11b only today.
Intel will surely have 802.11g card in their Centrino package in the
future, and they may even allow an "official" upgrade so that your
laptop is still "Centrino" though as far as I'm concerned that's not a
big deal.

You could always upgrade/add a mini-PCI wireless card yourself, like I
did. One screw on the bottom of my laptop opens up a mini-PCI slot.
Plugging the card in was easy; attaching the built-in antenna (a tool
is provided with the card) was the hardest part, but it still took me
only 10 minutes.

: The way I see it, .11g will become the dominant technology in a few months
: and few ppl will bother with .11b.

That's not the way I see it at all. A lot of public WiFi access
points built out in public are 802.11b; it's not trivial to replace it
all instantly (think of the labor, not just the parts cost). I think
802.11b is going to be around for a long time. For home use, 802.11g
will probably become the standard quickly, but to me around-the-house
WiFi is not the biggest reason I even want/need WiFi.

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
************************************************** *****************
----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
************************************************** *****************

"SCW" <YouDon'tNeedToE-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Y8udnfkHNK68vNSiU-(E-Mail Removed)...
> You don't have to buy a Centrino notebook to have built in wireless
> technology.
>

But you also get a lot of other advantages such as extended battery life o)
regards
@ndrew

On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 14:56:40 -0400, Sylvestre wrote:

> With the proliferation of .11g and the likely convergence of .11a with the
> other protocols, is it worth buying a laptop with the centrino technology or
> skip it and just go for a PCMCIA that'll handle wireless?
> The way I see it, .11g will become the dominant technology in a few months
> and few ppl will bother with .11b. I'd hate to be stuck having paid extra
> for something I'd need to upgrade in a few months.
>
> Thoughts on this?

I own a Dell Latitude c640 with a mini-pci wifi card. Dell currently sells
the 1300 TrueMobile 802.11g mini-pci cards for 49dollars. If you catch
them at the right time you can get things like 10% off and free
shipping(like I did ). As for "centrino" it is a buzzword made by intel
for intel's profits. A centrino laptop is just a laptop comprised of intel
parts. If I recall the standard is a mobile intel processor, intel wifi,
and an intel pro ethernet adaptor. With my dell I have a mobile intel p4,
a 802.11g mini-pci card, and great battery life, around 7-8hrs with dual
batts. Anyway my point is don't be confused with the thought of centrino
it is just a buzz word to milk money by faking a standard.

Centrinos are much faster than a P4 laptop... that's why they cost more.
The wireless is just a gimmick.

"Sylvestre" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7Z72b.8371$(E-Mail Removed)...
> With the proliferation of .11g and the likely convergence of .11a with the
> other protocols, is it worth buying a laptop with the centrino technology
or
> skip it and just go for a PCMCIA that'll handle wireless?
> The way I see it, .11g will become the dominant technology in a few months
> and few ppl will bother with .11b. I'd hate to be stuck having paid extra
> for something I'd need to upgrade in a few months.
>
> Thoughts on this?
> --
> ---
> N.
>
>
>

Central <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: I own a Dell Latitude c640 with a mini-pci wifi card. Dell currently sells
: the 1300 TrueMobile 802.11g mini-pci cards for 49dollars. If you catch
: them at the right time you can get things like 10% off and free
: shipping(like I did ). As for "centrino" it is a buzzword made by intel
: for intel's profits. A centrino laptop is just a laptop comprised of intel
: parts. If I recall the standard is a mobile intel processor, intel wifi,
: and an intel pro ethernet adaptor.

Not quite. Yes, today Centrino is largely a big (and successful)
marketing push, but there is new technology behind it. For one, it
includes a brand new mobile CPU, the Pentium M, which is much more
power efficient than your Pentium 4-M CPU. The battery in a Centrino
laptop will last much longer than the one in your Pentium 4-M, it will
not run as hot, and the fan will not come on as often, if at all.
Pentium 4-M and Pentium M are completely different CPU's, barely
related at all. This power efficiency will become even more important
in the future as clock frequencies are cranked up and today's desktop
CPU's in laptops run into thermal design constraints.

Centrino also consists, today, of an Intel chipset and the Intel
PRO/2100 wireless card. As "Centrino" they are certified to work
together. In the future, the actual hardware that is part of Centrino
may evolve into something else. There may be more integration with
the CPU or chipset that allows for more power efficiency. Intel
doesn't want the consumer to worry about the hardware - they want
people to think of "Centrino" as "power efficient, battery
efficient".

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
************************************************** *****************
----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
************************************************** *****************

Jared Richardson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: Centrinos are much faster than a P4 laptop... that's why they cost more.

No, that's just not true. It is true that you must adjust the clock
rate to compare performance of the Pentium M (the CPU part of
"Centrino") and a Pentium 4. A 1.4GHZ Pentium M is supposedly
equivalent to a 1.8GHZ Pentium 4, though that depends on what kinds of
tasks you are doing (the CPU arechitectures are very different).
Still, the fastest Pentium 4 laptops, while battery hogs, will run
things faster than any Centrino laptop out there yet.

Centrino-based laptops cost more because the technology is new.
The big benefit for consumers is longer battery life, and cooler,
quieter operation.

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
************************************************** *****************
----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
************************************************** *****************

On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 18:59:10 -0400, Central <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I own a Dell Latitude c640 with a mini-pci wifi card. Dell currently sells
>the 1300 TrueMobile 802.11g mini-pci cards for 49dollars. If you catch
>them at the right time you can get things like 10% off and free
>shipping(like I did ).

That sounds like a great deal. Will those cards work in other
laptops?