Hello Forum,

I am looking into making my next computer purchase a laptop computer.

I was reading the system requirments for VD2 and it says:

";Pentium 4/Athlon 1 GHz minimum";

Will VD 2 run on an Intel® Pentium® M 2GHz/533MHz FSB processor, or does it have to be a Pentium 4/Athlon processor?

Thanks,
Scott

Pentium M's are very fast chips. Clock for clock they are faster than a Pentium 4 in most cases. Pentium M is also called ";Centrino"; when bundled with its wireless technology. A 2 GHz Pentium M will often out-perform a 3 GHz Pentium 4, so your computer will be more than enough. They also get much better battery life than any other CPU out there- some laptops getting 8+ hours of battery life.

I just read that article that Jim posted. I didn't realize that Intel came out with an M processor. I thought it was the P4M. You might want to check with Intel just to be sure. Most Pentium chips are fairly compatible on stuff like this though.

Thanks guys, that's what I was thinking. I just didn't want to make a big purchase to find out the pentium M processor doesn't work.

As far as I know, a P4 and a P4M are the same chip, just the P4M is designed to run in a smaller environment (ie a laptop). Just a scaled down chip that doesn't require as big of a cooling sytem as the P4 does. They put P4's in laptops originally, but had problems with them overheating or the laptop being so big and bulky that it was a pain to carry around.

So to answer your question, yes you should be fine with a P4M. Just make sure you get as fast as you can and load up on RAM on the laptop.

Maybe I'm stating the obvious here so if so, forgive me. Pentium processors are made by Intel whereas Athlon processors are made by AMD. The VDL2 system requirements state:

";Pentium 4/Athlon 1 GHz minimum";

meaning, you can use either a Pentium 4 or an Athlon processor running at a minimum of 1 Ghz.

Just wanted to clear that up in case it was confusing to read for some folks.

I'm a Mac guy, so I won't claim much knowledge on the differences between a Pentium 4 and a Pentium 4M. I did find this an interesting article however:
http://compreviews.about.com/od/cpus/a/PentiumM.htm

Whatever you decide, if you're considering purchasing a new system for using VDL2, I'd advise you to consider the fastest P4 processor you can afford as it'll make for a much more enjoyable experience.

Maybe some of our windows experts can shed some more light on the P4, Pentium M comparison.