Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite 1905-S277 Laptop (1.6-GHz Pentium 4, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Toshiba and other laptop vendors are using desktop P4s in many of their notebook computers and this has led to some misunderstandings (Amazon should be more upfront about this). This particular model uses an older "Willamette" P4 that was designed for desktop use. There is also some bad information in some of the reviews that have been posted. Hopefully this may help:

There are two families of P4s. One is the older, larger (.18 micron) "Willamette" core, which has 256K of L2 cache and is designed to be used in desktops. The newer "Northwood" core (.13 micron) has 512K of L2 cache and comes in two sub-types: desktop and mobile. If the frequency is equal then the Northwood will be about 10% faster than the Willamette. In other words if a 2GHz Willamette takes 10 minutes to do something a 2GHz Northwood will (on average) do it in 9 minutes. Some applications will see as much as a 30% improvement thanks to the larger cache an other enhancements in the .13 Northwood core.

If a laptop has a mobile P4, the CPU should be identified as a P4M. The P4M is *only* built on the .13 micron "Northwood" core and so will *always* have 512K of L2 cache. If you aren't sure check the web site of the manufacturer (a good idea anyway to see how their web support looks).

A P4M cost more than a desktop P4. The main reasons are the packaging is more expensive (to dissipate heat better) and the voltage of the CPU is lower to save power and reduce heat (low voltage parts must meet stricter manufacturing standards).

Toshiba is using the desktop P4 in notebooks so they can sell a fast laptop for less money (saves around $200). The plus is you save money too. The down side is your battery life is shorter and the laptop will be larger and heavier to support the extra cooling requirements.

Myth: The desktop part may "burn up".
Fact: Impossible. The P4 and P4M are the ONLY CPUs on the market that will reduce their clocks speed before they overheat (called "clock throttling") and speed back up when they cool down. Even if your heat sink fell off the P4 or P4M will still function. If this happened to a PIII it will stop and require a reboot and an Athlon will catch fire.
(Go to http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q3/010917/index.html for more info on over-heating CPUs and see a video of an Athlon catching fire! Fun stuff!)

Myth: The PIII is "more reliable" than the P4.
Fact: The P4 was built to the stricter reliability rules than the PIII (or Athlon). New methods were used to eliminate the risk of electro-migration and hot electron failures. No other consumer CPU has been built any where near this standard. The down side is the P4 cost more. The PIII also has fewer transistors and therefore uses less power. You should balance your choice with that in mind.

Myth: Wait for the P4 Xeon this fall.
Fact: The P4 Xeon is a server part that will never go in laptop (it uses a larger package for starters). The P4 Xeon has been shipping for a year so if you wait for this fall you might feel a little foolish. :>)

I have even seen reviewers say future P4s will support a GPS. Um, the CPU has nothing to do with having a GPS. A GPS is an add-on part just like a modem or a hard drive; any CPU will support one.

...I'll just point out several things:

The Pentium Xeon Processor is out in the market already(3 years now), and its intended for robust platforms. The Xeon family ofprocessors is optimized for server operation and has no market for the portable or desktop environment...

The second thing I would like to mention is that the Pentium 4 processor is intended to work with 512 MB. Why do they sell it with 256? Well, minimum requirements. I guess that's how the economy works. That's why you may have considered that the performance is lower than the Pentium III. Furthermore, I would like to know exactly in what operating system has the other reviewer actually tested the two processors to reach this conclusion. The operating system is the one that makes better use of the new processor's features. The notebook is offered with Windows XP Home or Professional. As a Microsoft Certified System Engineer on NT and 2000, I personally recommend bundling it with XP Professional.

I have heard no cases about overheated processors. All of the "M" processors (M for Mobile) are designed to consume less power so having a processor "fried" in a laptop is unlikely to happen.

I felt the other review was misleading. Even though I think it's a best value right now, I'm not saying you go buy it. I'm just recommending that you get more info on the models. The other companies I check for laptops are Sony and Fujitsu. They both have P4-M processors on notebooks. You can check them out too.

4 Stars: because of the 256MB and 30GB (I'd go for 512 and 40GB)

I think we need to clear some things up. This notebook uses the standard P4. Not the Xeon and not the P4-M. The advantage of this is that the processor is socketed and allows easy access via a door on the bottom for upgrades (Anandtech successfuly used a P4 2.0). The hard drive can be upgraded as well.
No "frying" that I've heard of, although it does get hot. ALWAYS be wary of anything a salesman tells you. Especially if he is trying to sell you 90's server tech (Xeon) as "the next best thing".

As fundamentally hip as saying "I have a notebook computer that has a P4 processor," this product doesn't even come close to the reliability of what a P3 can do. I've seen two of these Toshiba Satellite 1905-S277 Notebooks in action and both of them have been returned due to fried and overheated processors. P4's are simply not working well with notebook computers. From what many experts have told me, the new Pentium Xeon processor due out in the US in September is a far better processor and will have features that support real GPS capability. For those who have bought this product, my apologies! If you've just bought it, you may have time to send it back! Stick to the P3 processors for now. The P4 processors for notebooks is a ploy to get more money out of consumers before the marketing frenzy begins with Xeon processors this fall.

I would recommend investing your money in a case of dead fish before purchasing this item. Having experienced multiple problems from the mouse not functioning to constant disk lock up, Moreover, Toshiba tech support is rude, ill-informed, and is more than willing to keep consumers on hold for lengthy periods of time. Never again will I put a penny into Toshiba .

I'm really frustrated with the loudness of the cooling fan. I leave my laptop on all the time. In the eveing, the cooling fan is so loud that it is hard to cope with when I am going to sleep. It turns itself on every five minutes and whirrs like tiny blowdryer. Really annoying. I heard that it is a problem with toshiba laptops.

I had four laptop computers before this one. It is the most noisiest one I own. The cooling fan will go on and off every 15 seconds. Usually, I have it on 8 hours per day. It is too annoying and the weight of this laptop also too heavy to carry around. Over price and not a lot of softwares.

I was at Fry's Electronics last week and happened to see this notebook on display. The first thing I noted was that just the keyboard-base of the notebook, with its lid open, was thicker than most other notebooks closed! So, out of curiosity, I closed the lid to realize that this thing is 2 inches thick. That's like two notebooks stacked together!

The notebook itself is not bad in terms of performance and features. Buy it ONLY if you don't plan to take this thing around with you. Otherwise, you'll get stares from people not admiring your laptop but a bit amused by its thickness!

I checked out the customer reviews for this Toshiba after reading the ones for the Apple iBook and was struck by how much more positive folks were about the iBook, including Windows users switching to the Mac. Plus, the iBook reviews were written before Apple upgraded the iBook line-up May 20 -- while keeping prices the same -- and now it's an even nicer machine. So folks might want to check out the new iBooks to see if they might make more sense than a PC notebook. (I have an "old" iBook and love it -- 5 stars! -- but Apple is tempting me again!).