Desktop

In answer to your question the Celeron M would suit your needs but they are slower than a real Pentium.

I don't know if this is of any assistance but at the Intel Channel Partners Meetings the Celeron are never mentioned as they are not considered a Real CPU by Intel just something to be cheap and nasty. For a few extra $ you should be able to find the same configuration in a Notebook with a Pentium M inside you'll be much happier with the results as the Pentium has a lot more L2 Cache RAM on the CPU so they work much faster.

You can also have a NB custom made by staying away from the Name Brands who offer old technology as they may have their stock for months before being shipped to the stores so you could try one of the suppliers of Custom Built NB's in your area. Look at the following URL for the main supplier and they will be able to inform you of who sells their product in your area.

http://www.clevo.com.tw/

Col

In dealing with selection of a laptop I tell most customers the following.

If you don't need the newest and fastest then look at the following.

What is the thing you will be doing the most with the laptop. Looking at the screen. Got Ya didn't I.

Laptops with the best screen. Sony, Dell.

Get as much memory as possible. This will benefit you more overall.

Most of the processors in laptops are cousin's of the desktop systems that have been redesigned for power savings. Heat and battery life is very important.

Hard drive size. What are you going to have on the laptop. Tons of programs, music, video. 60 and 80 gig hard drives are common in laptops now.

Now for speed. Are you going to be processing video or music? From what you said no. Then you don't need the fastest cat on the market.

I use a sony 1.2gig with 512meg of memory and a 60 gig hard drive. I can process still images and music with this unit. It has an excellent screen, and runs winXP Pro with no problems.

Good Luck

Lee

When considering the type of processor you need in laptop computing, you have to weight two elements against each other. Power vs Battery life.

If you only need basic computing power, such as internet and typing letters, a Celeron M 1.5GHz would be sufficient - even though it is older technology.
(Older technology refers mainly to the FSB speeds of the components, but if you are only doing basic tasks you need not worry about these specs)

If you need a laptop with a little more grunt, you have to consider the more expensive models and definitely steer clear of any Celeron processors. The one drawback is that you will have less time on your battery, which is a problem if you are mobile. A solution is to buy a second battery pack.

To conclude: Basic computer needs will be satisfied by any new laptop, no matter what processor it has. But it will be a good idea to upgrade your memory to at least 1GB for XP and 2GB for Vista.
- Insufficient RAM is one of the main causes for computers running slow.