Greetings all!

  I'm debating on buying one of two laptops. Both are HP dv6000's. I'd like an AMD Turion 64, but this laptop is $1,149 with out a web cam. The other is an Intel Centrino for $850, with a web cam.

  The Centrino is tempting because of the lower price, but I'm curious about using a Centrino for rendering. Has anyone used one for that.. and if so, how's the performance? Finding a Turion in this model of laptop is becoming increasingly difficult.

I have a Centrino in my laptop and I've had no problems so far..........

Confusingly, a Centrino isn't a processor - it's an Intel marketing term that assures buyers they are getting a certain platform of bits in their laptop (all Intel bits, of course). The Centrino platform consists of a combination of processor, mainboard chipset and wireless network. Intel has further confused matters with additional terms like "Centrino Processor Technology", but nevertheless there is no Centrino processor.

A Centrino platform laptop can have one of a number of types of Intel processor in it. Possible examples are "Pentium M";  "Core Solo";  "Core Duo" and "Core 2 Duo". So to compare Centrino laptops with others (such as AMD powered devices), you need to know the actual specification of the units you're considering. 

If a Centrino laptop has a Core 2 Duo processor then it's likely better than a Turion x2 for rendering. Depending, of course, on their relative speeds and other specs like memory. I did try a brief survey of HP dv6000 series models (discontinued, btw), but there're too many variations to offer any meaningful advice. 

If you can provide the specs of the actual laptops you're considering, a judgement can be made about their relative value.

Not to forget also that Centrino is Intels OLD platform for lappies, it's now centrino duo???

As pjf mentions more detail would help!

Consider a Core 2 Duo, I agree with PJF, there are too many models of Laptops to make any meaningful comparisons.  I which Laptop Manufacturers would stop doing that.  I.B.M is really bad for that.  The I.B.M ThinkPad line an example has Model numbers and SUB-Model numbers.

So as an example they have the T21's all the way to T60+ but than there are the X Series Models as well and than to make things more interesting, each model has a Sub-Model number made up of 3 Digits like AJF, AJC, AKL etc..

Ok I'm don’t with my Rant.

I recommend a Core 2 Duo Processor.   AMD Processors at the moment run to hot and chew up too much power.

Centrino Platform is the opposite.  I have a Centrino Platform Laptop through work and I was very happy at its performance.

Thanks all! I'm going to try getting the details, but maybe on the weekend. Right now I'm sooo exhausted. 

Anyway, the centrino laptop doesn't have outstanding details. From what I remember, 120 gig HD, 1 gig RAM, ... Vista Home... and that's all that I seem to recall.

I do have an HP Turion 64 X2 laptop, 2 gigs RAM, two 100 gig HD's, 17" screen. But the thing is so large that it's not so convienent to travel with it. Thus I'm looking for a smaller one. I've never used a centrino before, and so my major concern is rendering. Whatever laptop I do get, I'll be upping the RAM to at least 2 gigs and putting vista ultimate.

I'm currently taking a course towards some certifications, and my instructor mentioned that 2GB should be the minimum with Vista Premium and Ultra anything else is not enough.