Tommy,

My inclination is to look at video RAM first, CPU speed second.  I know
others will disagree on this, but I think the Celeron CPU (as long as it has
the 128k cache on it) performs nearly as well as the standard PII CPU.
Given that, you are going to get better performance out of the 4MB video and
the C-466 machine than the other.  Keep in mind, this is just opinion, at
least with regards to the CPU.

On the video side of things, however, I don't know much about NeoMagic, but
I do know a little about ATI.  As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to
playing regular video, they are THE name in the industry.  Sure, Matrox and
Diamond are kick-butt game cards, but video processing is a different
animal, and ATI seems to keep their focus in this arena.  They build several
cards that are made just for video processing.  After seeing the results of
some of their work, I am impressed.

This is my two cents.  Hope it help.

Kyle

p.s.  I am just curious, though.  Why in the world would you want to use a
laptop for what you are doing here.  I would be much more inclined to drag
around a desktop system just to overcome the performance issues.  Like I
said, just curious.


>From: Thomas Holmes <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] TV-out from ThinkPad
>Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 17:30:48 EDT
>
>      We are intent on acquiring a laptop that will read and decode DVD-ROM
>&
>CD-ROM disks and communicate both the video and the Dolby Surround audio to
>a
>big screen home theater installation.  We hope to display screens from
>educational CD-ROMS and some PowerPoint presentations.  This appears very
>complicated to the uninitiated.
>      The IBM ThinkPad i 1478 appears to fit the bill.  It bears a PII-366
>CPU
>with the additional multi-media instruction set and the printed material
>indicates that it has a built-in DVD-ROM player and software.  The video
>accelerator is the NeoMagic MagicMedia256AV, 256-bit with 2.5 MB and an
>S-Video ouput port.  Apparently, this also performs the MPEG-2 decoding.
>Some reviews suggest that this is less than an ideal multi-media device.
>      The IBM ThinkPad i 1480 is scheduled to be released this month for
>roughly the same price and devoted to the same purposes.  It will bear a
>C-466 CPU and a built-in DVD-ROM.  However, it will have the ATI Rage
>Mobility M multi-media accelerator chips and 4 MB of video RAM as well as a
>S-Video output port.
>      It appears that my more knowledgeable friends believe that this
>second
>configuration is much better suited to the purpose and that they have
>advised
>us to await the newer model for the same price, albeit with the Celeron
>processor instead of the P-II.
>      This clearly is a hardware evaluation issue and this list might
>appear a
>profitable place to posit the question:  for roughly the same price, is one
>configuration clearly superior to the other for multi-media play, decoding
>and display on a big-screen television?  What might be the basis of a
>recommendation?
>
>Tommy Holmes, Jr.

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

                         PCBUILD's List Owner's:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>