Clock Speed

• For the second generation of production, the Intel Core i3 has only one processor, the i3-2310, which has a clock (or processing speed) of 2.1 gigahertz (GHz). The Core i5 and i7 have more than one central processing unit, thus providing some chips that have lower processing speeds. However, they have peaks of 2.6 GHz and 2.7 GHz, respectively. The i7-2920XM, which is the lone second-generational i7 Extreme Edition CPU, has a 2.5-GHz processing speed. The highest maximum clock speed, however, goes to the Pentium at 3.33 GHz. The Celeron's peak rating matches the i3.
  
  

Turbo Boost

• Intel includes a type of technology on the Intel Core i5 and i7 processors called Turbo Boost, which increases the base clock speed when the laptop's operating system demands the very best performance out of the CPU. Thus, the peak processing rate of the i5 and i7 can be boosted to as high as 3.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz, respectively. The Extreme Edition of the i7 chip has a Turbo Boost rate of 3.5 GHz.
  
  

Cache

• The Intel Core CPUs have a single Smart Cache, Intel's enhanced memory bank for the chip's high-speed access to the computer's most frequently used data. The i3 and i5 chips have 3 megabytes (MB), while the i7 has 4 MB, 6 MB and 8 MB options. The Pentium offers 1 MB, 2 MB and 3 MB , while the Celeron's cache choices are lessened at 512 kilobytes (KB), 1 MB and 2 MB.
  
  

Power Consumption

• Despite its low-budget status, the Intel Celeron are generally more energy efficient than the other offerings in Intel Corp.'s mobile-chip family. Although several of the chips have a peak power consumption rating of 35 watts, the Celeron SU2300 consumes up to 10 watts-- the lowest Intel mobile CPU rating. By contrast, the Intel Pentium has the least energy efficient chips in the G6950 and G6960, which consume up to 73 watts.