Among the three laptops featured in this roundup, we have two laptops with Pentium M processors and one with the AMD Turion Processor. The Pentium M series, though two generations behind the new Core 2 Duo series, is still a decent bargain in the value segment. It’s an efficient architecture, and though it isn’t 64bit capable as the AMD Turion, or the Core 2 Duo, considering that most users will be using the standard 32 bit version of Windows XP on these laptops, it’s not much of an issue.
The prices mentioned here are the lowest street prices with taxes and shipping included (but no octroi) to give you a clear idea of the pricing. The laptops in the running are:
Acer Aspire 5004NWLMi (Rs 40,560)
Among the three, the fastest processor belongs to the Acer Aspire. It features a 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 ML-34 processor. To give you an idea, its very close in performance to the Pentium M 760, which is a 2 GHz processor with a FSB of 533 MHz whereas the second fastest processor is on the Dell Inspiron 1300, which is clocked at 1.7 GHz with an FSB of 400 Mhz.
The 5004 has a 15.4" screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which makes it the largest for laptops in this category, but also keep in mind that it makes this laptop larger to carry as compared to its 14" counterparts.
If you are using Windows XP as your operating system, we recommend nothing short of 512MB of RAM. This is the only place where Acer, which leads in most of the other specifications falls short, with only 256MB of RAM. We'd recommend you upgrade the RAM if you wish to do anything beyond office documents.
It's the only laptop among the three which features an 8x dual layer dvd writer. With respect to battery life it again leads the pack with an 8 cell battery. It carries a 60GB P-ATA (parallel ATA) hard drive which is the same as Dell's.
Internet connectivity is pretty much standard with a 56k Modem, 10/100 LAN and 802.11 b/g wireless LAN. Additonal features include integrated Bluetooth and 5-in-1 card reader and it comes bundled with a nylon case.
All this puts this laptop way ahead of the competition; with 256MB more RAM, this will be an excellent performer bound to impress.
Labels: ACER, AMD, LAPTOP, PENTIUM, Processor
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Intel is tipped to trim between 20 and 40 percent from the prices of several Core 2 Duo chips, including the Q6600 quad-core model.
For its part, AMD is expected to take up to 30 percent off the Athlon 64+ series and lesser processors.
AMD plans a midyear introduction of the first products in its quad-core Opteron family, code-named 'Barcelona.' The company claims it will deliver an estimated 40 percent performance advantage over "the competition" as well as improved power management through varying the clock speed of individual cores, and reducing voltage levels to the cores while the memory controller runs at full speed.
But by the end of this year, Intel plans to introduce its 'Penryn' family, which takes the Core 2 and Xeon CPUs to the 45mn process and speeds in excess of 3GHz.
Six models will be introduced in dual and quad core versions to cover the spectrum from notebooks to servers.
Like AMD, Intel says the new chips will have improved power management. Penryn chips will be able to switch off unused cores.
Meanwhile, Intel is working on its 'Nehalem' family, designed from the outset for 45nm implementation with the potential for up to eight cores on one chip. In addition, the cores need not be symmetrical - instead, the company will be able produced mixed versions to suit particular applications.
A graphics controller will be included in the same package as the CPU, making it an extremely attractive part for mobile and small form-factor applications.
Nehalem will begin shipping in 2008, followed by the 'Westmere' 32nm family in 2009.
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