ACER ASPIRE 5920 INTEL SANTA ROSA LAPTOP REVIEW

The Acer Aspire 5920 is a smart laptop which includes Intel's much-vaunted Santa Rosa Centrino chipset.

Some devices (MP3 players and digital cameras, say) play easily on the idea of style and sophistication. For laptop manufacturers, though, aesthetic appeal tends to be harder to create.

Acer thinks it might have cracked this particular nut with its new range of Aspire laptops, the jewel in its crown being its much-hyped Gemstone concept. Amounting to a look and feel that creates a clear product identity, we weren't totally convinced by Gemstone. The sleek black outer casing of the Acer Aspire 5920 makes it look sophisticated but, although it adds contrast to its appearance, we weren't very keen on the Acer Aspire 5920's off-white interior and keyboard. And since the Acer Aspire 5920 is quite a large laptop, portability isn't going to be one of its major selling points.

But there are other more significant elements to the Acer Aspire 5920 - namely its support for Intel Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is the fourth generation of Intel's Centrino platform and, as with previous versions of Centrino, laptop manufacturers can use the Intel Santa Rosa branding only if their machine meets certain hardware requirements.

So buying Intel Santa Rosa means you're likely to get some excellent components - an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, a Mobile 965 Express chipset, wireless capabilities that stretch to the Draft 802.11n standard, and a minimum of the Vista-ready X3100 Intel graphics accelerator. There are a few other nice twists as well. The new rendition of Dynamic Acceleration, for instance, ensures that single-threaded applications make better use of the second core built into the Core 2 Duo chips. And, of course, Intel Santa Rosa is carefully designed to boost battery life.

So does the Intel Santa Rosa version of Centrino really work? Well, the initial signs are very good. The Acer Aspire 5920's battery life of 130 minutes isn't the best we've seen, but it is fairly close.

And the Acer Aspire 5920's combination of a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 chip with 2GB of DDR RAM performed extremely well in our WorldBench 6 real-world speed test suite. Its score of 77 was still slower than the exceptional Zoostorm 5-5005 (831), but that laptop was using a far superior T7600 chip. Otherwise, the Acer Aspire 5920 beat everything else, so this particular Intel Santa Rosa laptop seems to pack lots of speed as well as endurance

The Acer Aspire 5920's graphics system wasn't so emphatic, despite Acer putting in a 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600M graphics controller. The Acer Aspire 5920 totted up an average of 25fps (frames per second) in our intensive games tests (including Fear and Company of Heroes), which is decent but not outstanding - the Zoostorm managed 33fps.

But the Acer Aspire 5920's real potential is as an entertainment laptop. The Dolby Home Theater Virtual Surround Sound speakers deliver a full and clear sound that will make the Aspire ideal for watching movies. The Acer Aspire 5920's 15.4in wide CrystalBrite TFT LCD display presents text, images and video clips clearly even though the glossiness of the screen means it suffers from reflections, while the Acer Aspire 5920's 160GB hard drive is very generous given the price - offering lots of space in which to store audio and movie files.

The Acer Aspire 5920 also benefits from Intel's new Robson technology. Robson uses a small cache of flash memory to save important and frequently accessed data. Because information stored on flash memory is quicker to access than it would be when saved to a hard drive, Robson can make it faster to boot up the laptop and use Windows programs. The flash memory also retains its contents even when the machine has been turned off, so over time it'll get better at speeding up your PC

The Acer Aspire 5920 is well equipped when it comes to connectivity options. Besides offering the 802.11n standard demanded by Intel Santa Rosa, the Acer Aspire 5920 also supports 802.11a, b and g. And Bluetooth is a very welcome extra. The 5-in-1 card reader and 0.3Mp camera add versatility, and the Acer Arcade Deluxe software can be launched at the touch of a button, giving you access to such useful multimedia applications as Video Magician and DV Wizard.

Verdict
It's not the most portable of laptops but the Acer Aspire 5920 is powerful, looks smart and offers a decent collection of features for the price. The new Intel Santa Rosa technology looks to be working well, and the impressive audio quality and generous hard drive help make this a particularly strong entertainment notebook.

Editors Rating: 8.5

Source: PcAdvisor
by Zoe Mutter

DELL XPS M1330 REVIEW

Dell recently announced the XPS M1330 a 13.3" widescreen ultraportable and ultra sexy notebook that uses the Intel Santa Rosa platform. Equipped with an available dedicated Nvidia 8400m graphics, slot loading optical drive, LED backlit display with 300-nit brightness, and integrated web-camera, the M1330 is less than 1” thin at the front and weighs in at 4lbs. The following is a quick first take on the Dell M1330.

Dell XPS M1330 13.3" screen ultraportable notebook

Build and Design

The Dell XPS M1330 (starting at $1,299) features what can only be described as one of the “sexiest” designs we’ve seen on a Dell notebook. A sleek combination of aluminum and plastic with a colorful paintjob on the back of the screen, this notebook is an ultraportable with style. Measuring as thin as 0.87-inches and weighing 4 pounds, the M1330 is a little heavier than some competing ultrportables but is still remarkably thin and light for a Santa Rosa- equipped notebook.

Our pre-production XPS M1330 as equipped:

• 13.3-inch WXGA screen with LED backlight
• "Crimson" red paint (also available in "Tuxedo" black or "Pearl" white)
• 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 processor, Santa Rosa chipset (up to 2.4GHz available)
• 2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM (up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM available)
• 160GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD (32GB SSD drive available)
• Slot-loading dual-layer DVD±RW drive
• 128MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS
• WWAN option for Verizon
• Ethernet, 802.11a/g/n (Intel 4965), Bluetooth option
• Integrated VGA webcam
• HDMI, VGA, 1394, two USB 2.0 ports, integrated media reader (MS, SD, xD), fingerprint reader
• Media Center remote located in ExpressCard slot
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Dimensions 12.5" x 9.4" x 0.87" - 1.33"
• Weight starts at 4 pounds with 6-cell battery

The full sized keyboard of the M1330

The build of the case exterior is mostly strong plastic with no noticeable case flex. The interior/keyboard surface as well as the LCD sides and hinges are made of brushed aluminum which provides amazing rigidity. While the glossy widescreen 13.3” LCD is thin and somewhat flexible, there are no noticeable ripples even when pressing firmly or flexing the screen. There is minimal light leakage at the top and bottom of the screen and both horizontal and vertical viewing angles provide an excellent viewing experience. The glossy screen is quite reflective, but this isn't a problem if the LED backlight is on at higher settings. The M1330 doesn't use any type of latch to close the lid, just a firm hinge closing mechanism that works well.

The screen of the M1330 (left) compared to the M1210

The keyboard is full sized and very nice with cushioned keys and almost no flex. One surprise was a set of dedicated media keys directly above the keyboard, a nice feature not found on many ultraportable notebooks. What makes these media keys all the more impressive is the fact that they are LED backlit, flush-mount keys that are heat sensitive to touch. Press the keys with a pen and nothing happens … but glide your fingertip over a media key and the key will light up and respond to your touch. In a word, cool.

The media keys are a little close together, so people with large fingertips may find themselves pressing two buttons at once.

The only thing remotely negative we can say about the pre-production M1330 keyboard is that the palmrests were noticeably warm even while the notebook was idle. The heat wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was certainly warm.

The touchpad provides excellent responsiveness and feels quite nice compared to the “cheap” touchpads found on many other ultrportable notebooks. The plastic touchpad buttons (made to look like brushed aluminum) are well cushioned with a near perfect amount of feedback. The fingerprint reader responds well with a firm, centered finger scan. In addition, the fingerprint reader is recessed so it won’t be accidentally triggered while you type.

The touchpad and mouse buttons

The built-in speakers provided adequate sound performance. As with most built-in speakers, bass response was limited, clarity was good at lower volumes and there was some distortion at higher volumes.

The left speaker above the XPS M1330 logo

Below is a video of the Dell XPS M1330 (hosted by Andrew) so you can see why the M1330 is so impressive:

Ports and Features

While some ultraportable notebooks are thinner and lighter than the new M1330, most of these thinner notebooks lack a built-in optical drive. The M1330 comes equipped with an impressive slot-loading dual-layer DVD±RW drive which helps keep the notebook reasonably thin without sacrificing case strength. The loading and ejecting functions of the slot-loading drive were a little noisy, but the overall operation was silent.

Compared to the M1210 (right) the front of the M1330 (left) has dual headphone ports, microphone port, and multi-card reader.

Compared to the M1210 (right) the front of the M1330 (left) the right side has an ExpressCard slot (Media Center remote), wireless on/off, slot-loading optical drive, USB port, and security lock slot.

Again, compared to the M1210 (right) the left side of the M1330 has a power jack, VGA port, USB port, HDMI port, and Firewire port.

The port selection of the M1330 is remarkably good for a notebook of this size. Above you can view a video that tours the ports on the notebook, and if you prefer to read here's a quick rundown of what you get:

• Two USB 2.0 ports (one on the left and one on the right)
• IEEE 1394 / FireWire port
• VGA monitor out port
• HDMI port
• Dual headphone / line-out ports
• Microphone in port
• ExpressCard slot
• Ethernet LAN port
• SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro/xD card slot reader
• Biometric security/finger print reader

In addition, the M1330 comes with a two-megapixel web camera built in directly above the LCD. Unlike almost every notebook webcam currently on the market, the webcam built into the M1330 is a remarkable performer. Brightness, color and contrast are all near perfect, and the face tracking feature lets you keep your face front and center during video conferences.

The top of the M1330 (left) with a sexy red paintjob trimmed in aluminum. The M1210 is on the right.

The bottom of the M1330 with memory expansion access, vents, and battery.

Performance

The Dell XPS M1330 comes in multiple build-to-order configurations based around the Intel Santa Rosa Core 2 Duo platform, base price starting at $1,299.

Since our sample M1330 was a pre-production unit our benchmarks should be taken with a grain of salt (your mileage may vary). That said, Dell was kind enough to allow us to publish the following benchmarks from our tests:

Super Pi comparison results:

Notebook	Time
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 58s
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 03s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
Toshiba Satellite A205 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 34s
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52)	2m 05s
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T2400)	0m 59s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s

PCMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,571 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

3DMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	3,079 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100)	916 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52, ATI x1270)	871 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	2,013 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	1,791 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

HDTune results:

Overall our first impressions of the sexy (I can’t stop calling it that) Dell XPS M1330 are overwhelmingly positive. If Dell would have put this design on the market two years ago (even with previous generation processors) fewer people would have purchased HP notebooks in 2006. While our complete review remains to be finished, the M1330 is shaping up to be a remarkably well built and full-featured ultraportable notebook.

Source: notebookreview.com
by Jerry Jackson

ASUS Z71V REVIEW

Looks
It doesn't look as sleek as the flagship W or V series notebooks, but it's still nice. It meets my aesthetic requirements. It's thinner than most of the notebooks I've seen of the same screen size, and has an understated appeal to it.
edit: after using it for a while, it looks like I've worn some of the paint off the left palmrest. This paint in this area has worn off to some extent, which, although it is not a big deal to me, does somewhat mar the looks of the notebook. However, after seeing other notebooks with much more and more obvious wear on the palmrest, I'm more appreciative of the relatively small amount of wear on mine.

You may notice a little wear on the bottom from when I used the wrong sized screwdriver and ended up stripping the screw and needing to get it out with vice grips. Rick from ISTNC was kind enough to send me some extra screws after I told him about it, but there's still some scratches remaining from the vice grips. There's also a small white section just below one of the USB ports that resulted from me accidentally dropping the computer about 3 feet. Everything still works fine, though. (see section on "durability" for more)

Screen
The screen looks good. The high resolution widescreen display makes me feel like I’ve got a ton of space to work with. I was initially worried that the text would seem too small, but it’s perfectly readable. I’m taking advantage of the screen space to view multiple programs side-by-side, and it rocks! After looking carefully, I did find one stuck pixel (always blue), but it’s in the lower left corner of the notebook, and I don’t notice it very much. Regarding the sparkle complaint that has arisen for some, my computer does have a slight sheen when displaying some solid colors (mainly light green). However, it doesn’t really bother me, and since it only happens in certain circumstances, it’s not something that I notice. It is somewhat noticeable when I first change my screen to a solid light green background, but within a few moments, I don't notice it anymore. I’m writing this in Word, and I don’t have any problem with the white background. It’s not obtrusive or distracting at all. Regarding color production, all the colors just pop when I look at the screen. They are very vibrant! The screen is also brighter than most, if not all, matte screens I've seen in person and has very good horizontal viewing angles. The vertical angles aren't as good, but they're still fair.

Build and Durability
The machine seems to be built very well. There’s very little flex anywhere. The case feels very solid, and the plastic case seems very un-plasticy. I tested the screen shielding by poking the back and looking for discororations: there were none. MUCH better than my old Sony that would get a discoloration if you breathed on it wrong! The screen stays at whatever angle I put it at, and although after 2 years it does have a very slight wobble if shaken back and forth, it still feels quite solid.

Regarding durablility, I'm not sure if I should be praising the notebook or the included bag that Asus provides, as that's what I transport it in, but in said bag, it's been dropped & thrown, hit a car door somewhat harder than I intended it to, and had several books piled on top of it. And of course it's also been unpacked & packed in said bag more times than I can think of in various different ways, and carried all over. And it runs perfectly. Always. I don't try to be rough on it, but sometimes accidents happen. It's never let me down yet.

Edit: okay, so I spoke too soon. After one of the aforementioned drops, the plastic hook that locks the notebook closed snapped off. However, the good folks at ISTNC fixed it for me and got it back to me about a week after I sent it to them. My reseller rocks!

Weight & Mobility
The notebook is easy to carry around the house by itself, and for travel or commuting, it came with a handy notebook case. It's light enough to easily carry under your arm, but heavy enough so you don't forget it's there. I've taken my Z71v with me to several classes, used it on planes, in my car, in hotels, and various other places. It's easy to pack up and easy to put away, although it's just barely small enough for airplane tray tables. If you're going to be using your notebook on the plane a lot and aren't going first class, I'd probably recommend a 14" model.

Sound
The sound is quite good for a notebook, and the built in speakers can pump out enough volume to make DVD audio clear and distinct, even from across the room. However, they are still laptop speakers and have their limits. Deep bass notes will often come out muddy and distorted, especially at maximum volume settings. And that's the time to plug in headphones or auxiliary speakers into the Audio out port, which outputs a powerful and clear signal. Sound is one of the Z71v's best features.

Keyboard
The keyboard feels great. Keys are nearly silent, and have adequate travel or “bounce”. Some have commented on the location of the Fn key as annoying, but I find it convenient for usage when I'm using the hotkeys. Also, the keyboard letters are still very clear and distinct after a year and a half's use. Keyboard wear is minimal.

Touchpad
The touchpad works well in general. It’s very sensitive, and sometimes I brush past it and inadvertently move the mouse or click on something. That’s not necessarily a negative for the computer, but just something that took some getting used to. The buttons work well, but are distinctly louder than the keyboard. The scrollbar is useful. The farther you move your finger on it, the faster it scrolls. It’s a pretty cool feature, especially on big documents and web pages. It also has a sidescroll feature you can access by sliding your finger along the bottom.

edit: the Ubuntu touchpad drivers are not quite as good as the Windows ones, and there is a noticeable sensitivity difference especially when I do quick click-drags of windows from one area of the screen to another. Also, the scroll settings are a bit different. In Windows, I can scroll down a large webpage (such as NBF) by quickly swiping my finger once down the scrollbar, after which the touchpad continues to scroll rapidly until it reaches the end of the page. In Ubuntu, it stops scrolling when I take my finger off the touchpad, which is a minor gripe, but it's a little less convenient.
Scrolling also varies in different versions of Ubuntu. the Feisty touchpad driver is much better than the Dapper one

Performance and Benchmarks

My computer currently dual-boots Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. Due to this, my boot time is best explained like this:

Time to post (power button pressed to boot menu): 5 seconds

Boot time for Windows (selection in boot menu to login): 34 seconds
Load time for Windows: (password entry until all startup programs are loaded): 160 seconds
Total Post + Boot + Load for Windows: 3 minutes, 19 seconds (hmmm... I may have to alter some of my startup programs to get that lower)

Boot time for Ubuntu (selection in boot menu to login): 55 seconds
Load time for Ubuntu (password entry until all startup programs are loaded): 29 seconds
Total Post + Boot + Load for Ubuntu: 1 minute, 29 seconds

Benchmarks on AC Power using Nvidia 97.92 driver, 250/500 clock (stock)
3DMark06: 864
3DMark05: 1806
3DMark03: 4624

Benchmarks on AC power using Nvidia 97.92 driver, 291/573 clock (overclocked)
3DMark06: 986
3DMark05: 2102
3DMark03: 5256
PCMark05: 2370

The only video benchmark in Linux that I know of is a testing program called GLX Gears, so I'll include the results from that as well.

GLX Gears: 5000 FPS

On a side note about video drivers, I've had a problem with virtually every Nvidia driver over 90.00 after a while, so I'm now back to the "latest" driver officially released for the Z71v by Asus (83.00), which has been totally solid.

Battery Life
The battery lasted 2.25 hours playing a DVD. Doing basic applications (word processing, surfing the internet, etc.), it lasts between 3.5 and 4 hours, enough to easily get through my 3.5 hour long classes. If you're going to be on a long flight or need more than 4 hours of battery life, I'd suggest getting the modular battery that swaps for the optical drive.

Battery life is between 30-45 minutes less in Ubuntu, compared to Windows. This is partly due to the lack to undervolting in Ubuntu and also due to the less efficient power management of my graphic card driver

Second Battery
And following my own advice, since my classes have recently been changed from 3.5 hours long to 4 hours long, I decided to purchase the modular battery. I received it while my main battery was being RMA'd (see "problem resolution 2" below), and so I found out that the modular battery lasts close to three hours by itself, which makes sense considering that it has about 3/4 of the capacity of the main battery. After recieving my new replacement main battery, I checked the battery life. It turns out that due to a difference in voltages, neither Windows nor NHC can correctly estimate the time remaining when both batteries are in the computer, so I did some real-life tests, and my average total battery life with both batteries while word processing & surfing the internet is around 6 hours. Changing from one battery to the other happens without a hiccup. There's a very smooth transfer. So I am quite satisfied with the modular battery. On a side note, I purchased the modular battery from the same place I bought my computer: Integrated System Technologies. They were prompt in shipping, with the modular battery even arriving 2 days earlier than expected! Again, my hat is off to these folks!

Battery Wear
Addressing battery wear on the Z71v is an interesting situation, as there is a marked difference between batteries manufactured in 2005 and ones made in 2006. With this in mind, and since I have one of each, I'll provide battery wear information separately for each one.

After replacing the first 3 main batteries I received due to the charging problem (see Problem Resolution), the 4th one I received was finally free of it, although still a part of the old design. After 11 months of use, the battery wear was 12%, equaling approximately 1 percent wear per month. About that time, I wondered if I could reduce that wear level by running the battery calibration utility found in BIOS. However, after repeated attempts, it just made the wear level worse! After running it a few times, that battery ended up at 42% wear. And unfortunately, when I tried to get it replaced, it turns out that while Asus warrantees their notebook batteries for a year, they warrant their replacement notebook batteries for only 3 months, so I had to buy a new one to get the full battery life back. I ended up keeping the old battery as well, and decided to try getting the cells replaced by the folks at http://www.batteryrefill.com/ The process took about 10 days and cost $90 ($10 less than a new battery). However, now it works well again! They also used slightly higher capacity cells, giving a small boost in maximum capacity (66000 mWh vs 65000 mWh initially). If you've got a battery that's wearing out, they're worth a shot.

The modular bay battery that I have is now at 18% wear after 14 months, which is acceptable. It's just a bit over the 1% wear per month that I expected, but it's not bad.

My newer battery is now at 9% wear after 7 months of use.

Heat and Noise
The laptop stays wonderfully cool most of the time. According to Mobile Meter, the CPU has a temperature range of 37-66 degrees Celsius, averaging 40 degrees Celsius on battery and 58 degrees on AC power, before undervolting. And the only places it gets noticeably warm are on the strip of plastic between the touchpad & the keyboard, around the "Built on Asus" tab just below the screen, and on the bottom in the back. It’s not uncomfortably hot anywhere even after over 6 hours of use.
Edit: In Everest 2.0, under the "sensor" tab, it wil list the temperatures for the motherboard, CPU, Aux (still don't really know what this is), and hard drive. My motherboard has never gone above 53, even when gaming, benchmarking, video encoding, disc burning, etc. The hard drive did get up to 55 once, after defragmenting the drive a few times in a row, but it's normally about 5-10 degrees lower than the motherboard at any given time. ]This shows that the machine has an efficient cooling system that keeps the internal components at a stable & safe operating temperature.

In Ubuntu, my CPU is not currently undervolted, and I have seen it get as high as 65 Celsius during prolonged heavy usage, but it generally stays in the low to mid 50s.

Something I may have failed to mention earlier is that the fans are typically not loud at all, only ramping up to noticeable levels when the computer is running a processor-intensive application or game. The Z71V has 2 fans. The GPU/chipset fan is on constantly, but is typically near silent so it's only noticeable when in a very quiet room. The second fan is for the processor, and it is louder, but it only turns on when the CPU gets over 55 degrees Celsius which typically does not happen unless I'm running the aforementioned intensive programs. My hard drive is also very quiet in operation, making the computer near ideal for use in classes and libraries. The only distinctly loud part is the DVD drive, which is a bit noisy when it's running.

Something of note is that the GPU/chipset fan is typically a bit louder in Ubuntu than in Windows. I think that happens because there aren't any power-saving features for the linux graphics driver. However, perhaps due to that, graphics performance tends to be slightly better in Ubuntu than in Windows.

Undervolting
I used Centrino Hardware Control to lower the CPU voltages for each multiplier and I'm running the computer on "dynamic switching" now. The biggest difference in this is heat: running on AC power, the CPU now has an ABSOLUTE MAX temp of 63, and a functional max temp of 58. When I'm not gaming or running very CPU-intensive programs, the temp stays in the mid 40s, and when gaming, it goes into the mid to high 50s. I was actually able to undervolt the CPU further than I had previously thought. The voltages I'm using now are as follows:

6x: 0.700v
8x: 0.796v
9x: 0.828v
10x: 0.876v
11x: 0.924v
12x: 0.972v
13x: 1.004v
14x: 1.052v

ALS
The ambient light sensor works very well, and doesn’t darken the screen to a point where you can’t see it, just to a point where it doesn’t appear overly bright. You can adjust how much ALS will darken the screen in each setting. It's a whole lot easier than manually adjusting the brightness in various settings, and it saves battery life, too!

Audio DJ CD player
In my opinion, this feature would have been much more effective if it played DVDs. CD playback is only so-so. Music seems to play well, but vocal can easily be drowned out by instruments, and it’s sometimes hard to hear what the singers are singing.
Edit: you can control the volume via Fn+F11 or Fn+F12. I haven't had the "singer getting drowned out" problem again, so maybe I just played a bad test CD. It's actually not too bad, if you don't have a CD player handy and don't mind a lack in very low bass tones.

DVD+/-RW drive
The drive works well for me. Burn time for a 60-minute CD was 6 minutes. Read/load time takes a bit longer than I’m used to from my roommate’s desktop. Time to completely install Myst 3: Exile (4 CDs): 30-40 minutes. There is an occasional hiccup with the drive where there will be a slight pause in DVD movies for a split second, but this is the only issue I've had with it. Other than that, it works perfectly.

Reseller Experience
I bought mine from Integrated System Technologies. I would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone who is planning to buy a new computer. Rick, the owner, answered a string of questions that I had about the notebook when I first placed my order, and Gwen, the co-owner, sent me e-mails detailing the Z71v's process through pre-order, build, and shipping. They even set my name up in Windows! You can't do any better than that!

Problem Resolution
After just about 3 months of use, my battery would no longer charge to full. I told Rick at IST about my problem, and he replaced the battery with a working one. Plus, I didn't have to pay a cent for shipping either way. (IST provides free ground shipping both ways for any warrantee issues)

Problem Resolution, part 2
After about a month on my replacement battery, that one stopped charging to full also! I called Rick again, and he said that he was not allowed to ship Z71v battery replacements because Asus was looking into the issue and wanted to process everthing themselves, and also because Asus suspected that IST's spare batteries could be from the battery series affected. So instead, I had to go through Asus directly. This was my timeline with Asus:

Friday, September 2: I called Asus and they gave me a service number and told me they'd e-mail me return information.

Thursday, September 8th: I still had not recieved return instructions, so I called Asus again. The same day, I recieved an e-mail from Mila Chao saying that the initial report got lost in the system. She apologized and wrote out the return instructions.

Friday, September 9th: I shipped the defective battery to Asus via USPS Priority Mail.

Friday, September 16th: Asus sent me an e-mail saying that my new battery had ben shipped.

Monday, September 19th: FedEx dropped the battery off at my door, and it's now charging in my computer.

I'm not as happy with Asus' own tech replacement service as I was with IST's service, because a had to wait a week for an RMA number and return instructions, and because I had to pay for shipping to Asus ($7.59 for Priority Mail), but they came through in the end, so I'm happy again.
edit: After a couple months and several charge/discharge cycles with the new battery, I'm happy to say that the battery charging issue seems to be gone for good! Go

Problem Resolution, Part 3
Aaaaand, take three: after 3 months, the battery Asus gave me stopped charging to full also (stuck at 50%). I talked to Rick about it, he dealt with the problem this time instead of having me talk to Asus, and a week later, I've got the new battery and it works fine. This time Rick used a cross-ship method where he sent me the battery first & then I send him the old one. All in all, a very quick & pleasant exchange process (although I wish I didn't have to keep exchanging batteries in the first place!!!) Basically, for Rick & ISTNC, for Asus not fixing this earlier.

Overall
You can learn a lot about a computer in two years, and there have been times when I got very frustrated with mine. However, there have been many more positive points than negative, and I'm very glad I bought the model I did. The Z71v has treated me well even when I didn't treat it so well, and that's the mark of quality for me. I'm very happy with my Z71v, and I anticipate using it for a long while to come. Thanks for reading my review, and I hope it was helpful.

Source: Laptop Magazine

ASUS G1S GAMING NOTEBOOK REVIEW

Asus introduces Santa Rosa to gaming--for a bargain.

The G1S is one of Asus' first Intel Santa Rosa notebooks and carries a bargain price of $1,899. It's not the screamer machine serious gamers are hoping for, but mainstream users who happen to enjoy gaming will find a lot to like with this system.

The Asus G1S looks the part of a gaming notebook, with a mix of matte-black and high-gloss carbon fiber plastic that does a decent job of resisting smudges and fingerprints. A carbon-fiber print covers the touchpad, while brushed aluminum highlights the touchpad buttons and palm-rest area. Lime-green accents behind the built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam offset the darker colors well At 13.9 x 11.2 x 1.5 inches and 6.8 pounds, the G1S is small for a gaming machine but still manages to squeeze in a full-sized keyboard and a 15.4-inch screen. The keys provided a good feel; they offered a satisfying click with each press, and weren't spongy. You'll find a full complement of media keys, along with a bright green font on the WASD movement keys for gaming in lower light.

On the back of the G1S are four USB ports, as well as ports for eSATA, VGA, and HDMI. We wish the USB ports were a little more accessible, but we're pleased that there are four of them. On the left side is the 8X LightScribe SuperMulti DVD drive. The right side has a 4-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard slot, FireWire port, S-Video port, and the standard Ethernet, modem, headphone, mic, and line-in jacks. A small OLED screen above the function keys shows the system time and Asus logo at startup. The sound system produces decent volume levels but lacks bass.

The 1680 x 1050-pixel, 15.4-inch LCD is well suited for movie watching, gaming, Web surfing, and general computer work. Graphics via Nvidia's 8600m GT with 256MB of dedicated memory and Windows Vista Home Premium allows for DirectX 10 gaming. Our F.E.A.R. gaming tests delivered an average frame rate of 69 fps with autodetect settings and 1024 x 760 resolution; maxing out the settings dropped the frame rate to 40 fps. These scores are good enough for most 3D games, but serious gamers with money to burn will still look to Alienware or Voodoo for three-digit frame rates. Nevertheless, these scores are an improvement over the 55 and 30 fps we got from the previous Asus G1.

Intel's 2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 with the Next Generation Centrino chipset (Santa Rosa) and 2GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 RAM helped the G1S earn a PCMark05 score of 5,244 and a 3DMark03 score of 6,061. This graphics score is considerably lower than its predecessor's 10,012 on 3DMark03, which makes us wonder how much Santa Rosa really makes up for Vista's shortcomings. We have no complaints about the 160GB hard drive, though, except that a 7,200-rpm speed would have been better than the 5,400 it comes with, and there's no option to upgrade.

The G1S has 802.11n, also part of the new Santa Rosa chipset, and here we saw some improvement over the previous version. At 15 feet, the G1S managed 19.1 Mbps of throughput, and 18.4 Mbps at 50 feet--a slight bump from the 17.3 and 16.7 from the original G1. Battery life is disappointing, though. With an eight-cell lithium-ion battery, we saw only 1 hour and 13 minutes of runtime with Wi-Fi off on a DVD rundown test.

Asus backs the system with a two-year warranty for global coverage, pays shipping both ways to the nearest repair center, and includes a 30-day replacement offer for any bright spot pixels. Tech support is 24/7, but it's not a free call, and Asus includes a laptop backpack, a gaming mouse, and software for playing movies and burning CDs/DVDs.

All told, the G1S isn't the fastest rig in town, but it's a solid gaming notebook that offers portability at an affordable price. If you don't mind its short battery life, the Asus G1 is an excellent choice.

M1710 REVIEW WITH SOME ACER 8104 COMPARISONS

This is my rambling review of the DELL M1710. I want to get something posted soon, then I'll edit the first post as I add to it, so you may not be notified of updates. I'll do some comparisons to my Acer 8104 as I go along. (Size and weight were the first things that smacked me in the face.)

I bought the lappie from a reseller in May 2006 and saved about a thousand bucks. There aren't many Dell resellers around now. I didn't neeeeeed a new laptop, but who can't drool over the latest and greatest. The price tipped the scales for me.





The new beast, with my Acer 8104 rear right, and Sony HX73 17" LCD. (That's Grandma and Grandpa Bane on the wallpaper, from their 1913 wedding photo. (I'm HOW OLD?) But I digress.)

The basic config:

Dell XPS M1710
Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2500 (2.00GHz/667Mhz)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English (with CD)
17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA with Black LCD Cover
2 GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMM
512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX
80GB Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Dell Wireless® 350 Bluetooth Module
Wireless, Minicard, DW1390, Broadcom Corp.
8XDVD+/-RW w/Roxio Creator MyDVD Combo LE, Sonic CinePlayer
3Yr Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response
OTHER SOFTWARE:
Soundblaster Audigy Advanced HD Audio
Corel Photo Album, WordPerfect trial, Quickbooks trial, McAfee, AOL, Earthlink, who knows what else

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

1. Big, big, big, big, big. (But not toooo big.) (Just wayyy bigger than my large Acer 8104.)

Look Grandma! A laptop laptop desk!!

It feels heavy compared to my 8104, but I did a rough (holding them in my arms) weighing test with both on my bathroom scales. The Dell is as advertised, about 8 to 8.8 lbs with battery, and the Acer is about 6.6. I canNOT IMAGINE some of the new laptops that will be 15+ lbs. WOOF! This is plenty.

The M1710 is 15.5" wide, compared to 14.25" for the Acer. This, with the weight, means a shift in portability. I could barely, and uncomfortably, use the Acer in an economy class seat on an airplane. I had to put the lappie base near parallel to my chest in order to view the screen, and typing was minimal at best.

This will be pretty much a no-go with the Dell, unless I leave it closed and just use the Media Center to listen to CDs (something my Acer did NOT have). The width will still be a lap full. Fortunately, I'm barely even an infrequent flyer, so not a prob for me.

2. Looks? Sweeeeeet. The outside lid (mine's black, red is available too) looks "ribbed" in all the pictures, but it's actually a smooth surface with light-play built-in. The black has a luxurious look, as opposed to the "flash" that I imagine the red gives it. The lights are an interesting touch too. They come set to red but I changed mine to blue via the Dell QuickSet utility.

The case looks and feels solid. The keys are just a shade larger than my Acer's, though both have half-height function keys. The Dell key-play feels firm, though I'm occassionaly missing a shift-for-caps stroke. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

3. Battery. To be tested, of course, but I've been on battery for over an hour now. The first time I booted the machine, the battery had 98% charge and an estimated 1hr45min remaining, so I was a little disappointed. Today it said 2hr50min remaining, which is much better. My Acer is still getting 2:45 to 3:00 on 16 month-old batteries.

4. Other immediate comparisons? I miss the quick-buttons via the Acer Launch Manager to email, internet, and whatever else you set. A minor thing but it was handy. On the other hand I'm going to LUV the Dell MediaDirect feature for playing music or watching movies without booting the whole laptop. More sweeeet.

The AC Adapter brick is larger and heavier than the Acer's, but not the biggest I've seen by far. Specs say it weighs 1.68lbs.

The Dell screen is very bright, wayyy brighter than the Acer, and alllllmost as bright as my Sony LCD (it's a close call). The 1900x1200 is easier to read than I thought. I bumped the dpi from a very readable 120 to a normal 96, because of some fuzziness in some browser text, so it's moderately fine print, but still doable. No dead pixels. Very clear, crisp, sharp resolution.

No benchies yet. I was horrified to see SIXTY-ONE process threads running, due to the infamous Dell bloatware and freebie software. I thought my Acer was bad with 40-45. Still, it runs great and some of that software is going to go. I'll also be using FSAutoStart for further thread reduction when gaming. I think the McAfee will go soon too, as I've been comfortably using AVG, Windows Defender, and Ad-Watch on my Acer.

The fans are pretty quiet, though I haven't stressed or gamed it yet. I was happy to see, via MobilityMeter, that the temp during normal surfing and apps was in the very low 40s Centigrade. On battery today it has been 40-51C in the short time I've had MM on. My Acer surfs and apps between 48-54C, and games around 70-72C.

Hmmm. I think that's about it for now. I have a ton of software to install. (I went for the 80GB drive as I only used 60 of 100GB on my Acer, with same TON of software. I have a 250GB external for archiving, and I can always pop a bigger one in later if needed.) Eventually I'll run some benchies and see how it games. (Since there is no such thing in my mind as "gaming in moderation", I'm happy to say I've been "game-free" for over 30 days, but that sure aint' gonna last now.) I've been looking for an excuse to get Oblivion, as if I needed one. My Acer has gamed very well on its 128MB X700, so I'm dying to see how 512MB performs.

What may be most interesting is a screen comparison, and despite my decent digital camera I still have the ability to NOT do justice to the screens.

However it looks, the Sony HX-73 (1280x1024) is the best of the three, followed closely by the Dell (1900x1200), and third by the still very good Acer (1680x1050). I have no complaints about any of the screens, and the Dell's is EXCELLENT.

I said earlier the AC brick is bigger. The Dell is 135W, the Acer is 65W.

Did I mention it was shipped in a box? 17lb shipping wt. for the Dell, 11lb shipping for my Acer.

Minimalist inside. One box for the lappie, one for the accessories. Software includes Win XP Home XP2 Reinstallation CD, Sonic CinePlayer Reinstall CD, M1710 Drivers CD, SB Audigy Advanced MB CD, Roxio Creator MyDVD Combo LE CD, WordPerfect Productivity Pack CD, and AOL CD. There is an owner's manual, product info guide, cd case, soft cloth AC adapter bag, S-Video Out adapter (upper left of 3rd pic) and of course the AC adapter and one battery.

TBC.

Performance: It's much faster, and multi-tasks MUCH better, than my Pentium M 2.0ghz Acer. I've been very satisfied with my Acer, but when I went from my Sager 8887 hyper-threaded 3.0ghz to the Acer, I noticed a drop in "relative" processing speed, especially when multi-tasking apps. Now with the Core Duo 2.0ghz, that speed is back with a vengence and a whole lot more. I can "do other things" reasonably easy while downloading, copying, or installing apps. I have had a very few pregnant pauses and screen "painting" (choppy window movement or blank spaces when closing overlaid windows) but I'm not concerned. Windows and apps open with a speed I'VE never seen before, and I think once I get some of the gar-bahge shutdown, it will be even better.

Speakers: Grrrrr8! Best I've had by a long shot. I haven't played with them tooo much yet, but it was ENJOYABLE to listen to music while working. Hope I can get some bass thud down the road, but we shall see. It has a subwoofer but lappies seem to shy away from any real bass reproduction.

That's about it for awhile. Gaming is the next big thrill ride, but that may be a day or two away. I'm confident the M1710 will not disappoint.


GAMING: Ahhh. How MANY times can I play HL2!? As long as it keeps getting better and better I guess. It was beautiful and ran well at 1680x1050 on my Acer 8104. Now there is even MORE eye candy with options set at 16:10 and 1900x1200. I ran Fraps (which I'm not very good at as evidenced by the 3-300MB video captures from repeatedly hitting F5). I got some FPS captures averaging around 120. Needless to say it mostly ran in the low to mid-100s, with lows in the 70-90s and highs above 200. I was too busy playing to notice, other than there was no lag, but some waiting for loading. The graphics quality was suuuuu-perrrrrrb, which brings me to...

LCD: I've read several threads here and in NBR forums with people swapping out a LOT of screens on various previous XPS and Inspiron models. It appears that Dell has been using the same or similar screens for sometime, with LG, Samsung, and Sharp brands. These are generally identified by the Device ID under Device Manager\Monitor\Plug and Play\Properties\Details. My ID is SEC3155, which is reportedly Samsung. A lot of folks mention light leakage, and I have about an inch along the bottom. It is "slight" leakage and only noticeable during the black screen of bootup, and ever so slightly noticeable with the black WinXP screen saver. Not a prob. My concern was the viewing angle. Moving my head side to side, even slightly, seems to give a shading\shadow\cloud effect to the opposite side I'm looking at. It's not "bad", but it's nothing like the great viewing angles on my Sony HX-73 17" LCD. (See the LCD pic above, but not for angle.) Unfortunately, NOTHING, yet, compares to the vividness, brightness, and viewing angle of the Sony. Well, after doing some gaming and movie watching, I've decided IT'S A KEEPER! The picture quality is just too darn good overall to gripe about the shading or risk an even worse swap, as some have experienced. My Dell screen is BRIGHT and VIVID (more than my Acer but not as much as my Sony). Adjustments can be made through the Color Correction settings (which I haven't fiddled with much yet). Even a quick fiddle makes me think the "shading" is due to the glass and not the pixels. It is a glossy, highly reflective glass (you can see things behind you on black screens), and definitely not matte. It is what I consider "moderately" sparklely (I'm great on these technical terms, eh?) and not a bother. If you look at the glass at an angle on a black screen, it has a "ripplely" look. As I type this text in Notepad (I run at 1900x1200 and like it) I'm starting to get some vision-ghosting because there is so much white real estate. Anyway, just to repeat myself, it's a keeper, better than my Acer (which was GOOD), not quite as good as my Sony (a high standard, for which I'm "spoilt", as they say in the UK).

DVD info: Following is DVD spec info using free DVDInfoPro. It verifies what your DVD should do.

That's about it for my review, further occasional comments not withstanding, but feel free to ask questions if you're curious about something I haven't covered. I have an unlimited supply of opinions!

02 Sep 2006: Great comparison and review of Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo at Anandtech. I'll be looking to drop a new T7600 in within 4-6 months, price drops permitting.


1. You have to disconnect the Wireless card on the bottom of the PC and pull the wires through the top as a step. The manual shows the wire connections as pulling straight up from the card. They DO, but they were very tight. You don't have to remove the card itself (though I did because I didn't understand the snugness at first). You just need 2 strong fingernails to pinch under each connection and pull it straight up. It will disconnect.

2. When you finally have disconnected everything and remove the LCD, the right metal hinge (as you face the open keyboard and screen) lifts clear, but the left hinge grabs on something. It turns out it has an extended tab as part of the hinge, to help keep it secure. You have to slide, lift, and "giggle" and it comes free. This is mentioned in the re-assembly portion of the manual, but not the disassembly portion.

Those were the only 2 uncertainties I had. It is a fair amount of disassembly. I taped all my screws to a piece of paper and labeled them, though they all looked nearly the same. The old T2500 CPU lifted right out once you turn the ZIF screw (Zero Insertion Force) and the new one dropped right in. I put thermal compound on the cpu but no polishing was necessary. Both the old and new cpus have a mirror finish that you can read your camera lens numbers in. The heat sink, which normal isn't polished anyway, was very smooth and I actually scratched it slightly, but not adversely. I put Humpty Dumpty back together again, booted up, (oh yeah, you should have PREVIOUSLY UPDATED to BIOS A03 or A04), and I was in business.

Going from the Core™ Duo processor T2500 (2.00GHz/667Mhz) to the T7600, user perception is that it is much faster, but not "blindingly" "night and day" faster. I am very satisfied with the upgrade however. (Now if only I could get one of those overclockable T7600G processors that has a stable OC of 2.83Ghz or a fan-screaming OC of 3.16Ghz. It just never ends.)

What about warranty you say? I've read on the Dell site that, while you are allowed to replace parts, you might consider putting the old parts back in if there are problems to be resolved. (Really should have bookmarked that!) I've also read others "advice" that you can replace parts, but those not from Dell are not warrantied, of course. I'm not worried, but caveat emptor for those who go where they have not gone before.

nVidia graphics card overclock: I've gotten more performance (so the tech savvie tell me) by OC'ing the graphics. The technically adventurous can go nuts on the tweaks for this. I've done modest and effortless OCs. This method allows you to boot to CD and flash a specific OC. You must reboot to CD to change it back to original or another OC. Just use the hpflash1.exe to format your thumbdrive, use WinRAR to extract the appropriate files from the ISO file from Juanlu or Hammermd, and your lovely Win98 thumb boots into DOS in a "flash"!

160GB HDD: With the acquisition of an OnAir GT TV tuner, and subsequent mega-large recordings of HDTV (6-7GB per hour), I badly needed HDD space. The 160GB 5,400rpm Segate Momentus seemed like a good holdover until large (<100gb)>OnAir USB HDTV tuner: I plan to do a user review of this. Suffice it to say I get awwwwwwesome HDTV (and analog) viewing\capture on my 1920x1200 screen. Excellent hardware and full-featured software, but the "user-friendliness" has some rough edges and realllly needs smoothing out.

Source: Notebookforum
by MRMsyvc (Many Thanks)