Intel Centrino/Pentium-M Notebook Roundup: Dell, FIC and IBM Examined
by Matthew Witheiler on March 12, 2003 11:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
The Test
We put our four Pentium M based systems up against each other as well as a comparably configured desktop system, which as we examined already is about a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 system. We only tested 3D performance in the two systems where 3D performance is highest: the Dell's GeForce4 4200 Go and the IBM's Mobility FireGL 9000. For the desktop equivalents of these cards we used an NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 and ATI Radeon 9000 Pro respectively. These desktop cards are clocked higher than their mobile equivalents, but that is one of the advantages involved with using a desktop system over a notebook one.
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|
Windows
XP Professional Test System |
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|
|
Hardware |
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| Dell
Latitude D800 |
FIC Centrino | IBM T40 | IBM T40P | Desktop
System |
|
| CPU(s) | Pentium
M 1.6GHz |
Pentium
M 1.5GHz |
Pentium
M 1.5GHz |
Pentium
M 1.6GHz |
Pentium
4 2.4GHz |
| Motherboard(s) | Dell
855PM |
FIC
855PM |
IBM
855PM |
IBM
855PM |
Intel
D845EBT 845E |
| Memory | 512MB
PC2100 |
512MB
PC2100 |
256MB
PC2100 |
512MB
PC2100 |
512MB
PC2100 |
| Hard Drive | 40GB
5400RPM |
30GB
4200RPM |
40GB
5400RPM |
40GB
5400RPM |
IBM
Deskstar DPTA-372050 20.5GB 7200 RPM |
| CDROM | CD-RW/DVD |
CD-RW/DVD |
CD-RW/DVD |
CD-RW/DVD |
Philips
48X |
| Video Card(s) | NVIDIA
GeForce4 4200 Go 64MB DDR |
Integrated
855PM |
ATI
Mobility Radeon 7500 |
ATI
Mobility FireGL 9000 64MB DDR |
ATI
Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 128MB |
| Ethernet | Onboard
Intel Gigabit |
Onboard
Intel Pro/100VE |
Onboard
Intel Gigabit |
Onboard
Intel Gigabit |
Linksys
LNE100TX 100Mbit PCI Ethernet Adapter |
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|
Software |
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| Operating System |
Windows XP Professional SP1 |
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| Video Drivers | NVIDIA
42.56 (latest available for Dell) |
Intel
6.13.01.3460 |
ATI
6.13.10.6278 (latest available for IBM) |
ATI
7.79.7.3 (latest available for IBM) |
ATI
Catalyst 3.1 NVIDIA 41.09 |
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Benchmarking Applications |
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| Bapco
SysMark 2001 |
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3 Comments
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builda - Thursday, February 2, 2006 - link
There appears to be a wide spread fault with the Gigabyte NB-1401 model notebook, where it reports having system disk errors or cannot find the hard disk. We have 7 of this model notebook and now 6 of them have reported the same problem. After running chkdsk to temporarily repair the errors that had been caused on the harddisk I found the problem returned the escalated to the point the harddisk could not be found. I further checked using Hitachi drive fitness testing tool which reported a cable error on each machine. Originally I returned 3 of these for repair as they were just outside the warranty period and the supplier checked with Gigabyte with the fix being to rub the cable all over with an eraser!! This worked for a short period but the problem has returned a couple of months later and has spread (like a virus) it now affects 6 out of the 7 notebooks. The supplier has just gone into administration and my next step is to approach Gigabyte who's support service has been found to be extremely unresponsive in the recent past.dbiberdorf - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
I beg to differ with the reviewer. The keyboard on this unit is mediocre, and the track stick buttons are an abomination. They sit too low in the case and have too much travel. It makes my thumbs hurt after a while, and I often have to press them with a finger to get them to activate fully.The most powerful notebook in the world loses big points in my book if they built-in keyboard and pointing devices are weak. Certainly it's the case here. Dell, please figure out how to buy good keyboards for your machines!
Finally, the power adapter, while featuring convienent wrap-around cabling, is phenomenally large. My cordless phone at home is smaller. With the large profile of the machine, the adapter has to go in a side pocket of the carrying case, adding a little more bulge to your day.
visibilityunlimited - Thursday, October 30, 2003 - link
Screen resolution beyond SXGA+ would be unreadable using Windows for example while being more readable using Linux.Both the Linux text console and graphics mode X-windows-system screen drivers can be fully customized to display text at any resolution. The text characters could easily be displayed with current software at 1200dpi or more (if only the graphics processors and monitors could operate at that speed) and still retain the current character size. Text can currently be generated from vector based Type I and TrueType fonts for rasterizing at any resolution. Image scaling is a different and very easy problem.
The Windows OS is the real culprit holding back general usage of higher resolutions and typeset quality displays because of the OS being handicapped by the inertia of antique display modes. Darn. I want 3200x2400 or more!