Intel® Core™2 Extreme Mobile Processor 0 comments

Designed from the ground up for extreme competitive gaming and HD multimedia on the fly, the Intel® Core™2 Extreme processors are the world's highest performing quad-core¹ and dual-core² mobile processors. Delivering all the performance of a desktop, enabled in a revolutionary, sleek, and killer notebook.

As your ultimate engine for hi-def digital content creation, HD multimedia, and a rockin' hardcore gaming experience, these notebooks provide the raw power, responsiveness, and realism you need for the most compute-intensive and multi-threaded apps-wherever you want to be.
Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core mobile processor (QX9300)

Achieving clock speeds of up to 2.53GHz, along with an astounding 12 MB of shared L2 cache and a 1066 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core mobile processor is your ultimate engine for hi-def multimedia while powering the latest generation of hardcore games.

The Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core mobile processor has four cores processing multiple threads and multiple tasks at blistering speeds for an incredible "like you're there" experience in advanced artificial intelligence (AI), particle systems, dynamic physics, and texture generation. As your ultimate engine for creating rich, HD videos with up to 50 percent faster performance when encoding³ and editingΩ video, these processors enable you to perform like a multiple armed monster.

And because you're looking for ultimate control in game, the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core mobile processor bus ratio locks (overspeed protection) have been removed, so you can fine tune your notebook experience for maximum gaming performance.°
Intel® Core™2 Extreme dual-core mobile processor (X9100)

Designed for gamers and power-users, the Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core mobile processor the is world's highest performing dual-core processor&sup2. For those who want an intense, high-performance mobile computing experience, the Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core mobile processor delivers revolutionary mobile dual-core performance with 3.06GHz frequency, 6MB of shared L2 Advanced Smart Cache, and Intel® Smart Memory Access with a blazing 1066MHz Front Side Bus (FSB).

Experience excellent mobile gaming and multimedia with the raw power, responsiveness and realism of revolutionary mobile dual-core performance. The Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core mobile processor brings a whole new intensity to mobile gaming.

And just like its quad-core big brother, the Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core mobile processor also offers the ultimate control to with bus ratio locks (overspeed protection) removed, so you can fine tune your notebook experience for maximum gaming performance.

Component	Benefit
45nm Intel® quad-core processor(QX9300) 45nm Intel® dual-core processor (X9100)	Enabled by new hafnium-based circuitry, the processors provide dynamically increased energy efficiency and greater performance in gaming, multimedia, and multitasking on the go.
Power-Optimized 1066 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB)	Increased process system bus speed provides increased data bus bandwidth vs. prior generations for incredible gaming performance.
Larger Intel® Advanced Smart Cache	For the QX9300, 12MB of shared L2 cache minimizes bus traffic by allowing all four cores access to the L2 memory and shared data to be accessed from the cache. For the X9100, 6MB of shared L2 cache minimizes bus traffic by allowing the two cores access to the L2 memory and shared data to be accessed from the cache
Dual Intel® Dynamic Acceleration (QX9300 only)	Uses headroom of idle cores by dynamically boosting frequency of active cores while maintaining the thermal envelope.
Support for Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU) and Intel® Extreme Memory Profiles (Intel® XMP)°	Intel® XTU and Intel® XMP simplify processor and memory overclocking to optimize performance for extreme gaming.

Asus Eee Top ET1602 0 comments

Key Specs
Processor: 1.6GHz Atom N270
Memory: 1GB DDR2
Storage: 160GB hard drive
Optical Drive: None
Monitor: 15.6-inch integrated touch screen
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition

With its Eee family of netbook and nettop PCs, Asus seems to have cornered the market on small-form-factor, lightweight, low-power, inexpensive computers. A nettop can be a second or third system when space is tight and all you need to do is surf the Web, listen to music, or look at photos. (Nettops are sometimes referred to as the perfect PC for the kitchen; you can add looking up recipes to the list as well.) Asus had a hit last fall with its diminutive, $349.99 Eee Box nettop, and now it looks to repeat that success with the Eee Top ET1602.

Unlike the Eee Box, the Eee Top is an all-in-one PC that includes an integrated 15.6-inch, wide-screen display with touch-screen capabilities, so its $599 price is noticeably higher. But unlike devices such as the iPhone or iPod Touch that support multitouch interfaces, the Eee Top recognizes only single-touch input.

The Eee Top, which weighs less than 10 pounds, looks like an LCD monitor with built-in speakers and a white body. At about 13x16x1.5 inches (HWD), it's not much thicker than a regular monitor, either. The back of the unit includes a handle that also acts as a stand and a cable-routing clip; it's removable in case you'd rather use a VESA mount to install the system on a wall. The Eee Top has seven USB 2.0 ports (four on the back of the system, two on the left side, and one on the right side of the keyboard), a multiformat memory-card reader (on the system's left side), and an Ethernet jack, as well as audio jacks with six-channel support (on the system's back).

More than anything else, the Eee Top is about simplicity. Asus adds its own quick-navigation Eee Bar and an Easy Mode interface (which sits on top of Windows XP Home Edition and is entirely optional). Both feature large icons that help you access nearly all the system's applications and settings with just one tap of a finger on the screen. The system even includes StarOffice, a productivity-suite alternative to Microsoft Office. Depending on what you're doing, navigating the display with the touch screen is seamless, but sometimes, such as when entering a URL in the Web browser, you'll want to switch to the included keyboard and mouse.

Asus Eee PC 1000HE 0 comments

Key Specs
Processor: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280
Memory: 1GB RAM
Storage: 160GB hard drive
Optical Drive: None
Screen: 10.1 inches
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 945
Weight: 3.2 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1.5x10.47x7.53 inches
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition

The Asus Eee PC 1000HE doesn't mess with success—it just tweaks it. This updated $399 netbook builds on the design of the popular Eee PC 1000H by improving the keyboard (goodbye, misplaced right-Shift key!) and offering enhanced battery life as well as a mild performance boost.

In many ways, the 3.2-pound Eee PC 1000HE is very similar to its predecessor. It has a fingerprint-attracting glossy black shell, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home Edition, and a 10.1-inch, 1,024x600-pixel LCD. The only external difference, other than a reshaped underside, is the keyboard. It's 92 percent of full-size, just like the 1000H, but the new model uses a MacBook-like, Chiclet-style keyboard, and to the delight of touch-typists everywhere, it moves the right-Shift key to the inside of the Up Arrow key, where it belongs. Survivors of the 1980s who remember the IBM PCjr have nothing to fear here: This Chiclet keyboard is every bit as comfortable to type on as the more traditional 1000H keyboard.

The Eee PC 1000HE maintains the multitouch touch pad (and, alas, its too-stiff buttons), excellent audio clarity and volume, 1.3-megapixel Webcam, and SDHC/Memory Stick card slot of its predecessor. Expansion includes three USB ports, a 10/100 Ethernet port, VGA-out, and headphone and microphone jacks. The lack of an ExpressCard slot as found on the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is one of our few complaints.

The Eee PC 1000HE features Intel's updated Atom N280 processor. Though it runs at 1.66GHz, just a hair faster than the N270 (which runs at 1.6GHz), it bumps the front-side bus speed from 533MHz to 667MHz. Our tests did show a noticeable speed improvement over N270-powered notebooks. The Eee PC 1000HE completed our Windows Media Encoder (WME) render in 22 minutes and 11 seconds, and our iTunes music conversion test in 17 minutes and 37 seconds. This is significantly faster than the Atom N270-powered 1000H, which turned in times of 28 minutes and 10 seconds and 22 minutes and 15 seconds, respectively. Also, these are very good scores when you compare them to the average for the netbook category as whole (31 minutes and 23 seconds for WME and 25 minutes and 35 seconds for iTunes).

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R 0 comments

Key Specs
Form Factor: ATX
Chipset: Intel X58 Express
CPU Socket: Socket 1366
PCIe Slots: Two PCIe x16, one PCIe x4, two PCIe x1
PCI Slots: Two
RAM Slots/Multichannel Support: Four/triple channel
Maximum RAM: 16GB
Onboard Graphics: No

The Intel Core i7 CPU offers a lot of value, starting at under $300 for performance-beating chips that used to cost over $1,000. But it's the cost of the supplemental hardware that has kept it out of most mainstream PCs so far. Compatible motherboards have cost upward of $300, and the DDR3 RAM needed to flesh out a Core i7 setup is pricey, too. Together, that has made for a significantly higher investment than with a Core 2 or AMD board. Now, however, DDR3 RAM prices have dropped significantly, and Gigabyte's GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard finally lowers Core i7 motherboards into the $200 range.

The GA-EX58-UD3R doesn't skimp on basic functionality. It's built on the same Intel X58 Express chipset and Socket 1366 as its pricier cousins, and, with its QuickPath Interconnect technology (Intel's answer to AMD's HyperTransport, the successor to front-side-bus technology), it supports both the less-expensive Core i7 models and the Core i7-965 Extreme. The main difference between the GA-EX58-UD3R and Gigabyte's pricier X58 boards is the inclusion of only four DDR3 memory slots instead of the six found on higher-end boards. With the triple-channel nature of Core i7 systems, that means you're limited to using three memory DIMMs if you want to maintain optimal performance; adding a fourth DIMM will slow memory access. Edition

Although the GA-EX58-UD3R has a pair of PCI Express (PCIe) x16 slots for video, it doesn't support Nvidia's Scalable Link Interface (SLI) dual-card technology—just AMD's CrossFireX. Adding SLI support to an X58 board is just a matter of getting the proper licensing from Nvidia, so Gigabyte must have chosen to omit SLI to keep costs down. (In fact, Gigabyte's Web site lists a GA-EX58-UD3R-SLI board that's identical to this one other than the added SLI support, but it wasn't yet available at press time.) You'll also find one PCIe x4 slot, a pair of PCIe x1 slots, and two regular PCI slots.

For the most part, the layout of this ATX board is easy to work with, but the uppermost PCIe x1 slot edges right up against the large chipset heat sink, which means you'll only be able to use those rare tiny cards that don't extend back behind the slot itself. Another questionable placement is the floppy connector, which ends up near the bottom-front of the of the case. Gigabyte should have included an extra-long floppy cable; in many case setups, the included cable won't be long enough to connect the port and the floppy drive.

The floppy port isn't the only legacy hardware support here. You'll also find PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, an IDE connector, and a serial port header. Along with Realtek ALC888 HD audio, Gigabit LAN, dual FireWire, eight SATA, and eight USB ports, there are headers on the motherboard for four additional USB ports and an additional FireWire connector. No bracket cables are included for any of the motherboard connectors or for adding an external SATA (eSATA) connection, so you'll have to shell out a few more bucks if you don't have extras lying around.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y650 (418534U) 0 comments

Key Specs
Processor: 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700
Memory: 4GB RAM
Storage: 320GB hard drive
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW
Screen: 16 inches (1,366x768)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce G 105M
Weight: 5.6 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1x15.4x10.2 inches
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

Lenovo’s consumer-oriented IdeaPad line grows more impressive with each new model. The IdeaPad Y650 shares a little DNA with the more buttoned-down ThinkPad line but turns up the volume with its style. Combine that with a gorgeous 16-inch screen, good productivity and multimedia performance, and some cool features, and the Y650’s $1,399 price looks very enticing.

In terms of mainstream notebooks, 16 is seemingly the new 15: The Y650 is the latest entry to sport a 16-inch display. As with the Dell Studio XPS 16 we recently tested, the Y650’s LCD delivers a touch more screen real estate than a 15.4-inch model but without the heft of most 17-inch desktop-replacement models. In fact, at just 5.6 pounds, the Y650 is surprisingly light. The Y650’s thin profile (just an inch thick) and rubberized matte-black finish resemble the company’s iconic ThinkPad, but the rounded edges and coppery-orange trim encircling the Y650 make it more visually appealing.

Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop 1 comments

Key Specs
Processor: 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7250
Memory: 2GB DDR2
Storage: 120GB hard drive
Optical Drives: Double-layer DVD±RW
Display: 15.4-inch TFT
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA X3100
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

The Inspiron 1525 improves on its predecessor, the popular Inspiron 1520, in almost every way. It shaves off a few ounces and inches, adds worthwhile new features, and puts more power under the hood, all while keeping the price below $1,000. Actually, the new Inspiron starts at just $499, but our review configuration pushed the price to $974. However you trick out this notebook, you're sure to be pleased by its travel-friendly dimensions, stylish design options, and nifty extras. Gamers, however, will definitely be disappointed with its sluggish integrated graphics.

As you might guess from its model number, the Inspiron 1525 doesn't represent an extreme makeover of the 1520—it's more like a nip and tuck. The wedge-shaped notebook looks virtually identical but boasts a slimmer design: It's 1.5 inches at its thickest edge, 1.1 inches at its thinnest, 14 inches wide, and 10.1 inches deep. The system weighs exactly 6 pounds with battery. Dell offers the highly configurable 1525 in a variety of stylish lid colors and patterns. The base model comes in Jet Black; you'll pay $25 extra for the magenta Blossom pattern featured on our review unit, or any of the nine other design choices. We think that's a worthwhile upgrade to stand out from the basic-black crowd.

Inside, the Inspiron greets you with a stunning silver finish. Though we found the keyboard just a tad shallow, we liked the extra-wide touch pad and its accompanying vertical and horizontal scroll strips. It's rare that a Web page these days requires horizontal scrolling, but it's still great for zipping across spreadsheets. We also liked the Inspiron's new touch-sensitive media control panel, which includes four playback buttons and three for volume (up, down, and mute). All the buttons light up blue when you touch them.

Dell's other design amenities include a pair of headphone jacks—great for sharing a movie or music with your seatmate—and a Wi-Fi network finder that works even when the notebook is off or hibernating. Just slide a switch on the side of the case, and an LED lights up to indicate the presence of a network.

The Inspiron sports four USB ports (two on each side of the case), a mini-FireWire port, and a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port for connecting the system to an HDMI-equipped monitor or TV. When we connected the notebook to a 46-inch HDTV, it automatically switched display modes and chose a suitable resolution. We did, however, notice that the notebook's optical drive was a bit noisy when watching DVDs.

Speaking of resolution, the standard 15.4-inch wide-screen LCD tops out at 1,280x800, but you can upgrade to a 1,440x900 display for $50 extra. If you stick with the standard resolution, you have a choice between glossy and antiglare screens. (The upgrade comes in glossy only.) We highly recommend the latter, as the glossy version (which we tested) produces a ton of glare. Dell also offers an integrated Webcam for $25 extra.

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition 0 comments

Key Specs
Socket Type: AM3 (compatible with AM2+)
Number of Cores: Three
Operating Frequency: 2.8GHz
Front-Side Bus: HyperTransport 3.0
L2 Cache: 1.5MB

Only weeks after the release of the first Phenom II processors, which were designed for Socket AM2+ systems, AMD has unveiled the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition chips, which support DDR3 memory and the new Socket AM3. The X3 720, priced at $145, is a 45-nanometer chip with the same architectural improvements as the initial Phenom II chips and a new memory controller that supports both DDR2 and DDR3 RAM.

AMD is taking an interesting approach with the AM3 chips and motherboards. The AM3 Phenom II processors can work on both DDR2-based Socket AM2+ motherboards (a BIOS upgrade may be required) and the new DDR3-based Socket AM3 motherboards. The AM3 socket looks identical to Socket AM2, but it uses two fewer pins; this keeps you from plugging an incompatible Socket AM2+ CPU (which does not support DDR3) into a Socket AM3 board, and it allows AM3 processors to fit both AM2+ and AM3 sockets. If you choose to upgrade to DDR3 memory in the future, you can buy a Socket AM3 processor for your existing AM2+ system and bring the CPU over to a new AM3 system.

The Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition runs at 2.8GHz and features 6MB of shared L3 cache along with 512K of L2 and 128K of L1 cache for each of its three cores. The Black Edition processor's unlocked multiplier makes overclocking easier since you can simply increase the multiplier without having to alter HyperTransport and other settings. Using a stock cooler and the AMD Overdrive software's automatic overclocking feature, we were able to get a stable 3.5GHz out of the processor. Knowledgeable overclockers should be able to tweak even more speed from the CPU.

Final Socket AM3 motherboards weren't available yet (AMD says they'll follow the AM3 processors by a few weeks), so we used a Socket AM2+ Asus M3A78-T motherboard and 1,066MHz DDR2 RAM for our initial testing. We expect even better performance for memory-intensive applications on Socket AM3 boards equipped with 1,333MHz DDR3 memory.

Asus VH222H 0 comments

Key Specs
Screen Size (Diagonal): 21.5 inches
Native Resolution: 1,920x1,080
Aspect Ratio: 16-to-9
Contrast Ratio: 20,000-to-1 (dynamic)
Brightness: 300cd/m2
Response Time: 5 milliseconds
DVI Connector: One
D-Sub/VGA Connector(s): One
HDMI Connector(s): One
DisplayPort Connector: None
USB Ports: None

Something is clearly going on in the LCD-monitor market. Just six months ago when we reviewed the LG Flatron L227WTG, $359 wasn’t terribly expensive for a solidly performing 22-inch monitor with standard 1,680x1,050. But prices fell throughout 2008, and in January 2009, Acer announced the 23-inch, $229 H233H bmid, with a film-friendly 16-to-9 aspect ratio, full HD resolution, and an HDMI port. As impressed as we were with that screen, the Asus 21.5-inch VH222H is a better buy if you don’t need a screen quite so large. It sports similar specs (like 1,920x1,080 resolution and an HDMI port) as Acer’s H233H, better performance, and a list price of $189, making it the least-expensive 1080p display we've seen.

As is often the case with budget displays, there’s nothing stunning about this monitor’s aesthetics. The bezel is typical glossy black plastic, but angular touches on the top and bottom do give the monitor a bit of clean-line style. Six well-labeled buttons on the bottom right make navigating the onscreen display (OSD) fairly easy, though we wish the buttons labeled with up and down arrows adjusted volume by default, not brightness. The translucent-orange power button is easy to find, if slightly garish. Thankfully, the button isn’t backlit, and the rest of the controls are black.

The display's body has no built-in USB ports, but that’s to be expected with a budget monitor. What we didn't expect was the generous inclusion of bot DVI and VGA cables in the box, which isn't at all common with budget displays.The connection options are fairly standard for an HD multimedia monitor; you’ll find VGA, DVI, a single HDMI port, and SPDIF audio out, as well as analogue audio in (for the built-in speakers). There’s also an audio out/headphone jack, but tucked as it is behind the display, it’s not all that useful.
In DisplayMate testing, the VH222H performed quite well. While most monitors we’ve seen lately have faltered a bit on the high end of the gray scale, the VH222H had no problem distinguishing the lightest shades of gray from white in both the White-Level Saturation test and the Low Saturation Colors test. On the Extreme Gray-Scale with Bars test, the monitor performed well, indicating solid performance in distinguishing the darkest shades from black. Text was surprisingly crisp and legible all the way down to 5.3 points. There was some slight backlight bleed on the bottom of the screen, but it was only noticeable on a dark background, and not nearly as pronounced as on the NEC EA221WM, a monitor that costs twice as much.