€2000 burning a hole in my pocket...

Gandalf23

There is a lot of crap available about release dates of sonoma... most of it conflicting. The most relaible thing I have seen is this...

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115699,00.asp


But the "official" launch date for sonoma was Jan 2005...

http://engadget.com/entry/1234000507026942/

Rew

Well DDR2 and a 533mhz FSB implies Sonoma from what I can tell.

Gandalf23

Rew wrote:

Well DDR2 and a 533mhz FSB implies Sonoma from what I can tell.

Please excuse my extreme stupidity, but will it be easy to easy to identify sonoma laptops? Will it say "sonoma" on them?

Rew

No, Im surprised they way things are ATM because when the Dothan chip came out they made a big deal of saying which it was (new or old).

There's a list of the models here:
http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/info.htm#pm

If it has a 915/910 chipset its a Sonoma if its 855 is Dothan
http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumm/index.htm
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/mobile/915_fam.htm

DDR2 is only supported by the Sonoma (its one of it main advantages) as is the 533mhz FSB (I think).

rsynnott

Gandalf23 wrote:

However, I was also thinking of waiting for a few months... for Longhorn even.

A few months? A _FEW_ _MONTHS_? Ah, well, optimism can't hurt, suppose.

Gandalf23

Rew wrote:

No, Im surprised they way things are ATM because when the Dothan chip came out they made a big deal of saying which it was (new or old).

There's a list of the models here:
http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/info.htm#pm

If it has a 915/910 chipset its a Sonoma if its 855 is Dothan
http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumm/index.htm
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/mobile/915_fam.htm

DDR2 is only supported by the Sonoma (its one of it main advantages) as is the 533mhz FSB (I think).

So sonoma IS available now? Or is it?

Why are Intel making it so difficult to identify sonoma?

(Me thinks it might be because the release of sonoma will make all other Pentium M's outdated and drop in price... if there is confusion about the chipset laptops wont be "outdated"...)

Gandalf23

rsynnott wrote:

A few months? A _FEW_ _MONTHS_? Ah, well, optimism can't hurt, suppose.

I know!!! What am I like...

Rew

Gandalf23 wrote:

So sonoma IS available now? Or is it?

Why are Intel making it so difficult to identify sonoma?

(Me thinks it might be because the release of sonoma will make all other Pentium M's outdated and drop in price... if there is confusion about the chipset laptops wont be "outdated"...)

Yes as far as I can tell it is available off the shelf now BUT there is still plenty of the old stuff around as well. The XPS2 that Jesus got looks like its Sonoma. The main diferance is the DDR2, PCIe (replaceable GFX cards) and the price. Why don't you give us a list of what you want in a laptop and maybe we can nudgue you in the right direction?

paulj13

Acer do a desktop replacement notebook range that runs it. They also seem to give the Dell an run for its money.

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_TravelMate_8100_Laptops/prod.asp

Rew

Yeah this one is very sexy:

Acer TravelMate 8104WLMi (LX.T7206.067)
* Intel Pentium-M Centrino 760 Processor (2.0GHz/533MHz FSB/2MB L2)
* 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM - upgradeable to 2GB
* 100GB Hard Drive
* DVDRW Dual Layer Multi Drive - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs and DVD+, DVD-, DVD-Ram and large Dual Layer DVD
* 15.4" WSXGA+ Widescreen TFT Screen
* ATI Mobility Radeon X700 Pro PCI-E 128MB dedicated graphics
* Integrated gigabit LAN and wireless 802.11a/b/g LAN
* Integrated Bluetooth
* Integrated 5-in-1 card reader – reads Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card and XD Picture Card
* SoundBlaster Pro Compatible with Dolby support
* Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition Pre Loaded
* Includes Cyberlink Power-DVD and NTI CD-Maker
* 1 year warranty - upgradeable to 3 years for only £99!

About €2k from them but their prices are pretty crap (and their service is worse!) so you could probably get it for less else where.

Gandalf23

Agreed... the ACER is a beast... fantastic spec.

I was never mad about ACER though... I havent heard great things about them... am I wrong?

Anyone know of a similar spec on a SONY or IBM or ASUS?

Rew

I have one, Travelmate 800 great machine. GF just got an Aspire and its very nice. I would recomend the extra warrenty though.

jesus_thats_gre

As far as I know, IBM, Sony or Asus do not offer a system with comparable performance.

The graphics card is key if you are going to be playing games.

paulj13

Rew wrote:

Yeah this one is very sexy:

About €2k from them but their prices are pretty crap (and their service is worse!) so you could probably get it for less else where.

Hi Raw,

What wrong with the price on laptopdirect? Please don't hold out if you know cheaper/better sites as I'm currently shopping around and like the prices laptops direct site. Also in my searches they seem to have a high review rating.

Please let me know if I'm wrong.

Rew

Well my GF bought an Acer Aspire and it was ordered from Laptopshop.co.uk and they bascly cancled the order and didn't tell anybody. Her brother was buying it through his UK company. When it was queried it turned out they had a problem with the VAT number they had been given. Long story but they wouldn't belive the company existed because it wasn't on the list they use to check. When her brother asked how he could sort the problem out they pretty much said he couldn't! The company exists there was nothing dodgy invloved. We shoppd around after that and got it for about £90 less then laptopshop had it for. Iv read other posts about them not taking Irish credit cards and other stupid problems.

We got the Acer Aspire from http://www.technoworld.co.uk/ in the end. Shop around all the UK web sites to make sure your price is good. Check delivery costs as well as they tend to be up and down.

Gandalf23

The ACER TravelMate 8104WLMi looks like the machine for me. However I'm getting confused and p1ssed off with this sonoma / dothan thing.

This review from cnet says the 8104WLMi is dothan...
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001745,39083720p,00.htm?

... and this review says the 8104WLMi is sonoma...
http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/buyer/pcpro-reviews/70413/acer-travelmate-8104wlmi.html


I have to admit, I'm very very tempted to wait till the end of the summer till I'm more certain of EXACTLY what I'm buying.

(And I know this doesnt really matter when considering the power and performance of the laptop... I just want the latest and best chip I can get at this stage...)

Rew

Its a sonoma. 915 chip set have a look at acer.co.uk and http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000200028393/

paulj13

Its a Sonoma alright. Have a read of this really good personal review with great images and benchmarks.

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=62009

Rew

Good review here:
http://go.theregister.com/feed/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/review_acer_8104/

donalin

If I were to get a laptop I would get a 15' Apple Powerbook G4! This is the best of the best in apple laptops. They retail in Ireland for about €2,329.00 but you can get one here for €1,794.25.


Alot of people dont like apple computers but I really cant see what not to like!!

Gandalf23

I have a real liking for powerbooks, but I need a PC to run various Linux distros and other open source stuff for my thesis. This makes the Apple option a total non starter.

I was however thinking of getting an Apple "mini" because they are fairly cheap and cheerful.

Gandalf23

Thanks for all the help and advice on this to everyone who took the time and effort to post a reply to my original query. I really learned a lot about laptops and chipsets etc.

I have decided to delay my purchase for a few months... perhaps towards the end of this summer... until the sonoma technology matures slightly and is available in more machines and has become slightly cheaper. I think I'll get more bang for my buck then. I was never an early adopter!!!

rsynnott

Gandalf23 wrote:

I have a real liking for powerbooks, but I need a PC to run various Linux distros and other open source stuff for my thesis. This makes the Apple option a total non starter.

I was however thinking of getting an Apple "mini" because they are fairly cheap and cheerful.

Erm, you can run Linux on a Mac...

Gandalf23

rsynnott wrote:

Erm, you can run Linux on a Mac...

Yep, I know Linux runs on a Mac... sorry.. should have been clearer on this.

I want to stay with a PC because my thesis focuses on migration from MS Windows and MS Office to Open Source alternatives (e.g. SuSE and Open Office). Most Irish organisations who consider migrating to Linux will be using PC's not Mac's. Organisations using Mac's might have less reason to migrate, as they are likely to be using the Mac for a very specific purpose e.g. DTP / design, or having less security / stability problems than Windows machines.

rsynnott

Gandalf23 wrote:

Yep, I know Linux runs on a Mac... sorry.. should have been clearer on this.

I want to stay with a PC because my thesis focuses on migration from MS Windows and MS Office to Open Source alternatives (e.g. SuSE and Open Office). Most Irish organisations who consider migrating to Linux will be using PC's not Mac's. Organisations using Mac's might have less reason to migrate, as they are likely to be using the Mac for a very specific purpose e.g. DTP / design, or having less security / stability problems than Windows machines.

Ah, yep, see what you mean. And yep, there are few compelling REASONS to run Linux on a Mac unless you like it or need odd apps, suppose, whereas there's a very good argument for running it on a pc. Nice thesis idea, btw.

Gandalf23

rsynnott wrote:

Nice thesis idea, btw.

Thanks RS... I think its a very important area, and should get some interesting results. Initial findings suggest that organisations have moved from "What is Linux..." to "What is our Linux strategy?". I believe most organisations would be open to migrating, but it always seems that one critical application that is not quiet Linux ready stops them. For example, I was involved with a fairly big financial institution who were considering switching desktops and office apps from MS to Linux last year... the savings in licence costs alone was staggering, but they could not migrate because a critical app used everyday was non Linux compatible. It was the deciding factor. However MS did give a large "rebate" on licence fees once they saw the Org was thinking to migrating :-))