Dell Inspiron 8600 Review (In English)

[Stealth1024]

http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/reviews/4978/1/

Sorry if this is a repost...


"Add 512MB of DDR333 system memory; a 60GB Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 hard disk with 8MB buffer and 7,200-rpm speed; and a Philips DVD+RW drive that can be swapped for a second battery or a floppy drive; and you've got one serious laptop. "

"Even with just the standard battery, cordless life isn't half bad for such a high-powered PC: Whether writing letters or watching DVDs, we regularly got two hours and 20 minutes of unplugged operation, keeping the optical and hard drives fairly busy and sticking to the top two of the eight screen brightness levels (the others are pretty dark). "

 

[John]

He mentions adding PC2700 to the system even though the Pentium M is a 400FSB. Realistically this means PC1600 would suffice since it runs natively @ 100MHz. Is there a memory bus setting in the i8600 bios to keep the FSB @ 100MHz while running the memory @ 133 or 166MHz?

 

[OldSpooky]

John, I think the 855PM chipset can run the memory asynchronously from the FSB.

Intel 855PM shows DDR266 and 333 modes for the 855PM.

 

[John]

Where are these modes that you refer to? I've read a lot of documentation on the 855PM and I have only seen 266/333 support mentioned which I assume is backwards compatibility or for future expansion.

 

[OldSpooky]

If the i855PM FSB is synchronous with the memory bus (see the diagram I linked before), then yes, the memory would be running at 100 MHz DDR (or 200 MHz effective).

I am 99% sure that the 855 series chipsets can run the memory and fsb asynchronously. If the BIOS instructs the MCH to run at 266 or 333 MHz, it will do so regardless of the fsb clock.

 

[ElFenix]

thats faster than my desktop... now i know i need to upgrade