High performance AMD-based notebooks/laptops?

[joshg]

OK, just to toss around options and keep an open mind....

I've been searching around on the net for information about high-performance AMD laptops. What I am interested in is something like:

AMD Mobile Athlon 1.0GHz
20GB
at least 32MB of either Mobile Radeon or maybe if/when that nVidia nv17m (?) comes out
56k/NIC
14 or 15" screen
DVD (I'm not needing CDRW on laptop)


For some reason I can't find any laptops that use AMD other than Compaq, HP, and a Sony, and I can only find that they have very low-ended video solutions. Does anyone know of any others, or would I be better off waiting a few months? Preferrably somewhere where I can find financing options too...

Thanks guys!

 

[joshg]

oh almost forgot Mobile Radeon 7500, not plain Radeon

 

[Motero]

I don't think there is any other companies at this time that put AMD processors in their laptops.

 

[AGodspeed]

I don't think there is any other companies at this time that put AMD processors in their laptops.

Not true at all. Go to Compaq.com, HP.com, Fujitsu.com, and Sony.com (among several other OEMs I can't think of off the top of my head right now) and they will have a bunch of Athlon and Duron notebooks for you to choose from.

I suggest the Compaq Presario 700 Series Notebook. They're very cheap, come with WinXP Home, Athlon 4 processors up to 1.2GHz, 20gb HD at 5400 RPM, etc.

Good luck.

 

[AGodspeed]

For some reason I can't find any laptops that use AMD other than Compaq, HP, and a Sony, and I can only find that they have very low-ended video solutions.

That's what nearly all OEMs do. You're going to see virtually 0 OEMs carrying Radeon 7500 cards in their laptops. If you find an OEM that does have a 7500 powered laptop, let me know.

If you don't need to get a laptop immediately, I'd wait another 3 months or so. By then, Compaq, HP, etc. will have much better laptops out. AMD wise, there will be .13 micron Athlons, which will have significant advantages over todays .18 micron Athlons.

Also, AMD said in their last Ananlyst Conference Call that they would release a 1.53GHz laptop processor in Q1 next year! I don't know if that's .13 micron or not, however it would make sense if it was, since it would be easier for AMD to release .13 micron Athlons in laptops first, since demand is much lower in laptops than desktops. That would buy AMD more time to make .13 micron Athlons for desktops.

In addition to some exciting laptop processors from AMD, Nvidia is also releasing a mutant GeF3 powered video card, which will likely be bundled with Intel and AMD processors. The laptop market is looking more interesting everyday.

 

[Bovinicus]

I would agree with Godspeed except that I think Compaq may be the single worst manufacturer of PC's ever, next to Packard Bell of course. They use low quality components and their systems often attempt to bloat themselves in software made to increase performance. In the end it just overuses system resources. Fujitsu would probably be a better way to go in my opinion.

 

[joshg]

AGodSpeed, in regard to your last post, you stated that no OEMs produce laptops w/ Radeon 7500... so are you suggesting that someone else does, or that there is a way to upgrade the GPU to Radeon 7500?

 

[Sid03]

But why limit yourself to AMD? The .13-micron Tualatin based Pentium 3's are excellent chips for laptops. They run cooler, consume less power, and performance is excellent.

 

[joshg]

<< But why limit yourself to AMD? The .13-micron Tualatin based Pentium 3's are excellent chips for laptops. They run cooler, consume less power, and performance is excellent. >>



2 things: FSB and IPC, for AMD they are much higher which translates to more performance, in my book

 

[AGodspeed]

I would agree with Godspeed except that I think Compaq may be the single worst manufacturer of PC's ever, next to Packard Bell of course.

Packard Bell?, or Hewlett Packard?

Anyway, I don't see what's wrong with Compaq computers. I think they had a bad rep quite a few years back, but within the last year, a lot of their desktops and laptops that I've used have been very good. I've never understood why Compaq gets bagged on a lot. Oh well...

But why limit yourself to AMD? The .13-micron Tualatin based Pentium 3's are excellent chips for laptops. They run cooler, consume less power, and performance is excellent

You'd be surprised how long the battery life of AMD based laptops are. In fact, lemme dig some articles up for you...here ya go: link and linko.

If money is no object, I'd suggest an IBM Thinkpad laptop, based on the PIII-M processor. It has everything you need. And that's not a marketing line.

 

[AGodspeed]

AGodSpeed, in regard to your last post, you stated that no OEMs produce laptops w/ Radeon 7500... so are you suggesting that someone else does, or that there is a way to upgrade the GPU to Radeon 7500?

I'm suggesting (actually, admitting) that I don't know of any OEMs that carry Radeon 7500 graphics cards. If you happen to find an OEM that does bundle a 7500 card in a laptop, let me know, I'd like to check it out.

And yes, you can upgrade your laptop's video card to a 7500, but it has to be a laptop 7500 video card, not the desktop version (I think).

 

[joshg]

<< I'm suggesting (actually, admitting) that I don't know of any OEMs that carry Radeon 7500 graphics cards. If you happen to find an OEM that does bundle a 7500 card in a laptop, let me know, I'd like to check it out.

And yes, you can upgrade your laptop's video card to a 7500, but it has to be a laptop 7500 video card, not the desktop version (I think). >>



Ahh ok... and this "upgrading" of laptop GPUs, does anyone know exactly how it could be done? Sounds interesting

 

[Sugadaddy]

I'm a big AMD fan, but for a laptop, I think I'd go with Intel. Less heat, more battery life, and Tualatin is very close in performance to Palomino at the same clock speed. I like AMD for desktops because they have the best price/performance, but it's not really the case with laptops.

Dell 8100 is nice and has 32MB Geforce 2 Go. None have the NV17M yet, but Dell should be one of the first to offer them.

 

[Pariah]

I'd avoid Compaq laptops. They're not bad, but you can do better with a Dell, IBM, Sony or HP Omnibook. I wouldn't worry about AMD vs Intel based on performance here, they're pretty much the same. You're better off with Intel here if for no other reason than you have a much better selection to choose from. There are a number optional features available on Intel laptops that AMD doesn't have yet (higher res displays, 5400rpm drives, better video cards, etc...). You're not going to get any price break going with AMD either.

Also, I don't think anyone makes 20GB 5400RPM laptop drives. IBM is the only manufacturer that I know of, and theirs start at 32GB and goes up to 60. Compaq doesn't use 5400RPM in any laptop they make as far as I know. IBM has them standard in their highest end models, and Dell offers them as an option on their highend models, that's about it.

 

[Diable]

Joshg, I think you have the Pentium III-M confused with the Pentium 4. The moble Tualatin based Pentium III's run on a 133mhz FSB, have data prefetch, 512KB of L2 cache and run cooler then any Athlon. The desktop Tualatin based Pentium III's have 256KB of cache and perform on par with a Athlon of the same speed(check out Anand's review here)so the moble version which has twice the cache should be as fast or faster then a same speed Athlon and run cooler to boot.

 

[ChrisADuffy]

Toshiba has nice laptops with the Geforce 2go chip, but I don't believe they use AMD. Last time I checked anyway.

 

[jcmkk]

Yeah, I'm a huge AMD fan, but at this time I think that the fastest laptops are the Pentium 3- M systems.

 

[JohnCU]

I wish you could build a laptop like you can a desktop.

 

[Sid03]

<< 2 things: FSB and IPC, for AMD they are much higher which translates to more performance, in my book >>

Since when are AMD's FSB and IPC "much higher" than Tualatin's?

Sure it's fine to like AMD, as they make good CPU's... But Intel makes good CPU's as well. So, I don't understand why you'd want to limit your selection because of brand loyalty.

 

[marat]

<<

<< 2 things: FSB and IPC, for AMD they are much higher which translates to more performance, in my book >>

Since when are AMD's FSB and IPC "much higher" than Tualatin's?

Sure it's fine to like AMD, as they make good CPU's... But Intel makes good CPU's as well. So, I don't understand why you'd want to limit your selection because of brand loyalty. >>



Fact:

My boss has Compaq 705US - AMD Athlon 4 1Ghz CPU
My friend has Sony Intel Pentium III 1Ghz.

Compaq is way faster.

If you are looking for brand name AMD notebook - buy Sony FXA36 - it is great.

 

[Sugadaddy]

<< Fact:

My boss has Compaq 705US - AMD Athlon 4 1Ghz CPU
My friend has Sony Intel Pentium III 1Ghz.

Compaq is way faster.

If you are looking for brand name AMD notebook - buy Sony FXA36 - it is great. >>





LOL, maybe back it up a little more than that...

What benchmarks did you run? Are they exactly the same except for the CPU? (ram, hard drive rpm, video card, etc...)


Also, Intel has a 1.2 GHz mobile P3.

 

[Jejunum]

i think we are gonna have to wait till .13 micron athlon till we see high performance video because of heat and power concerns...

 

[marat]

<<

<< Fact:

My boss has Compaq 705US - AMD Athlon 4 1Ghz CPU
My friend has Sony Intel Pentium III 1Ghz.

Compaq is way faster.

If you are looking for brand name AMD notebook - buy Sony FXA36 - it is great. >>



LOL, maybe back it up a little more than that...

What benchmarks did you run? Are they exactly the same except for the CPU? (ram, hard drive rpm, video card, etc...)

Also, Intel has a 1.2 GHz mobile P3. >>



OK. Let's stay away from benchmarks for a while or we will start another AMD/Intel war. Here is a real example.

1. Sony FX370
Intel PIII/ 1GHz / 20GB/256MB/CDRW/DVD/Nic/Modem/On board video with shared memory/100 MHZ system bus
Price: $1799.99

2. Sony FXA36
AMD Athlon 4/ 1GHz / 20GB/256MB/CDRW/DVD/Nic/Modem/ATI rage mobility M6 8Mb/200 MHZ system bus
Price: $1699.99


p.s. AMD has Mobile Athlon 4 1.2 GHz

 

[Sugadaddy]

They do? I didn't know it was out yet since I've never seen any laptops using it...


The Sony you used had the 100MHz FSB P3 with 256KB L2 cache. The new Tualatin (P3-M) uses 133MHz FSB, and 512KB L2 cache, and performs about the same as Palomino... It also runs cooler and uses less power. (.13u)


Anyways, I'm not looking to start a flame war, it's just my opinion. Just like I wouldn't get anything else than AMD for a desktop at the moment, I wouldn't get anything but a P3-M for a laptop...

 

[marat]

<< They do? I didn't know it was out yet since I've never seen any laptops using it...

The Sony you used had the 100MHz FSB P3 with 256KB L2 cache. The new Tualatin (P3-M) uses 133MHz FSB, and 512KB L2 cache, and performs about the same as Palomino... It also runs cooler and uses less power. (.13u)



Anyways, I'm not looking to start a flame war, it's just my opinion. Just like I wouldn't get anything else than AMD for a desktop at the moment, I wouldn't get anything but a P3-M for a laptop... >>



Well, my point is that Intel PIII-M is much more expensive than Athlon 4.
Sony GR270 - Same thing as Fx270 but 30Gb harddrive and PIII-M is $2799.99 !!! Sorry - I used wrong example before