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Llano has me excited

Zap

Zap

Elite Member
I made a thread a while back on ULV Sandy Bridge.

IMO Llano has eclipsed it for my needs.

Llano basically gives gaming performance similar to Sandy Bridge with near mid-range (for single GPU notebooks) graphics performance for a whole lot less money. It also has a similar power envelope.

CPU-wise, it obviously lags behind Sandy Bridge, but it should be fast enough to be completely usable for gaming and normal desktop usage.

For anyone who just felt that Zacate/E-350 just wasn't enough performance, Llano is perfect.

So, here is my new "wish list" for a Llano notebook.

AMD A8-3500M APU
4GB-8GB dual channel DDR3-1600 RAM (max speed, since memory affects GPU performance)
60Wh+ battery
big SSD (128GB or more)
12-14" LED backlit LCD (make it decent quality and non-glossy plz)
latest WiFi/Bluetooth/USB/eSATA/HDMI
decent KB and multitouch mousepad
ODD not necessary
slim and nice looking (wait, are we still talking about notebook computers?) and not flimsy or chintzy
notebook sleeve with handle that fits exactly
3-4.5 pounds depending on screen size
under $500 with 4GB RAM and regular HDD

Since I never do anything super CPU intensive with my notebooks, this should give me similar performance in desktop use and gaming compared to my "dream Sandy Bridge ULV with GPU" for a whole lot less money. Heck, should be easier to shop for too, since Sandy Bridge notebooks are a hodgepodge of graphics, usually with rather low end stuff in the thin/light notebooks.
 
Wish granted. :awe:

Honestly SB is very good in terms of raw CPU power but if somehow I could get a decent sized SSD + Llano for the same price as a SB CPU, I would rather go with Llano.
 
i have been waiting for Dell to sell the M102z in the US, kinda glad they havent yet, now i just have to wait for them to sell a llano based 11"-14"
 
Replace eSATA with USB 3 and that's exactly what I'd want. (Especially the matte screen!)

I doubt we'll see them for $500 or less, though, barring a blazingly hot deal. I suspect they'll be regularly offered at $600 or less...?
 
Would it be too much to ask for a laptop to have (2) 2.5" HDD slots, one for SSD and one for a regular HD for storage?
 
Well I have been wanting something to replace my desktop (having a baby, losing my office), but these days, all I really play is Source games (TF2, L4D2). I already have a 128gb SSD that I can throw into whatever I get... SB is nice, but to get one with a dedicated GPU, I am looking at like $700+. When can we expect to see these Llano laptops on Newegg?
 
dma0991 said:
Honestly SB is very good in terms of raw CPU power but if somehow I could get a decent sized SSD + Llano for the same price as a SB CPU, I would rather go with Llano.
Click to expand...

I think it would be more of SSD+Llano for the price of a SB+(GPU that equals Llano IGP). :biggrin:

Gigantopithecus said:
Replace eSATA with USB 3 and that's exactly what I'd want. (Especially the matte screen!)

I doubt we'll see them for $500 or less, though, barring a blazingly hot deal. I suspect they'll be regularly offered at $600 or less...?
Click to expand...

How about both USB 3.0 and eSATA? Actually I stated "latest" so that would include USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0. See, I think of everything. 😀

I think you're right about not seeing it below $500. It was purely a "wish list" price. I think we will see ones at that price with a lower end Llano A4 for sure (dual core with 240 core IGP) or maybe Llano A6 on hot deals (quad core with 320 core IGP). Oh yeah, and probably with a super crappy screen and without extras like Bluetooth.

jaydee said:
Would it be too much to ask for a laptop to have (2) 2.5" HDD slots, one for SSD and one for a regular HD for storage?
Click to expand...

No. They do exist, but usually with screens larger than 15". For those that don't, you can sometimes get an adapter that replaces the optical drive with one 2.5" bay, but this doesn't help really thin/light notebooks.

Intel notebooks may be a bit ahead on this because of SSD caching. Some companies will likely make (probably higher end) thin/light Sandy Bridge notebooks with both 2.5" and mSATA because of Intel's support for SSD caching. mSATA may not feature the highest capacity or lowest price (especially now in its infancy) but it is as small as a notebook WiFi card so it will fit where a 2.5" drive will not.
 
Zap said:
I think it would be more of SSD+Llano for the price of a SB+(GPU that equals Llano IGP). :biggrin:



How about both USB 3.0 and eSATA? Actually I stated "latest" so that would include USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0. See, I think of everything. 😀

I think you're right about not seeing it below $500. It was purely a "wish list" price. I think we will see ones at that price with a lower end Llano A4 for sure (dual core with 240 core IGP) or maybe Llano A6 on hot deals (quad core with 320 core IGP). Oh yeah, and probably with a super crappy screen and without extras like Bluetooth.



No. They do exist, but usually with screens larger than 15". For those that don't, you can sometimes get an adapter that replaces the optical drive with one 2.5" bay, but this doesn't help really thin/light notebooks.

Intel notebooks may be a bit ahead on this because of SSD caching. Some companies will likely make (probably higher end) thin/light Sandy Bridge notebooks with both 2.5" and mSATA because of Intel's support for SSD caching. mSATA may not feature the highest capacity or lowest price (especially now in its infancy) but it is as small as a notebook WiFi card so it will fit where a 2.5" drive will not.
Click to expand...

i think there are mini-pcie ssd in the market, that will fit well in mini-pcie slot in your laptop
 
Laptops with the specs you want will start at $600 at launch, but in some months prices could come down. Personally the A4 has me excited if I see a good 11" to 14" laptop with it in the $400 range.
 
LOL_Wut_Axel said:
Personally the A4 has me excited if I see a good 11" to 14" laptop with it in the $400 range.
Click to expand...

I haven't considered that yet. Wow, you're right! Imagine something like the current 11.6" Zacate units (HP dm1z, Lenovo whatever), and then imagine them with double the CPU(?) and GPU performance.
 
Zap said:
I haven't considered that yet. Wow, you're right! Imagine something like the current 11.6" Zacate units (HP dm1z, Lenovo whatever), and then imagine them with double the CPU(?) and GPU performance.
Click to expand...

Exactly! I looked it up, and the Turion II P520 2.3GHz is on average 2x faster than the E-350. The A4-3310MX should have comparable CPU performance to that. The Radeon HD 6480G seems to be a similar story too, since that should be very similar to the Radeon HD 6450. That's 2x faster than the Radeon HD 6310.
 
The thing is, you don't need to get SB+GPU to equal a LLano, you can go with much less on the CPU side, like an i3 Nehalem. That with a discrete GPU would still be better than a LLano, both CPU and GPU -wise.
 
M0RPH said:
The thing is, you don't need to get SB+GPU to equal a LLano, you can go with much less on the CPU side, like an i3 Nehalem. That with a discrete GPU would still be better than a LLano, both CPU and GPU -wise.
Click to expand...

If we're talking equaling everything, Core i3 Arrandale will be around 15% slower in multi-threaded apps, so that's not really accurate. As for using it + discrete GPU, that will lead to a bigger chassis. Not only that, but because Arrandale was less power efficient than Sandy Bridge, battery life will be at least an hour shorter, even if you get Optimus.

EDIT: this is obviously talking about low-end Quad-Core Llano vs. Core i3 Arrandale. Also, from what I've seen, there's not much point in the Arrandale + NVIDIA GPU laptops. They're only around $50 cheaper than the Sandy Bridge counterparts from what I'm seeing and you lose battery life.
 
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M0RPH said:
The thing is, you don't need to get SB+GPU to equal a LLano, you can go with much less on the CPU side, like an i3 Nehalem. That with a discrete GPU would still be better than a LLano, both CPU and GPU -wise.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure it would be better enough to warrant the extra cost or power draw (unless Optimus enabled).
 
jaydee said:
Would it be too much to ask for a laptop to have (2) 2.5" HDD slots, one for SSD and one for a regular HD for storage?
Click to expand...

The Thinkpad X220 has a 2.5" Hard drive slot plus a spot for a mSATA SSD as well. I think some of Lenovo's larger Sandy Bridge laptops may also have the same setup.
 
Maybe Llano will shine in laptops (no doubt, really, finally playable IGPs for light gaming), but for the desktop, I'm starting to question whether or not I really want one.

Especially, if AMD only releases 100W models for desktop. If I'm going to burn that much power, I might as well get a SB, and then get a discrete GPU.

Here's hoping for lower-powered SKUs of LLano for desktop.
 
So I am trying to get this straight. Llano is going to compete with the SB for mid range performance. Has anyone been able to benchmark any yet. Which SB processor is Llano supposed to be comparable to? Should we see a drop in price for SB after Llano release?
 
id like to see an SSD slot and a regular 2.5hdd slot. make the sdd built inside the pc (theyre small) and make the HDD easily accessible (as most are now). the hdd wouldnt run all the time, so power draw and heat arent an issue..
 
mattpegher said:
So I am trying to get this straight. Llano is going to compete with the SB for mid range performance. Has anyone been able to benchmark any yet. Which SB processor is Llano supposed to be comparable to? Should we see a drop in price for SB after Llano release?
Click to expand...

We probably won't see a SB price drop. Bulldozer competes with Sandy Bridge. Llano CPU performance is like Athlon II - just compare the same # of cores and same GHz. Maybe a hair more, because of more L2 cache. The graphics performance is what people are interested in, because it is as good as $50 graphics cards, meaning it actually works for gaming, as long as you leave everything on low settings.
 
Seeing the performance on Llano sorta makes me regret buying my Sager 8130. But then I play SC2 on it, and I don't regret anything anymore. 😛
 
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