MOBILE DESKTOP

Staff Writers | Jan 1, 1900 12:00 AM
This month the Labs team cast a critical eye over the latest Intel Pentium
4-based desktop replacement notebooks. Traditionally, desktop replacement means fully-featured, premium notebooks with
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This month the Labs team cast a critical eye over the latest Intel Pentium
4-based desktop replacement notebooks. Traditionally, desktop replacement means fully-featured, premium notebooks with all the connectivity, storage and peripheral options that one could conceivably need on the road. Basically, a virtual desktop PC with all the networking and media options for those who require it all, combined with the biggest TFT screen available. However, despite the moniker, they have never matched the speed and performance of the desktop PC. This month the Labs team decided to ask the question, is this still the case? With the new 0.13 micron Intel Pentium 4-M processor, combined with the Intel 845 chipset which supports DDR RAM, the desktop replacement mobile packs an unprecedented degree of power, which may well have closed the gap completely, offering real power on a mobile platform. As the Labs team has found out, 256MB or 512MB of DDR RAM is now par for the course at this end of the notebook spectrum.

It is interesting to note that some of the notebooks we received are powered by the desktop Pentium 4. The Pentium 4-M supports Enhanced SpeedStep low-power technology that dynamically switches voltage and frequency according to the demand for CPU performance, which obviously is absent from the desktop variety. Also worth noting is that these notebooks are not of the ultra-portable variety, weighing in at up to 4.45kg at the heaviest end of the spectrum, though they can come as light as 2.6kg.

With this kind of power and functionality in a quality mobile package, the possibility for 3D gaming, DVD playback, DV editing and productivity work may very well make the venerable desktop PC redundant in many situations.
The Labs team tested application and multimedia performance using the recently released SYSmark2002 benchmark and 3D tests were conducted with 3DMark2001 SE and Quake 3: Arena, with some raw synthetic component tests conducted with PCMark2002 thrown in for good measure. Is performance no longer an issue? Now the mobile option should now be firmly on the PC purchasing agenda.

LABS EDITOR Ashok Zaman
CONTIBUTORS Darren Ellis, David Kidd
This article appeared in the June, 2002 issue of PC Authority.