OSDev.org

Solar wrote: Notebook Acer TravelMate 4672 WLMi
CPU: CoreDuo T2300 (2x 1.66 GHz, IA32 - no 64bit here!)
Chipset: Intel ICH7
HD: 120GB SATA
Opt: DVD+RW dual-layer
Bus: PCI Express
Gfx: ATI Radeon X1400 & Intel i945 (integrated)
Res: 1280x800 (16:10)
FS: FAT32 / NTFS / ReiserFS / Linux swap (WinXP Pro / Gentoo dual-boot)
Eth: Broadcom NetXtremeII GBit Ethernet
WLAN: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Other: Bluetooth / USB 2 / IEEE1394 ExpressCard34 / PCCard type 2
FDD: No floppy!

More details will be filled in. (It arrived only recently, have yet to query for some exact chip types.)

Are the onboard keyboard and "mouse" virtually PS/2 connected or USB connected? Also, does the CoreDuo have AMD64/EM64T? What other features are noticable?

Looking for a new notebook?

No, the CoreDuo is IA32 still. (Pentium-M architecture.) If you're looking for dual-core 64bit notebooks, look for AMD Turion64 X2.

Noticeable features? The media bay is nice - take out the DVD, plug in a second HD or an auxiliary battery. It's hellish fast compared to my previous machine (500 MHz PIII). And, since it's a TravelMate, it has a matte screen, not the glossy type that are currently hyped. I want to use that thing on the road, not use it as a shaving mirror.

The keyboard sucks, though. Well, not really, but the key with "< > |" is in the wrong position, which might not bother a typist much but annoys hell out of a coder.

Solar wrote: my previous machine (500 MHz PIII).

Ahh, those where good times, back when 1GHz was top of the range.</nostalgia>
I'm figuring out my test machine, so far i've worke out its a Pentium 2 75MHz, 15Mb of RAM and a 40Gb harddrive, which the BIOS refuses to believe exists. I'm going to have another check whgen i get back home and post its specs.

Bob the Avenger wrote:

Solar wrote: my previous machine (500 MHz PIII).

Ahh, those where good times, back when 1GHz was top of the range.</nostalgia>

*cough*

The time was 1999. It was the first notebook to come with a Mobile Coppermine CPU, ATI Rage Mobility gfx chip, DVD drive, firewire... don't ask me how much I payed for it. It was the top of the range. (Gateway Solo 9300)

My first computer was a 70/80s Amstrad, it had one of those green screens, which set off GM-counters for miles around and read programs from tapes. I learnt very early on NOT to try playing those tapes in a normal tape player.

What's this, a "who was there in palaentologists' time" contest? Well, I played Pong on a console in the late 70ies (being ~7 at the time) and owned an Atari VCS 2600. But that has nothing to do with a laptop that betrays its age on first glance only by a "slow" CPU and the lack of a USB 2.0 port.

Solar wrote: What's this, a "who was there in palaentologists' time" contest?

The Amstrad was millionth hand and i was about 4 at the time and my mums. I didn't learn till recently my mum can actually program in BASIC, yet she still cant get hotmail to attach a word document ;D

I just recently got a new laptop for work.. happends to be the travelmate 2310, so its not new new but still in the box, and the price was right.

Curious how long does your battery last..? Mines only lasting 1 hour :-\

My laptop range is limited to a P120 ripped to pieces & an AMD K6-2-366 that is still running (and that does believe in 40GB harddisks ). It's not overly fast for anything and it's not overly slow for anything I'm doing (programming, compiling etc). The only reason I'd want a faster one is for games or if I'd want (had to) run MS Office (or openoffice, which has turned very slow).

Ryu wrote: Curious how long does your battery last..? Mines only lasting 1 hour :-\

Haven't put it to the test yet, as I'm still busy doing setup / installation things. (Gentoo Linux takes a while, even on a CPU beast like that.)

The Acer Aspire 16xx of my wife was advertised with a battery life of 2.5 hours, and survived 130 minutes of DVB-T watching. Mine is advertised for a battery life of 3.5 to 4.0 hours, significantly more if run with the auxiliary battery for the MediaBay (which is in the mail). I expect ~3 hours without aux, about 4.5 hours with aux. If you're really interested, I'll run a test sometime next week.

Solar wrote: If you're really interested, I'll run a test sometime next week.

If its not so troublesome I'm curious about how well the newer Acer laptop conserves power, because I may buy one as thier prices look apealing to me. But this is no biggy, if you have no time, no worries.

I found the specs for the laptop so theres no need to test

4670 series:
Eight-cell lithium ion battery; 2.0 hours recharge time with power off, 2.5 hours with power on, 80% charge in 1.0 hour:
- TM4674WLMi - up to 3.5 hours life depending on configuration and usage
- TM4672WLMi - up to 4.5 hours life depending on configuration and usage

2310 series:
Four-cell lithium ion battery: up to 1.7 hours life depending on configuration and usage; 2.5 hours recharge time with power off, 3.5 hours with power on

So from the specs, 2*1.7(8-cell) = 3.4 ..... 3.4/4.5 = 0.7555, which means the TM4672WLMi would be 24% more battery life then mine. So I can estimate that if you watch a movies back to back with a full battery it should last you 1hr 15mins which still seems so little.

edit: Oh my mistake, it should last you about 2hrs 30mins watching movies, I forgot I am on a 4-cell lithium battery.

Running my "usual" workload (which is, C/C++ development work, more or less continuous HD access), I get around 2:10 battery life. Mind you, that's using the X1400 gfx chip (I couldn't get the integrated i945 to cooperate yet), 85-100% screen brightness (on the train on a sunny day), and I'm not sure I disabled WLAN. It's also estimated only - I started at 37% power (according to KDE), worked for ~45 minutes, and shut down at 2% power. Oh, and I was using the "ondemand" cpufreq scheduler. Means, you can probably extend this runtime well beyond 3 hours if need be, by throttling the CPU, using integrated gfx and dimming down the screen brightness.

Not too bad, given today's standards. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to that auxiliary battery pack for the media bay. I never watch DVD's on the road, so I don't need the DVD, but the extra battery will come handy.

Looks like there is no way to activate the integrated chipset gfx if you've got the X1400 ATI chip. Too bad, it would have been a nice feat...

Solar wrote: Looks like there is no way to activate the integrated chipset gfx if you've got the X1400 ATI chip. Too bad, it would have been a nice feat...

Would've been a sign of intelligence beyond what the business manager told you to do. Say, using all the stuff you put into the machine.

Anyway, what would you need a top-notch video card for when you're word processing? (yes, microsoft, I'm talking about vista).