notebooks

Dell will offer an Nvidia dual graphics chip upgrade for 17-inch XPS M1730 gaming notebook owners--but stepping up won't be a cakewalk for MediaDirect users.

The upgrade from the Nvidia dual 8700M GT to dual 8800M GTX graphics is in the works and will likely be released later this month, according to Dell.

Some users were upset when Dell upgraded the graphics in newer models of the M1730 to the 8800M GTX. The XPS 1730 with the 8800M GTX earned a score of almost 13,500 in 3Dmark06--which is about a 49 percent performance gain over two 8700M GT … Read more

UPDATE: Toshiba is expected to release a notebook PC this year that uses a chip based on the Cell processor, the same chip used in Sony's PlayStation.

The Toshiba Qosmio G40 notebook will sport a SpursEngine SE1000 chip based on the Cell Broadband Engine, which is also used in the Sony PlayStation 3.

The Cell Broadband Engine is a multi-core chip architecture jointly developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba. It is derived from IBM's Power Architecture, which was once used in Apple notebooks and desktops. Today, IBM uses the Cell processor in a line of blade servers.

Samples … Read more

The MacBook Air, IdeaPad U110, and ThinkPad X300 are the three hottest ultraportables out there. They all sport unique styling outside. And Intel blue inside.

Styling and design are now so crucial in notebooks that when a model arrives in pink the color change alone is news.

Ditto for the styling imperative for some of the sveltest, lightest, and most impressive of notebooks: the Air, X300, and just-released U110.

Scratch the surface (or lift up the keyboard in this case), however, and you'll find that their unique exteriors house similar Intel core electronics.

Does this have anything to do … Read more

Toshiba is planning to ship 512GB solid state drives by 2009 when it expects these storage devices to claim one-fourth of the market, according to Japan-based reports.

Toshiba is currently getting set to ship 128GB solid state drives (SSDs), which it plans to offer by June in its Dynabook SS RX1 and Portege notebooks. SSDs are based on NAND flash memory, a market that Samsung and Intel also compete in.

The market for SSDs used in notebook PCs will surge on average 313 percent per year through 2011, according to a report from Nikkei Business Publications. The report referred to … Read more

On Monday, Hewlett-Packard's Japan arm introduced a raft of consumer PCs with plenty of offerings using processors from Advanced Micro Devices in addition to Intel chips.

In the v7000 small-form-factor tower series, HP deployed both the AMD triple-core Phenom X3 processor and quad-core Phenom X4 processors. Models are available with the X3 8400 (2.1GHz), low-power X4 9100e (1.8GHz, 65 watts), and X4 9500 (2.2GHz).

Interestingly, AMD-based models in the v7000 series come with Nvidia graphics, not AMD-ATI graphics, a synergy that AMD has had trouble realizing in some segments. Configurations are offered with either the NVIDIA … Read more

Intel posted price cuts on Sunday that included reductions of 50 percent on select quad-core processors. The chipmaker also introduced new Celeron and Core 2 Duo processor models.

The price of the Core 2 Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz) fell 50 percent from $530 to $266, while the quad-core Xeon X3230 (2.66GHz) saw an identical cut: from $530 to $266.

Celeron price-cut highlights include the Celeron 430 (1.8GHz), reduced 23 percent from $44 to $34 and the dual-core Celeron E1200 (1.6GHz), falling 19 percent from $53 to $43.

The dual-core Xeon 3085 (3GHz) was reduced 29 percent from $… Read more

Solid-state drives continue to outperform hard-disk drives in tests, providing some consolation for the high price.

The X300 ThinkPad, which starts at $2,900, is one of the hottest--and most expensive--notebooks on the market now. The Apple MacBook Air is another. They both come with solid-state drives (SSDs) that perform better than standard magnetic hard-disk drives. And the X300's outpaces a 7200rpm hard drive by a long shot, according to review site Hot Hardware.

In a test, the X300's SSD "performed 2.75 times faster than the Dell XPS M1730 running dual 7200rpm drives," the review … Read more

Toshiba has postponed the launch of the Dynabook SS RX1 notebook slated to ship with a 128GB solid-state drive, according to an announcement on Toshiba's Japanese Web site.

The Japanese-market Dynabook has been billed as the first notebook with a 128GB solid-state drive, or SSD.

The notebook was originally scheduled for general availability in April but will be delayed until June, according to Toshiba.

Toshiba cited parts delays. It's not clear whether the delays are SSD-related, but Toshiba postponed the launch of a notebook last year with a 64GB SSD due to flash memory chip "procurement" … Read more

Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang's jeremiad against Intel heralds future melees with the chip giant over computer graphics technology. Behind the sound and fury lurks Moore's Law.

Most observers agree that the graphics processing unit (GPU) is gaining on the central processing unit (CPU) as the single most important piece of silicon inside the PC. "When you start looking at a PC today, the (central) processor means less and less," according to Jim McGregor, an analyst at In-Stat. The GPU is simply becoming a better way for PC makers to differentiate in a landscape dominated … Read more