Anyone snag a notebook with the 2nd gen Centrino (Dothan CPU / Alviso chipset)?

Anyone play around with these yet? Thoughts?

Is that the 855GME chipset?

I have an Asus W3V and I'm pretty sure it's a 2nd Gen Centrino (DDR2, SATA, Dothan, etc.), although I've never actually seen the word Alviso mentioned anywhere around it. Since Asus has been slow to get this on their US website, and their global website is vague on specs, I'll just post a link to the place where I purchased it:

www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=107

Hopefully I don't get banned for this little plug , but if I had a better link, I'd use that instead. Anyway, as for the notebook, I love it! It's light, incredibly fast, has a very high quality of fit and finish, and it's just the right size for me. I wanted a subnotebook at first, but then I took up playing Counterstrike: Source and knew I needed something with more power. The X600 in the W3V isn't necessarily top of the line, it's about as fast as an OCed 9700Pro, but in a 14" midnotebook it's the best you can get. Combined with the Dothan 750 and the DDR2, I can play CS:S at full resolution (1280x768) and full detail (no AA or AF though ) with FPS averaging in the 50s-60s.

I've only had it for a few weeks and I haven't really had time to put it through all its paces, like testing the battery life. (CS is an addiction, ok?) Some drawbacks I have noticed so far are the lack of any kind of physical volume control; though the built in mic port is useful and the speakers ok, I'd like to be able to adjust my volume on the fly. Another major issue is heat. I'm not sure if it's the graphics, the chipset, or the processor doing most of the damage, but I'm willing to bet it's compounded by the fact that they're all crammed into a tiny corner with one blower, cruelly pushing hot air over your mouse hand, and no discernable intake vents. Maybe in a larger notebook this would be less of an problem, but hopefully it's not endemic to the new generation of Centrinos.

Bottom line: Great notebook, very good quality, hopefully a sign of good things to come (except for the heat)

dothan is not the second generation centrino! sonoma is...


the dotan processor is just an improvement or major stepping over bianas combined with a larger cache...

the sonoma has 533 fsb and uses the mobile 915 alviso chipset with low voltage dual channel DDR2 ram and pci express graphics.

That makes sense, I thought the new chipset was for use with Sonoma, but I didn't know the name/number of the chipset.

ozzlo said:

dothan is not the second generation centrino! sonoma is...


the dotan processor is just an improvement or major stepping over bianas combined with a larger cache...

the sonoma has 533 fsb and uses the mobile 915 alviso chipset with low voltage dual channel DDR2 ram and pci express graphics.

Click to expand...

You are correct sir!

I picked up an Inspiron 6000 for the folks and it seems to be quite a nice performer. The Sonoma platform is definatly a smooth platform, and one which when I get one for myself would really like to have.

The graphics Intel 900 Extreme or some such is definatly not gaming graphics, but it is a lot better and smoother then the extreme II you will see on the 855 platform. Dual Channel DDR2, Sata, Pci Express, etc, it is a lot smoother with a Dothan at 533 Mhz FSB instead of Bianas/Dothan at 400Mhz.

If I'm correct no only the pci express sata hard disk capability also supported. And i got my hands into atoshiba model and basically what I did is played need 4 speed 8 underground verion for 5 hours cause the machien is very great and in that vga card I saw some good performance in the game. So couldn't help it out. BY the way they support wireless lan g generation. If i'm correct it cam ewith 1mb cache but 2mb ones are also avaible.

I bouth one of these, an Acer C314 ( http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/default.asp?newsID=294 ) and it uses a Pentium M760, with the 533 mhz fsb, ddram2 in dual channel mode with a 100gb 5400rpm HD and a GFgo6200... All i can say is that it's a fas machine... Mine made the SuperPi test 2000000 digits in 1min and 36s with somethings turned on (the review made 1'31''), my mate pIV 3,0ghz mad in 2min01sec... Off course its a simple test and i haven't tested it fully yet... but sounds preety good for a laptop... I've seen a pM 1,73 ghz (sonoma) bet a pm2,0ghz non sonoma in the super pi test... The PM does more work per clock, and in the sonoma it does even more... This plataform has really punched more power into the centrino based laptops.... Maybe it was an answer to amd...

my sonoma acer comes in tomorrow with a 1.6ghz 400fsb proc, pin mod here i come

Wow

Xenocide said:

my sonoma acer comes in tomorrow with a 1.6ghz 400fsb proc, pin mod here i come

Click to expand...

Wow yeah!!! I saw that model, nicely strategically proptly to be overclocked thanks to acer... A sonoma plataform with a 1.6 processor at 400 fsb, ready to become a 2ghz he he.... That note uses the intel integrated graphics doesn't??? Anyway, i just did not buy it becouse i didn't want to mess with my note and run the risk of need to shipp it overseas to repair... But is USA the support and pieces are easier to find....
Congratulations, you are the new proprietary of a cheappo horse power!!! I suggest buying 2x1gb ddr2 of the fastest you can and replace those 512, configure the windows to keep the system files in the ram and try to mess with the page file... speed demon coming he he