News Bits: Averatec 4100 & 1000 Info, SeaGate Fast HD, Hard Drive Versus Battery Performance Article

New Averatec 1000 Ultraportableand 4000 Series Specs, Detailed Information and Pricing

Many people are anxiously awaiting the release of the 1000 series ultraportable notebook from Averatec and the 4000 series 13" screen series. The Averatec 4100 will include the new AMD Turion 64 processor. Interesting to note is that the Averatec 4100 with an AMD 64 is about $100 cheaper than the Averatec 4200 with a Pentium M 730 processor.

Averatec 4200 Specs

• Intel Pentium M 730 Processor (1.6GHz) or Pentium M 740 (1.73GHz)
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• 2 MB of System Cache
• Built-in Multi-Format DVD +/- Burner
• 80 GB HD and 512 MD DDR
• Only 1.3" and 4.7 lbs Light.
• 4-in-1 Media Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)
• Intel Wireless Pro 2200BG (802.11g)
• 3 High Speed USB 2.0 Ports
• Toll Free 24/7 Tech Support

Averatec 4200 Overview

The colorful, Averatec 4200 Series notebook is the perfect notebook solution for any user, featuring Intel Centrino Mobile Technology. These ultra portable notebooks feature an Intel Pentium M Processor and are equipped with an array of multimedia features such as a multi-format DVD burner, 4-in-1 media reader and IEEE 1394 FireWire. At a slim 1" thin and around 4 lbs light, the 4200 Series package is complete with 512 MB of memory and 80 GB of hard drive capacity.

Intel Centrino Mobile Technology enables greater battery life for increased effi ciency. Along with built-in Wi-Fi 802.11g technology, experience greater speed, improved reach and added security - best suited for home, business or mobile use.

PDF Marketing Flyer: http://www.retailaccess.com/averatec/pdf/4200%20Sell%20Sheet%20-%20Centrino.pdf

Buy.com Averatec 4200 Product Link Page: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10410448&loc=101&hdwt=22076&sp=2

Averatec 4100 Specs

• AMD Turion 64 MT-30 Processor (1.6GHz)
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• 2 MB of System Cache
• Built-in Multi-Format DVD +/- Burner
• 80 GB HD and 512 MD DDR
• Only 1.3" and 4.7 lbs Light.
• 4-in-1 Media Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)
• 802.11g Wireless LAN
• 3 High Speed USB 2.0 Ports
• Toll Free 24/7 Tech Support
• Price $1,082.99 (at Buy.com)

Averatec 4100 Overview

The colorful, Averatec 4100 Series notebook is the perfect notebook solution for any
user, featuring an AMD Turion 64 Mobile processor, with the ability to support 64-bit applications. These ultra light notebooks are equipped with an array of multimedia
features such as a multi-format DVD burner, 4-in-1 media reader and IEEE 1394 FireWire. At a slim 1" thin and around 4 lbs light, the 4100 Series package is complete with 512 MB of memory and 80 GB of hard drive capacity. Uniquely optimized for power efficiency in today's thin and light notebooks, AMD Turion 64 mobiletechnology enables longer battery life while delivering superior AMD64 performance.

PDF Marketing Flyer: http://www.retailaccess.com/averatec/pdf/4100%20Sell%20Sheet.pdf

Buy.com Aveatec 4100 Product Link Page: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10410447&loc=101&hdwt=22076&sp=2

Averatec 1000 (1050) Specs:

• Intel Pentium M 733 Processor (1.1GHz)
• Microsoft Windows XP Home or Pro
• 2 MB of System Cache
• Built-in DVD+CD-RW Burner
• 80 GB HD and 512 MD DDR
• Only 1.3" and 3.6 lbs Light.
• 4-in-1 Media Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)
• Intel Wireless Pro 2200BG (802.11g)
• 3 High Speed USB 2.0 Ports
• Toll Free 24/7 Tech Support
• Price: $1,278.99 (at Buy.com)

Averatec 1050 Overview

The feather light, Averatec 1000 Series notebook is an ideal notebook solution for the
business traveler and students, featuring Intel Centrino Mobile Technology. These
colorful notebooks feature an Intel Pentium M Processor and are equipped with an
array of multimedia features such as a DVD+CD-RW burner, 4-in-1 media reader and IEEE 1394 FireWire. At a slim 1" thin and about 3 lbs light, the 1000 Series package is complete with 512 MB of memory and 80 GB of hard drive capacity.

Intel Centrino Mobile Technology enables greater battery life for increased efficiency. Along with built-in Wi-Fi 802.11g technology, experience greater speed, improved reach and added security best suited for home, business or mobile use.

PDF Marketing Flyer: http://www.retailaccess.com/averatec/pdf/1000%20Sell%20Sheet%20-%20Centrino.pdf

Buy.com Averatec 1050 Product Link Page: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10410446&loc=101&hdwt=22076&sp=2

SeaGate 100GB 7200PRM and 120GB Hard Drive

Last week Hitachi announced the release of the first 100GB 7200RPM notebook drive. It seems that SeaGate is hot on the tail of Hitachi because yesterday SeaGate made the announcement that they have an equivalent hard drive. And to add to that they also have released a 120GB notebook hard drive that spins at 5400RPM. That's great speed for such a large hard drive.

More: http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,1121,2695,00.html

4200RPM Versus 5400RPM Hard Drive Battery Life Drain Article

We see and hear a lot of debate about how much the RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) performance affects battery life of your notebook. You want a faster spinning hard drive so that access time to data being read is very fast and you're waiting less time. But people assume the trade off is that your battery will have to supply more power for this performance boost. But is that true or not? Barry Doyle takes a look at this point in a recent article at TabletPCReviewSpot.com:

More: http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/default.asp?newsID=240

Fujitsu S Series Refreshed Line Released in Asia

We're looking forward to the refresh of the S series of Fujitsu LifeBook notebooks, but the continent of Asia gets all new Fujitsu stuff first. As Fujitsu is a Japanese company, this is of course expected. The new notebooks include the Fujitsu S6240, S7021 and S7020.

Fujitsu LifeBook S6240

CNET Asia reports:

So what additional features has Fujitsu included in the new S-series generation? We see flash card support (SD/MS/MS PRO) and multimedia buttons for CD/DVD playback on the S6240 and the S7021, which students will surely welcome. While the S7021 has ExpressCard support, the S6240, though, seems to have gotten more upgrades with the inclusion of a mini S-video out, fingerprint reader and two colors--a black and a silver sheen. The more powerful black model boasts a SuperFine reflective screen and multi-format DVD burner. The S7020 remains targeted strictly at the corporate market and as such, there's no card reader or multimedia buttons. However, improvements are seen in a mini S-video out and an ExpressCard/34/54 slot which can support devices such as TV tuners and IEEE1394b adapters.

More: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001749,39230022,00.htm

Acer Aspire 5000 with AMD Turion 64 Available

The Aspire 5000 series notebook from Acer is now available in the U.S., this notebook is the first to be widely available from a major manufacturer selling here in the USA. Prices start at round $1,200:

 

WoW ... that has to be the cheapest ultra portable ever (averatec 1000).

I guess I'll wanna fiddle with this little thing once the retail stores stock up on it. I bet this is gonna hurt the ultra portable vendors who have always priced quite above $1500 with out a prob. Now this some $500 cheaper product might sway the low budget extreme mobility users towards it. I sure want to see this for myself, I wanna know how much quality you loose when you save that much $.

But I guess my choice for an ultra portable in 3 months still rests between fujitsu and IBM. [ ]

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 1GB Dual 400MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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"Obviously if the drive is manufactured by Hitachi and features ABLE technology, battery drain should not be an issue. Although at this time we have not researched other hard disk manufacturers, it is a sure bet that they will follow suit with technologies similiar to Hitachi's ABLE." - from the article on hard drive versus battery performance

i think it is intuitively obvious that all drives have states, and in different states they will consume different loads of power.

the article fails to reveal any useful data of how the power used by hard drives of varying speeds (or the same speed across different vendors) affects battery life across different dimensions of application use.

unless this is a multi-part series and you intend to provide the data, you should have titled it: "hitachi adds extra low power state to hard drives" or something more fitting.

 

The Averatec 4100 seems to be a very good deal: with AMD Turion 64 of the higher-end "MT" CPU 1.6GHz, "1MB" L2 Cache and costs about $1050 ($100 less than the similarly configured 4200 series with P-M 1.6GHz, 533 MHz FSB).

Does anyone know about the details of the FSB of this Turion64 and the DDR speed?
FSB => 533 MHZ (like sonoma) or higher?
DDR => DDR2 with 533MHz or DDR1 with 400/333 MHz?

The L2 Cache is only half of the 90nm P-M processors!

Thanks

 

The Turion 64 has a 800MHz Hypertransport link (as with most Athlon 64 and Opteron processors), an onboard Memory Controller for DRR400 Memory, Socket 754 compatablity, MMX, Extended 3Dnow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64 (x86-64), Power Now! (Cool n'quiet) and NX Bit support and 128kb Level 1 Cache. Some models have a 512kb Level 2 cache (Specifally the MT-32 and ML-32 models)

 

How does the Turion compare to the Pentium M in terms of processing power and battery life?

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Staples at US is now selling the Averatec 4255 (P-M 1.6GHz) for $999 + TAX ($1199 - $100 (instant) - $100 (mail in)). The build quality is really good.

I am waiting for the Averatec 4155 of AMD Turion 64; its list price is about $100 less than the above 4255 model with better 64 bit processor and supposedly better processing speed.

I can't wait to see a full comparison review of these two models : 4255 vs 4155 - the best systems to compare head to head between Pentium M (sonoma) and Turion64. The two models have exactly the same DDR RAM, 80GB HD and built by the same company, the ultimate speed difference can be easily controlled by the CPUs and the chipsets. Also, the two CPUs in 4255 and 4155 are clocked at 1.6GHz.

 

That's terrific...$100 less!...Hmmm..I might have to check this out.

------------------------------
Http://www.zv6000forums.com

For all zv6k/r4k dialogue.

 

I just purchased the Averatec 4265 and have been pleased with it so far (just few hours playing with it), but just now I read the user manual and it says the battery is only good for 300 charges. I'm a student so I use and charge my laptop everyday. So in 300 days I'll have to buy a new battery for this laptop and the warranty only covers the batter for 6 months(180 days). I called Averatec's customer service and they confirmed this. I'm returning mine tomorrow. I'm not going to buy a new battery every year. That's ridiculous.

 

I'm pretty sure a regular battery lasts about 300-500 charges...

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by gmumford

 

I've had my laptop for 2 and half years and my battery doesn't need to be replaced. I just recalibrate it every few months and it's the same as when I first bought it.

 

How do you recalibrate your battery?

 

300 cycles does not mean 300 days.

300 cycle is about 1 year of complete charging and discharging. After this time, your battery will be at approximately 85% efficacy, in most cases.

Averatec warranties batteries for 6 months, according to their website.

I don't see anything to worry about.