News Bits: Centrino 2 Pricing, Dell Offers Fast 320GB Hard Drive, All Macs Get LED Lighting

Centrino 2 pricing updated

Intel has finalized pricing for six of its upcoming notebook CPUs to be released with the Montevina platform in late June.

Model	Price (USD)(in 1,000 unit quantities)
X9100	$851
T9600	$530
P9500	$348
T9400	$316
P8600	$241
P9400	$209

In the third quarter of this year, Intel will introduce a quad-core Extreme QX9300 at $1,038 in 1,000 unit quantities. Quad-core notebooks are expected to remain niche products, and it will be about a year before they become mainstream.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

2.5-inch hard drive supply to run short in Q3

The global supply of 2.5-inch hard drives is expected to run short in the third quarter of this year due to the increased shipments of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and UMPCs. None of the 2.5-inch hard drive makers have expanded their manufacturing capabilities and may not be able to meet demand.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Dell first to offer 320GB, 7200RPM hard drive in XPS M1730

Dell is the first company to offer the new Seagate 320GB 7200RPM 2.5-inch hard drive in its XPS M1730 notebook. It is currently only offered in the US, although the drive should be offered in international markets soon enough.

The 320GB 7200RPM drive is $50 more than the 5400RPM variant.

Dell Product Page
NotebookReview.com review for the Dell XPS M1730

All MacBooks to use LED backlighting in 2009

According to a DigiTimes report, all Apple MacBooks will use LED backlit displays in 2009. Taiwan-based backlighting unit manufacturer Kenmos Technology will be Apple's main supplier for LED backlighting units. The company's shipments were up to 1.5 million units this year, a 5x increase compared to 2007.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Enermax introduces notebook cooler with 8-inch fan

(view large image)

Enermax today introduced a new notebook cooler featuring a gigantic 8-inch LED fan. It is made out of brushed aluminum and steel mesh, and has diamond-cut edges. The fan has adjustable speeds the cooler is ergonomically designed. Enermax claims the cooler can take away up to 22 degrees Celsius from a notebook's temperature.

It should be available soon for $70.

Enermax Product Page
Via (Engadget.com)

 

Oh wow, quad-core is going to be too expensive for me until next year.

 

You know that there are quad cores processors that are like 250 bucks right?

 

Not for laptops there aren't.

 

Hmm, when will the info for the Centrino 2 SFF chips be released?
Too bad they don't come until September......

 

great news,thx to Chaz

 

What, they had a 5x increase in shipments?! Or maybe a 5% increase...?

 

Quad-core notebooks are expected to remain niche products, and it will be about a year before they become mainstream.

just hope they don't just put em in 17 laptops as I'll get the first 15 that has one, well after ppl here hammer out the issues, see alienware m15x...

 

Where can you buy a quad core for a laptop for $250? thats a great price

 

What's up with putting LEDs on a fan that your going cover over with the notebook anyway? If you are going to use electricity to power LEDs, why not put them on an extender that can be positioned over the keyboard and actually perform some worthwhile function?

 

I'm fascinated by the fan.
The 320GB 7200RPM upgrade seems surprisingly reasonable.

 

Looks > Logic. You should know that by now (point in case: Alienware, Voodoo, Sony, Apple, etc...).

 

Haven't you heard? LEDs boost the speed of your setup by at least 2x per LED.

 

Check the article:

x = times

Read what Greg wrote:

 

but i wonder if this quad-core chip would be for 17" laptops only or is this one for "true" laptops which are actually portable, like 15'4 and 14 inch ones...

 

Nice prices for the CPU's.

 

I'm really interested in that cooler. The good thing is that if you don't like the LEDs, you can turn them off.
I hope it works well though.

 

As far as I can tell it isn't a desktop chip liker some Sager notebooks use, it is a standard sized laptop Intel CPU, though it may require a little more cooling then dual cores, though I see no reason as to why notebook sellers couldn't include them in 15.4" laptops at the least if they can provide enough cooling.

 

I know x = times, I was just surprised that Apple is expected to sell 5 times as many laptops as last year. That's a huge increase.

 

apple won't sell 5x the laptop's.. only there supplier will ship 5x more, some of those led could go to other companies as well. not to mention there will be more mac's with LED. not nessecerly more mac's just more that have LED. (there will be more mac's too but not 5x).

 

I think there's a typo on the Digitimes article. The $209 P9400 is actually a P8400.

Not really new information from what was provided a few months back.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10875

Otherwise, can't wait till Computex! =D

 

As noted, that was the BLU (backlighting unit) company, Kenmos Technology, that increased their shipments 5x compared to 2007, not Apple.

 

which isn't as surprising if Apple are replacing most of their current laptop screens with BLU screens.

 

While it is a laptop chip, for now I wouldn't expect to see them in anything less than 17" since they tend to be gaming rigs and this quad core chip requires more cooling.

 

It was rewritten a bit confusing here, but the article says Kenmos saw a 5x growth within the last year. I'm glad to see more LEDs hitting the market.

 

Exactly. The notebook quad-core that OP was referring to is the 45W TDP quad-core, not the current desktop-quad-in-laptop-casing kind.

 

hmm with some of the chips being a "T" designation i wonder if a few will end up working with current platforms, i doubt it but i would have figured they would all get the newer "P" designation

 

That cooler looks interesting

 

I'm pretty sure Montevina will use an entirely different chipset (Penryn uses the same chipset as Santa Rosa for example) so you cannot use these upcoming processers in current notebooks.

 

According to wikipedia a few SFF will still be released in June.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors

And by the way, Montevina has always been scheduled for release at the Taipei Computex which takes place June 3-7. There the major notebook manufacturers will show their Montevina based notebooks. So it should be early June, not late June, as the article states. Though availability or shipping delays will probably make it slip into July or something... as usual. But I hope for a positive surprise for once.

 

do those new processors also fit in santa rossa laptops ? I get my new Dell xps 1530 monday feel kinda odd that it will be already out dated in like 2 months

 

Yes it will fit, but it won't work Montevina processors use Socket B, Santa Rosa use Socket P.

 

Just saw on engadget that this new processor will use only 25W instead of the 35W santa rosa uses that quite a difference luckily thats the only difference i can see

# ore 2 Extreme QX9300 with 12MB L2 cache and TDP of 45W (unknown clock)
# Core 2 Extreme X9100 (3.06GHz, 6MB L2 cache and TDP of 44W)
# Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8GHz, 6MB and 35W)
# T9400 (2.53GHz, 6MB and 35W)
# P9500 (2.53GHz, 6MB and 25W)
# P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB and 25W)
# P8400 (2.26GHz, 3MB and 25W)

 

ZoMG.. i think that woudl totaly rice up my laptop.. girls will totaly dig me now ;P

 

Yeah digitimes and OP have typos on the graph, it's not the P9400 but P8400 (last entry).

 

Correcting #29 and #32:
The Montevina "platform" (aka "Centrino 2") will have the Cantiga chipset, start off with Socket P (478 pins) compatible with these Penryns. See page 6 at http://download.intel.com/products/roadmap/roadmap.pdf#nameddest=laptop_roadmap
It then will be refreshed to the LGA1160 ("Socket B"?) socket and employ the Nehalem when it comes out.
Santa Rosa was the Crestline chipset plus the Merom processors to start and then refeshed to the dieshrink Penryns. But no socket/pin change was required. Like the next "platform", Capella, which will use Nehalem and then its 32nm die-shrink, Westmere?, Westmore? or something, and no socket change.

Intel calls it the two step: new processor, new chipset, dieshrink processor, new chipset, new processor, new chipset, dieshrink processor, etc., where new chipsets work with both prior/subsequent processors.

 

Don't feel bad. These new processors are already outdated by Nehalem, coming later this year/early next year.

And Nehalem is outdated by Westmire, which will be out late 2009. And that's already outdated by Sandy Bridge. Which, did I mention, is also outdated?

The joy of "new" technology.

 

yeah but buying something and using it for a year before new technology come sis osmething diffrent then buying something and a week later have it outdated

 

I'm pretty sure no computer will last a year with everything in it being the latest technology. I give it 1 month tops.

 

hehe most stupid thing is i didnt even bought my laptop for gaming so why should i care its just the greedy gadget freak within you screaming "I WANT BETTER SPECS !!!"