News Bits: Sager NP6650 Introduced, NVidia GeForce 8 Series Delay, Dell Offering Theft Protection

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Sager introduces $599 NP6650 notebook

Sager has introduced their latest budget notebook, the NP6650. It features a 15.4&quot; widescreen display and Intel processors. It has solid build quality and is targeted at home and business users. Specifications are as follows:

• Intel Processors - Celeron M 430, Core 2 Duo T5500/T5600/T7200
• DDR2-667 Dual-Channel RAM (2GB max.)
• SATA hard drives
• Combo DVD/CDRW drive (DVDRW opt.)
• 15.4-inch WXGA glossy display
• VIA VN896 CHROME 9HC video (up to 256MB shared memory)
• Built-in 1.3MP webcam
• 4-in-1 memory card reader
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Internal 802.11b/g wireless
• ExpressCard/54 slot
• Windows XP Home/Professiona or Vista (Vista Basic standard)
• 6-cell battery
• 5.73lbs
• 14.2&quot; (w) x 10.5&quot; (d) x 1~1.3&quot; (h)
• 1-year warranty

The introduction of the NP6650 makes Sager a prime competitor with mainstream brands that offer budget machines.

(view large image)

Link to product (Sagernotebook.com)

Asustek to separate notebook business under Asusalpha Computer

Asus is planning to spin off its own-brand notebooks to its wholly-owned subsidiary Asusalpha Computer. Taiwan-based notebook makers believe that the move could weaken Asusalpha's competitiveness in the OEM market. Dell has demanded that Asus complete the spinoff by Q1 2008 or future orders from them will be jeopardized.

Asus' sales of their own-brand notebooks have increased considerably over the past two years; the company's OEM clients have switched notebook orders to other OEMs as a result.

Read More (DigiTimes)

Dell offers complimentary notebook theft protection on select notebooks

Dell is the world's first notebook brand to offer a complimentary one-year subscription to theft protection service on select notebooks. Customers of Dell's XPS notebook models (M1210, M1710, M2010) will get the one-year subscription at no cost.

According to the FBI, 97 percent of stolen notebooks are never recovered. Computrace LoJack, when activated, recovers three out of four stolen notebooks.

More information on Dell XPS notebooks

More information on Computrace LoJack

Possible delay of Nvidia GeForce 8 series mobile chips

The Inquirer is reporting that although the April 17th launch date is not changed, the chips Nvidia does use in its launch of the GeForce 8 series mobile chips may have issues. The 2D modes are not clocked as low as they should be; it should be significantly lower than the 3D. Lower clocks save battery power and reduces heat output. However, the issues these chips may be having include a glitch, which prevents the chips from clocking the 2D mode down lower than the 3D, which results in a larger power consumption. Buyer beware - make sure the machine(s) you are buying do not have these issues.

Read More (The Inquirer)

 

 

The Sager is nice, the only thing that turns me off is the Unichrome Graphics, I would have rather had a GMA 950 or preferably ATI or Nvidia integrated solution.

 

I agree with Usapatriot there...

About the 8 series, it is very pity but there is plenty of time to solve this problem. Santa Rosa (which will support DX 10) will come out at mid May. So they have 1.5 months to solve a minor glitch. I would say to nVidia: take your time and make sure that the 8 Go series is finished simultaneosly with Santa Rosa.

 

Even if nVidia does not repair this 'glitch' it should be warranted for repairs/replacements if someone does purchase it as part of a laptop. In plain words, it's no big deal to the consumer, minus the hassle of dealing with RMAs and a short absence of laptop.

It's still quite astonishing that many people just several months ago never anticipated that DX10 GPUs would ever be available for laptops until late '07 or even as late as '08. Oh were they so wrong!

 

It's actually a bigger deal, because vendors aren't bound to replacing parts with brand new stuff. It's a pain to deal with...I couldn't live without my notebook for more than a day.

 

Just to help out Donald (Paladin44) and Powernotebook.com...

That Sager NP6650 is available from powernotebooks.com for $499.55. It's been available for a few days now on there site, and Donald even made a small blip over a week ago about it on the Sager Clevo Forum...

Powernotebooks Homepage: http://www.powernotebooks.com

Direct Link: http://powernotebooks.com/specs/Sager/6650specs.php

 

Wow, good move Dell! I like the idea of a free one year of LoJack if I order an expensive XPS notebook.

 

is the underclocking of the G8 an actual hardware problem, or just a software glitch in the bios that can be updated later?

 

I was trying to figure that out myself, but there's not enough info to make a solid conclusion. Based on the info in the article, I would say it sounds more like a physical problem. A BIOS upgrade for the card may fix it. Hopefully we'll find out more before April 17th.

 

Wow!!! It's really cheap; I configured one with the best specs (2gb ram, T7200, 200gb hard drive, etc.) and compared it to similar systems from dell and hp, and the NP6650 is the cheapest.

 

Makes an awesome workstation class notebook for the price / performance.

 

Asus spinning off to "Asusalpha" sounds like a really horrible idea. Asus should tell Dell to run their own company and not bow down to those demands. If Asus doesn't then we could see them turn into Rubbermaid like when Walmart was having their way with them.

The Nvidia 8 series cards...well, considering all the problems I had with my brand new 6800 two years ago I would avoid the 8 series for a few months. The intial quality of these things aren't very good. They kick them right out the door before actually finishing them. Yeah people "can" RMA systems IF they figure out how to understand and convince the rep on the other end of the phone line that the graphics card is at fault.

 

Everyone expected low to midrange DX10 parts with Santa Rosa. No one expects go8800 parts. Even Intel has a DX10 integrated solution. That said, the DX10 nvidia drivers are not up to snuff yet, and that will cause vendors serious 2nd thoughts about choosing Nvidia over AMD/ATI.

Nvidia's bug is huge if it gives AMD/ATI the window to lock down all of the initial santa rosa discrete chipset wins. Just like they did with the initial sonoma wins.

The other way to look at it is this...Vista is a bust. Driver support bites. The OS is slower for gamers than XP, and their are no good DX10-only games on the horizon for this year. You can afford to wait 18 months to worry about DX10 and second gen santa rosa lappies will be out then.

 

Eh, isn't April 17th also the date when Nvidia launches the other mid-range desktop graphics cards, like 8600GS/GTS and 8900GS/GT ?

 

I agree with you here - even if the 8-Go series comes out with praise and positive reviews, it is analogous to buying cars. I wouldn't go with the first year's models with the mentality that they will quickly be improved upon.

 

I'm not an expert in IC design by any means, but it sounds like a multiplexer on the chip isn't working right (a small logic device that chooses any one of several inputs as it's output). If the circuit that chooses the clock speed (probably a mux I guess) isn't a hardwired logic device (and can be adjusted) a BIOS fix would probably do it. If it's actually a hardware problem, then what the heck were they thinking!

 

I think there is an internal part in the G80 which is shared between the 2D and 3D parts and underclocking it would cause trouble...
No, and nVidia is not stupid [not that much] so I think the problem is related to the design idea behind that thing.And if this is right, ATI will surely get the lead in mobile GPU's with it's R600.

 

Can that VIA run Aero? Smoothly?

 

Yes.

No.

From VIA's website:
- Integrated VIA Chrome9™ IGP
- DirectX® 9.0 engine
- Pixel Shader 2.0
- Dual pixel pipelines
- 128-bit 2D/3D engine
- 200MHz engine clock speed

While it technically meets the requirements for Aero Glass, the anemic 400MPixel output isn't going to make it even remotely speed. To put that in perspective, that's roughly the same throughput as you could expect from a geForce or Radeon. No, I didn't leave out any numbers - I mean the original geForce and Radeon cards.

Edit - My bad, I quoted the desktop specs; mobile variant is even worse. Fixed now.

 

That Sager sure looks nice as a low-cost workstation notebook.

And kudos to Dell for making the anti-theft an included feature for their XPS line.