Toshiba Announces AMD Puma-Based Satellite Laptops

Toshiba Announces AMD Puma-Based Satellite Laptops

http://laptoping.com/toshiba-satellite-p300d-a300d-m300d-u400d-l300d-l350d-amd-puma.html

Original source is businesswire, but the link is broken right now.

This marks one of the first large scale launches by a top tier maker.

Now the wait until they become visible on Toshibadirect.com

 

New 13.3" model is now available at Best Buy:
LINK

 

I'm not sure if it's officially "Puma" with the RM-70 processor and 3100 graphic chipset, but I got one from Circuit City today - I got the P305D and have spent the evening moving my stuff over. It seems to be quite a workhorse. I got it to replace a 1.8Ghz Core 2 duo desktop I built (going to the laptop to reduce the wires, now that we have a little one crawling around the house!).

I am actually very happy with the laptop. Vista runs well (I get a 3.5 score on the "experience index") and I have been nicely surprised by the power and performance during my normal stuff - web browsing, MS office and a little website editing.

It got a Wprime score in the 39.9 second range and the vista experience index breaks down like this:
Processor 4.8
Memory 5.9
Graphics 3.5
Gaming Graphics 3.7
Hard Disk 4.8

All that said, this computer will probably never play anything more demanding than the latest "Dora" game.

I am impressed with the fit + finish, and the performance is better than any $799 17" laptop has a right to be IMO.

 

'grats...

Enjoy the new toy.


T

 

You may be right. My understanding that the main "Puma" ingredient is the M780G chipset with ATI Radeon HD3000 series graphics. I'll post my source once I relocate it.

Congrats on your new "toy".

 

Well, Toshiba datasheet for that particular model he mentions, says it has an AMD M780V chipset, and AMD Radeon 3100 gfx chip.

Linkage to spec sheet


T

 

Toshiba is using the budget version of the Puma platform on all of their systems. Any of the new Sempron(SL), Athlon X2(QL) and the the Turions(RM & ZM) belong to the Griffin series and have the same benefits as the Turion Ultra's. The only difference being that they have cut down L2 cache's and in the case of the athlon X2's lack AMD-v and have only 2 power states instead of 3.

 

I have watched the CPU operating frequency jump around from 2000 to 1000, via use of the multiplier. Playing HD .mov files (h.264) works great - and that's important because it's how all my home movies are stored. I haven't played a DVD yet, but I'm sure it's fine.

As far as I can tell, the laptop has one fan. The fan is quietly running all the time, and then when the processor or GPU is under high usage, it kicks on to a higher speed. Still not too loud, but definitely puts out a lot of air.

This is my first computer with Vista, so I'm comparing it to all my other PCs, with XP. It seems quick, once I got everything tweaked for a little more snappiness and less fade in and slide out. I am sure the 3 Gigs of memory and high FSB helps.

This model was cheaper than the "old" model with the TL-60 was, and this one had the updated graphics card and the new processor. Not a bad buy in my opinion. As you can see by the spec sheet above, the amount of crapware they include on the intial install is extreme, but I bet you have that with all manufacturers.

 

Sailorman,

I am like you--really liking this lappie. I have a question for you. Did you buy your extended warranty from circuit city or did you go through toshiba? Which option would be best?

cheers
Hawkeen

 

I'm not too keen on extended warranties - so I didn't get one. It comes with a 1-year warranty from Toshiba. I doubt it will ever be used as a portable computer (will be sitting on my desk in the den instead), so I figured it would be money wasted for me.

BUT, if you're going to use it as a portable computer, an extended warranty might be worth it, depending how hard you are on it. If so, check to see if Circuit city will just replace it if you start to have problems. Toshiba will make you send it in to them I'm sure.