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Hardware HP Shuns Intel Turbo Memory
Brandon Hill (Blog) - June 5, 2007 9:19 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 33 comment(s) - last by cly.. on Jun 11 at 5:33 PM
HP doesn't see the added value in adding Intel Turbo Memory to its notebooks

When Intel launched its Santa Rosa platform, many new features were added to improve notebook performance. Intel bumped the front side bus to 800MHz, added new Merom-based Core 2 Duo processors along with Intel Active Management Technology 2.5, the GMA X3100 integrated graphics solution and the Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN Draft-N network adapter.

The company also announced NAND flash-based Intel Turbo Memory which is aimed at improving performance and increasing battery life for notebooks in Windows Vista. Intel claims that Turbo Memory (which is available in 512MB or 1GB varieties) can provide up to 2x faster loading times with applications and a 20 percent decrease when booting Windows Vista.

Although Intel makes these claims for Turbo Memory performance, the results in the real world haven't been as promising. Hewlett-Packard has publicly stated that it hasn't been impressed with Turbo Memory performance and that its notebook computers will not carry the feature.

"We have done quite a bit of research on this [to see] whether there is any true value for our customers, rather than taking what is available and putting it in," said HP's Steven Gales to ZDNET UK. "We added 1GB of RAM and saw a much higher improvement in performance compared to using any of the ReadyBoost or Robson technology. If you have enough system RAM in the system already, ReadyBoost doesn't give you a lot."

HP also took issue with the fact that the use of Turbo Memory onboard a notebook locks out the customer from adding a ReadyBoost compliant Secure Digital card or USB thumb drive to improve system performance.

"A customer can have more flexibility with an SD card or USB key because they can choose for themselves (when to add it and) pick the price point at which they want to add that technology. We're not forcing them into paying X and being locked into 512MB," Gales continued.

Finally, HP showed concern over the price of the Turbo Memory module. HP points out that Intel charges around $50 for the 1GB module. On the other hand, a consumer could pick up a 2GB Secure Digital card for around $20 and get roughly the same performance boost in Windows Vista.

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HP is Wrong
By TomZ on 6/5/07, Rating: 0
RE: HP is Wrong
By A5 on 6/5/2007 9:40:57 AM , Rating: 5
Every objective test I've seen of the Robson technology agrees with HP's assessment - boot times improve by a few seconds if at all.


RE: HP is Wrong
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 6/5/2007 9:43:44 AM , Rating: 5
AnandTech performance results concur:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc...


RE: HP is Wrong
By TomZ on 6/5/07, Rating: 0
RE: HP is Wrong
By defter on 6/5/2007 10:04:08 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
Intel's previous guidance showed much larger savings than "zero."


You mean Intel's marketing material showed much larger savings than "zero"?


RE: HP is Wrong
By cly on 6/11/2007 5:33:09 PM , Rating: 2
I bet they will see the difference when the laptop's harddisk get older because the time saving is mainly recovered from the latency of harddisk reading mechanism.


RE: HP is Wrong
By kknd1967 on 6/6/2007 2:36:09 AM , Rating: 2
You might want to name a few "objective" and "independent" sources, in addition to Anandtech. If you check HKEPC, the gain of Turbo Memory is there, sometimes marginal but never as negative as Anandtech's result.


RE: HP is Wrong
By Nehemoth on 6/5/2007 9:58:14 AM , Rating: 2
Where to me you are wrong, Thank you HP for bear in mind the customers.


RE: HP is Wrong
By nayy on 6/5/2007 10:07:22 AM , Rating: 2
How dare they to despise an overprice technology with no real added value for the costumer. Shame on them!
/Sarcasm

HP is more about quality and value than being on the bleeding edge of technology. I’m sure that when technology is ready and gives a significant performance advantage in relation to the cost, they will include it, until then it just doesn’t match their product strategy.


RE: HP is Wrong
By Spivonious on 6/5/2007 10:21:10 AM , Rating: 2
If HP is about quality and value, then why do they include all the crappy software on their new PCs? It takes almost a full day just to track it all down and remove it.

Don't put them on a pedestal; they're just like every other PC company.


RE: HP is Wrong
By xti on 6/5/2007 10:51:02 AM , Rating: 4
point to a large OEM that gives you just the barebones OS?


RE: HP is Wrong
By hubajube on 6/5/2007 12:01:10 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
point to a large OEM that gives you just the barebones OS?
Acer. I bought a laptop for myself and ordered one for a customer. Neither had any bloatware (besides the OS). They were so clean, I didn't even reload them.


RE: HP is Wrong
By mindless1 on 6/6/2007 8:37:15 PM , Rating: 2
Look again, last Acer I bought (less than a year ago) had it's share of bloat but at least not Symantec or McAfee magnitude bloat.


RE: HP is Wrong
By michael2k on 6/5/2007 3:53:19 PM , Rating: 2
Apple
HP on their business machines


RE: HP is Wrong
By psedog on 6/7/2007 11:05:29 AM , Rating: 2
This a dell that only comes with DOS. That's pretty bare to me.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx...


RE: HP is Wrong
By TimberJon on 6/5/2007 11:26:48 AM , Rating: 1
Worse. Some of that software is embedded good, and the system is welded shut so that it doesnt like hardware add-ons. Flips out with any changes.

When people call me up for tech consulting or to ask if I can fix their computer, and they tell me its a compaq or HP, i shudder and whistle at them. shame shame for falling for their marketing garbage! retail store computer deals arent deals, their curses.


RE: HP is Wrong
By Samus on 6/5/2007 3:15:56 PM , Rating: 2
They don't include all that 'crappy software' on ANY of their business machines.

In fact, every HP business PC I've ever seen comes cleaner than anyone elses, especially IBM's with all that ThinkVantage crap and Dell's with all that Dell Support Tool crap.

So get your facts straight. Obviously if you walk into a Best Buy, any computer you buy will have a ton of crap pre-installed, because it's home-consumer-oriented.

Try ordering a Business PC from HP Business and you'll see what I mean.


RE: HP is Wrong
By darkpaw on 6/5/2007 4:27:34 PM , Rating: 2
There has always been a huge difference between HPs consumer and business PC's. Used to be Pavillion for consumer and Vectra for business, don't know if they still use those lines as I'm not in the PC business anymore.

Back when I did a lot of business in this area, I wouldn't sell a pavillion to my worst enemy, but highly recommend a Vectra.

Still do have a scar on my right hand from a Vectra desktop though, those damn 486 desktop cases had some sharp edges in them. Wish I woulda known what workman's comp was working part time for a repair shop in high school, coulda gotten my hand fixed before it scarred.


RE: HP is Wrong
By IcY18 on 6/5/2007 10:11:39 AM , Rating: 3
"Also, HP, why not offer it to your customers and let them decide if it is a worthwhile option? Why do you decide for all your customers that decreasing boost time is not worth $50? "

Well because just about every notebook that is sold is not optioned for or bought online to the customer's specific wants. More often than not you go to the local computer store and the one you want includes many things you don't need or want and typically you are forced to buy those other things so you can get the other more important things.

I'm glad hp took the time to do the research to find out the real value of this which in the end benefits us.


RE: HP is Wrong
By raven3x7 on 6/5/2007 11:49:37 AM , Rating: 1
Im guessing you represent Intel marketing


RE: HP is Wrong
By raven3x7 on 6/5/2007 11:50:23 AM , Rating: 2
Please ignore my previous post