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Acer Aspire 9920G   (Source: Notebook Italia)

Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Xi 2428  (Source: Notebook Italia)

Sony VAIO CR31S / D  (Source: Notebook Italia)
Notebook Italia spills the beans on a slew of new "Penryn" notebooks

Intel's 45nm Penryn-based desktop and server processors were released to an eager audience a few months ago. January 6 is the big day for Intel's Penryn-based notebook processors and it appears that the Santa Clara-based company won't disappoint.

As reported by DailyTech in early December, the Penryn notebooks to be launched in January will consist of the Core 2 Duo T8100, T8300, T9300, T9500 and Core 2 Xtreme X9000. Frequencies for the processor range from 2.1GHz on the T8100 on up to 2.8GHz on the X9000.

Even though Intel's official announcement won't come until January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), notebook manufacturers are already leaking details for their upcoming Penryn-based notebooks. Notebook Italia has scored information on new Penryn notebooks from Acer, Fujitsu and Sony.

Acer will launch no less than eight new Penryn-based notebooks in January ranging from the 12.1" Aspire 2920 with a Core 2 Duo T8300 processor and 320GB HDD to the massive 20.1" Aspire 9920G with a WXSGA+ screen resolution, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPU, Core 2 Duo T8100 processor and 500GB of storage space (250GB x 2). Acer also has a full range of notebooks in between with screen sizes of 14.1", 15.4" and 17.1".

Fujitsu has two new Penryn notebooks on deck. The first is the Amilo Pi 2550 which features a Core 2 Duo T8300 processor, 2GB of DDR2 memory, 15.4" WXGA screen, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 GPU and a 240GB HDD. The second notebook is the Amilo Xi 2428 which ups the ante with a Core 2 Duo T9300, 2GB of DDR2 memory, 15.4" WXGA screen, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS GPU and a 250GB HDD.

Not to be left out, Sony is unleashing five new VAIO models ranging from the 13.3" VAIO SZ71XN/C to the 17.1" VAIO AR61ZU. The VAIO SZ71XN/C comes up to bat with a T8100 processor, WXGA screen resolution, Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics and a 200GB HDD. The VAIO AR61ZU commands your attention with a T8300 graphics processor, 3GB of DDR2 memory, WUXGA screen resolution, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor, 500GB of storage space (250GB x 2) and a Blu-ray/DL DVD burner.

The above notebooks are just the first wave of new Penryn-announcements. Expect a bevy of new announcements at the start of CES from manufacturers including HP/Compaq, Dell and Asus.

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3GB in a lappy?
By Myrandex on 12/30/2007 11:03:06 AM , Rating: 2
That AR61ZU either has 4 memory slots (unlikely) or is running 1 x 2GB and 1 x 1GB therefore single channel mode (yuck). Just make it 4GB and say hello to x64 edition.




RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By StevoLincolnite on 12/30/2007 11:19:49 AM , Rating: 1
"Aspire 9920G" - I think I am in love.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By Cr0nJ0b on 12/30/2007 12:25:17 PM , Rating: 2
Does Acer make good (reliable) laptops? I'm sure they have a following somewhere, but I've never tracked them...I always assumed that they were tier 2 at best...but that really is a nicely styled system.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By lumbergeek on 12/30/2007 1:44:16 PM , Rating: 3
Yes, they do. I'd take an Acer over a Sony any day of the week.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By therealnickdanger on 1/2/2008 11:20:59 AM , Rating: 2
Acer is very good, but I'd buy any brand that has great features for a great price. They are all basically the same on the inside, you just choose who you want to build it... or build it yourself.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By ImmortalZ on 12/30/07, Rating: 0
RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By mxnerd on 12/31/2007 2:43:15 AM , Rating: 3
Acer is Acer, COMPAL is COMPAL. They are completely different companies, no relationship at all.

Besides, Quanta, not COMPAL, is the world's biggest OEM laptop manufacturer.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By Samus on 12/31/2007 8:42:42 AM , Rating: 2
Acer has always had decent laptops, but anything they offer for under $600 has always been kind of cheap feeling (Aspire 3000, for example.) However, their Travelmate notebooks are top notch, comparable to a Thinkpad in terms of a good business machine.

And like Dell and IBM, Acer laptops are easy to service with an abundant amount of support and supplies around the web. HP/Compaq have become very difficult to service since they merged, however, at least HP adopted compaq's 'spare' part number system.

Sony's VAIO's are complete hell to service. Spare part's on eBay have always been my best bet, usually used screens, keyboards, etc. They're pretty, but crap on the inside (just like Apple's notebook architecture.)

Fujitsu's Lifebooks put a sour taste in most mouths during their prime in the late 90's, and I'm not sure how much better they've gotten. Support was always difficult to accomplish.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By Mojo the Monkey on 1/2/2008 3:42:56 PM , Rating: 2
maybe you meant to say that many of acer's computers come from COMPAL as the OEM manufacturer. that would probably be accurate.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By StevoLincolnite on 12/30/2007 2:35:06 PM , Rating: 2
I had an Acer Extensa 2300 as my first laptop, and got it back in 2003, I then gave it to a friend as I wanted something with more 3D rendering power, so I got the Aspire 1680.
The Extensa 2300 has been going strong for 4 years now without a single Hardware issue, Its actually surprising though it's lasted this time considering how much it gets thrown around.

They are usually fairly light, with decent screens and good performance and a good warranty, far better than a Dell, or a Sony in My Opinion, if I had the money I would go for an Alien Ware Laptop, because seriously... They look hot.

Still... I am in love with that Acer... Someone buy me it, and I shall send you the wedding photos!


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By 440sixpack on 12/30/2007 5:31:19 PM , Rating: 2
A friend of mine has an Aspire 9810 (20" screen), and it actually has been pretty shoddy quality - poor keyboard/trackpad response, problems with USB and bluetooth, the DVD drive broke, etc. But then he beats on it pretty hard. I was not too impressed with the build quality of it myself - but then I am used to Thinkpads.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By Spuke on 12/30/2007 11:25:28 PM , Rating: 2
Yes they do. Bought one for my stepdaughter a couple of years ago. Works great! A friend owns one too and is very happy with it. One of the things I liked is that they don't load a bunch of crap software on it.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By StevoLincolnite on 12/31/2007 12:06:26 AM , Rating: 2
But they do Partition the drives, but that never bothered me, I always formatted anyway "Just to make sure the junk was gone". - I've recommended Acer to allot of people, they do make top laptops.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By ImSpartacus on 12/30/2007 9:58:44 PM , Rating: 2
I hope you understand that that model has a 20 in screen and will most likely be a brick. I try to rationalize paying for a laptop with the thoughts that I can bring it places... without a forklift...

But everyone likes different stuff. I personally like the styling on those vaio's.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By StevoLincolnite on 12/31/2007 12:09:26 AM , Rating: 2
My Current Acer has a 17" Widescreen and the bezel around it says to me "I can have a 20" monitor to!" - And I just swing it under my arms, and chuck the power cord in my pocket or whatever, and I'm all set, they aren't actually that heavy, and it would probably do more good than harm with allot of people carrying around heavy laptops. (Free workout).
And they aren't as bulky as you might think either.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By Flunk on 12/30/2007 12:25:07 PM , Rating: 2
Could also have 3 ram slots. Odd numbers of slots are possible with DIMMs.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By rninneman on 12/30/2007 12:34:01 PM , Rating: 4
Intel Flex Memory Technology has been in some of their chipsets for awhile. It enables dual-channel mode even with dimms of different sizes.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By Assimilator87 on 12/30/2007 12:48:46 PM , Rating: 4
Although this doesn't pertain to laptops, I've ran different size/make DIMMs in dual channel for years on both the nForce 2 and nForce 4 without any problems.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By Anonymous Freak on 12/30/2007 11:03:46 PM , Rating: 2
Uh, one, these are Intel chipsets, not nVidia. Two, it DOES apply to Intel's notebook chipsets.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By mxzrider2 on 12/31/2007 1:29:53 AM , Rating: 1
cant run dual channel on nforce 2, blah. athlon and xp variants did not support dual channel memory. so almost all nforce 2 boards have 2 slots as even 2 gigs of memory was rarely needed when they were designed. my trust dfi built nforce board would have loved dual channel.


RE: 3GB in a lappy?
By MDE