Computex 2007: Hit the Road Jack!
by Gary Key and Jarred Walton on June 6, 2007 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Acer
Acer is a well-known manufacturer of notebooks and they had quite a few on display at their booth. Acer also offers AMD based laptops, but they weren't demonstrating anything new in that area that we saw. Here's a look at their latest Intel offerings.
The Aspire 5920G is one of their latest offerings based off Intel's Santa Rosa platform. It includes GeForce 8600M GT graphics, making it a good fit as a portable media platform as well as providing adequate power for most modern games. The 15.4" display boasts an 8ms response time, and the laptop is one of the first to feature Dolby Home Theater enhanced sound courtesy of the integrated Music Note 5.1 speakers and subwoofer. An HD-DVD optical drive along with HDCP support and an HDMI port round out the noteworthy specifications, and an integrated webcam provides for easy videoconferencing.
The TravelMate 6492 is more of a business oriented notebook, so it drops the discrete graphics and uses a 14.1" LCD. It also comes with a TPM module and fingerprint scanner for enhanced security. The 6492 is based off the new Intel Centrino Pro platform, which means the laptop also gets Wireless-N networking. The integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam is apparently improved over other webcam offerings with optimizations that enable it to work better in low-light conditions for improved videoconferencing, and besides the standard trackpad Acer includes their FineTrack pointing device, similar to the Lenovo laptops. Finally, the laptop features support for Acer's ezDock II/II+ docking module.
Acer's ezDock II/II+ offer up to 20 additional interfaces for support of laptops. You get serial and parallel ports, six more USB ports, 6-pin and 4-pin FireWire ports, VGA and DVI outputs, phone and networking support, a PS/2 mouse/keyboard port, and audio jacks including an S/PDIF port. Many of these interfaces are already present on the laptop itself, but some business users prefer the ease-of-use of a docking station.
Acer is a well-known manufacturer of notebooks and they had quite a few on display at their booth. Acer also offers AMD based laptops, but they weren't demonstrating anything new in that area that we saw. Here's a look at their latest Intel offerings.
The Aspire 5920G is one of their latest offerings based off Intel's Santa Rosa platform. It includes GeForce 8600M GT graphics, making it a good fit as a portable media platform as well as providing adequate power for most modern games. The 15.4" display boasts an 8ms response time, and the laptop is one of the first to feature Dolby Home Theater enhanced sound courtesy of the integrated Music Note 5.1 speakers and subwoofer. An HD-DVD optical drive along with HDCP support and an HDMI port round out the noteworthy specifications, and an integrated webcam provides for easy videoconferencing.
The TravelMate 6492 is more of a business oriented notebook, so it drops the discrete graphics and uses a 14.1" LCD. It also comes with a TPM module and fingerprint scanner for enhanced security. The 6492 is based off the new Intel Centrino Pro platform, which means the laptop also gets Wireless-N networking. The integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam is apparently improved over other webcam offerings with optimizations that enable it to work better in low-light conditions for improved videoconferencing, and besides the standard trackpad Acer includes their FineTrack pointing device, similar to the Lenovo laptops. Finally, the laptop features support for Acer's ezDock II/II+ docking module.
Acer's ezDock II/II+ offer up to 20 additional interfaces for support of laptops. You get serial and parallel ports, six more USB ports, 6-pin and 4-pin FireWire ports, VGA and DVI outputs, phone and networking support, a PS/2 mouse/keyboard port, and audio jacks including an S/PDIF port. Many of these interfaces are already present on the laptop itself, but some business users prefer the ease-of-use of a docking station.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
19 Comments
View All Comments
abakshi - Sunday, June 10, 2007 - link
Their secret is ineffective cooling. Most PC laptops won't burn you if you touch them, whereas MacBook Pros tend to get very hot, even if left idle. And not just on the bottom, but also in the keyboard / wrist area.There just isn't enough airflow inside the MBP's to properly channel the heat, and vents are apparently against Apple's design philosophy, so basically it's a form vs. function issue.
kleinwl - Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - link
That is almost maxing out a 15A circuit (120V). @ 80% efficency, that draws 1500 watts from the wall... or 12.5A. Considering that other stuff, such as printers/monitors/lights, are on the same circuit isn't that a little much? Sure, if you have dedicated circuits, or 20A wiring.. no prob... but I don't know about having to rewire my house (or at least add a circuit) just to run the latest computer.So when are we going to see these PSUs accepting a 240V connection?
yyrkoon - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
Just because a PSU is CAPABLE of delievering 1200W does not mean your system is USING 1200W. This is a common misconception . . .PS: all our circuts are 30A here, but then again we do not JUST use a computer on our circuts, we use COMPUTERS.
JarredWalton - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
Most of my circuits are 20A and a few (like the one for the TV area and two bedrooms) is 30A. That said, I've got five systems on one 20A circuit... and when I swapped out a lesser model for a quad core overclocked QX6800 SLI PC, I tripped the circuit breaker a few times. Had to shut down one of the other PCs to keep it from happening.Also as an aside, my vacuum cleaner sucks down around 1250W when running. I have to shut off most of the PCs on that circuit to keep it from tripping while vacuuming. Fun stuff!
Calin - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
The ones made for Europe works on 220/230V. As such, taking juice from a 240V line is a perfectly normal working conditionsdsdv10 - Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - link
Where there any Santa Rosa Tablet PCs featured?JackPack - Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - link
I wonder if the MSI notebook with "Turbo" technology also supports Intel Dynamic Acceleration like other new Merom-based notebooks. IDA temporarily overclocks one core by 200 MHz when it encounters single-threaded code.If so, that would be one heck of a notebook.
xsilver - Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - link
hey what computer was being powered by that gigabyte power supply in that last pic?it says peak of 113w --
Brunnis - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
Well, that's about what my E6600 @ 3GHz, 4GB RAM and 7900GS pulls when idle. Nothing strange with that. Also, my Athlon64 3500+ with 2GB RAM and a 6500TC pulled about 75W from the PSU.