Mobile Platform Wars: AMD vs. Intel

HP 6515b Overview

While the primary purpose of this review is to take a look at AMD's Turion X2 TL-66 and their mobile platform, we also wanted to take a brief look at the HP 6515b. There's nothing truly revolutionary about this laptop, but it's a reasonably affordable business offering that would be equally useful in a home or student environment. It comes with all of the standard features users would expect to find in a modern notebook, so here's a quick summary as well as some pictures.

HP 6515b Features Overview
Processor	AMD Turion X2 TL-50/52/56/58/60/64
Chipset	ATI RS690M/SB600
FSB Speeds	800MHz HyperTransport
Memory Speeds	DDR2-533, DDR2-667
Memory Slots	(2) x SO-DIMM, up to 2GB DDR2, Dual Channel supported
Graphics	ATI Radeon X1250
Display	14" WXGA (1280x800)
Expansion Slots	1x PC Card Type II/III
Hard Drive	80/120/160GB 5400RPM, 80/120GB 7200RPM
Optical Drive	8X DVD-ROM 8X DVDROM/CD-RW Combo Drive 8X DVD+/-RW SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW SuperMulti with LightScribe
Networking/Communications	Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet and V.90 56K Modem Broadcom ABG or ABGN Mini PCI Wireless Bluetooth 2.0
Audio	24-bit High Definition Audio with 2.1 Speakers
Left Ports	2 x USB 2.0 1 x mini-Firewire PC Card type II/III Headphone/Mic Power socket
Right Ports	Flash reader (SD, MS/Pro, MMC, XD) 2 x USB2.0 Optical Drive<.br>RJ-11 Modem
Front Ports	None
Back Ports	1 x VGA TV-Out RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet
Keyboard	87 Key QWERTY (US)
Extras	Fingerprint Reader
Battery Options	6-Cell 55WHr
Dimensions	13.03"x9.57"x1.33" (WxDxH) 5.0 lbs. (6-cell battery)
Power Adapter	90W
Operating System	Windows Vista Business 32-bit Windows Vista Home Basic 32-bit Windows XP Pro SP2

The 6515b is a good midsized laptop offering. The 14" chassis allows for a slightly less cramped keyboard layout relative to 12" laptops, but it still manages to maintain a lightweight profile. Besides all of the standard features - four USB ports, FireWire, PC Card, DVDR, Gigabit Ethernet, and a modem - there are only a couple of somewhat noteworthy additions. A fingerprint scanner provides for potentially enhanced (or at least more convenient) security, and the Broadcom wireless adapter provides draft 802.11n support in addition to the usual A/B/G WiFi options. We still don't feel that 802.11n is fully ready for widespread use, but the Broadcom chipset appears to work better with our NETGEAR router, connecting at speeds up to 277 Mbps and achieving actual throughput of more than 11 MBps. That puts this particular wireless configuration roughly at the same level of performance as a 100 Mb network. That may not sound particularly stellar, but it's still more than three times as fast as any 802.11g adapters that we've used (at least under ideal test conditions).