Ferrari 3200 processor replacement

What processors will be compatible with the 3200's board and how easy would it be to replace the 2800+ in the future?

After reading the owner's manual, it appears easy to replace the HD and RAM. I just hope it will be as easy to upgrade the 2800+ in a year or so.

 

I know the 2800+ in the Acer is a low voltage A64. What I'm wondering is whether it actually has more power saving features than the mobile 64s or if it just clocks down even more than the 64s.

If the latter then it'd really be like having a slower chip...shame AMD couldn't create a pure mobile chip like Centrino that was 64 bit [ ]

 

They say it'll do 3 hours, well short of the 5 the Aspire and Travelmates with centrino do. I'm sure it has more heat as well.

 

It must use less power, the only question is whether it will save enough to offer 4 hours of battery time like most Centrino models. Reviews should be coming soon, hopefullly it offers comparable battery time and better performance than the Centrino chips. I doubt Acer would go away from the DTR 3400+ for their flagship model unless it offered some real benefits. We'll see soon.

 

How about performance? Three hours of better performance would be nicer than 5 hours of lesser performance for me, but I'm sure many would choose battery life.

 

Actually Centrino has better mobile performance since it is optimized to be low voltage. The A64 basically just clocks down to ~800mhz when you unplug from the wall to extend battery life. Centrino won't give you 5 hours of gaming, the 64 won't give you 3, but Centrino will probably give 30min-1hr more and it will run faster as well.

 

Air, how much battery life-time do you get from your Aspire? A friend of mine bought the Aspire2003 WLMi, and although it is supposed to offer 4-5 hours of battery life, it drains out after just 3 with low usage (and wi-fi etc disabled)..

- George -

 

I actually don't have one [ ]

But I am looking at the 2025 with the intent of purchase when it finally starts selling here [8)]

Cnet gave it 283 minutes on mobilemark though.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Acer_Aspire_2000/4505-3121_7-30589601-5.html?tag=review

Also remember if he's using the optical drive that will drain faster. He should also peek at his powerplay settings for the ati card as well as power management. Also, he should cycle the battery once a month by turning off power management, letting it run off of battery until the computer shuts off (you need to deactivate the suspend/shut down on low power options). You then do a full charge. Memory isn't really an issue for lithium ion like it was for NiCd but it still lengthens the life and helps keep the cells workin

 

Where are you getting your info?

This new true mobile 2800+ hasn't been benchmarked or reviewed yet, so we don't know anything about performance or battery life. It does use about 40% less power. It is clocked at 1.8 GHz. I don't know if this processor clocks down on battery power as well. There is a very good chance it will perform as well or better than the Pentium-M chips and offer comparable power savings. Don't compare this chip to the DTR's.

 

I'm just guessing [:I]

The Dothan's are pretty impressive. I'm basing my hypotheses on reviews and benchmarks I've seen for the 64 mobile. I am rather interested in how this low voltage a64 performs though. It obviously has less battery life than the Dothan since the Travelmate 8000 gets 2 hours more than the Ferarri 3200 with the same components and screens (aside from processor and mobo differences).

Hopefully we'll get some real world application benchmarks on it rather than these intel optimised, slanted benches like mobilemark and that garbage. Let me know what you find and I'll do the same.

 

The new TM800, 8006LMi, looks very nice and has the Dothan 2.0. This will be the perfect backup for the Ferrari 3200 if I decide against it's purchase.

http://www.acer.com/APP/AKC/INTERNET/AACPubli.nsf/0/F92E96D3C9D3806A88256E5E00790C0D?OpenDocument

 

CNET just released a review of the Travelmate 8000 with a 1.8ghz Dothan Centrino (not the 2ghz that will be sold). I'm not surprised it lost to the 2ghz centrino, I am surprised it came in behind the 1.7, etc.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Acer_TravelMate_8000/4505-3121_7-30842953.html?tag=pdtl-list

However, PCMag loved it and gave it their Editors Choice, getting a much higher performance from it than the D800 which they found sluggish. I don't really pay much mind to Cnet's benchmarking, I just look to see if they have complaints about the case or display.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1589799,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1589889,00.asp - Click on the review benchmark link to look at the scores



It did squeak out 5.5 hours of battery life. This difference in scores could purely be power settings. Considering the first travelmate 800 scored higher than anything, and all they've done is update components and the mobo while staying within the same manufacturer and model type, I doubt the review is dead on in its assumption the acer is now slower.

 

Have you considered the Python D470K?

You can get a 3400+ with 512 MB of 400 MHz RAM and just about everything else for a little over $2000 US (with the WSXGA+ option for $200 CAD that's coming soon).

Configuration (Add $200 CAD for WSXGA+, total about $3000 CAD)

System 17-inch WXGA (1440x900) widescreen EUROCOM Python D470K
Video Conferencing None - Choose from the options below
Wireless Wi-Fi LAN 802.11b/g (miniPCI) EUROCOM/MSI WLAN
Memory 512MB DDR400 200pin - 1x512MB SODIMM
Processor AMD Athlon64 3400+ (DTR) w/1MB cache
Hard Drive 60GB (2.5'') 7,200rpm
Optical Drive 2x Dual DVD+-R/+-RW Burner (Pioneer) with Software
Operating System None - Choose from the options below
Keyboard and O/S Language Keyboard - U.S. English
Additional Software None - Choose from the options below
TV Tuner Bay None - Choose from the options below
Standard Battery (internal) 8-cells Smart Li-lon
Standard AC Adapter w/power cord 120W auto-switching AC Adapter
Warranty 1 Year Return to Factory Depot
Options
Extra Battery Smart-Lion - 8-cells
Bluetooth Module Bluetooth module (internal USB)
Accessories
Car Adapter 12V 150W Tripp Lite Mobile Car Inverter (DC to AC)


Spec sheet:

Product Specifications EUROCOM PYTHON D470K
General Information
Launch Date May' 2004
Phase Out Date N/A
Colour Silver and dark grey
Supported O/S Windows XP Home/Professional; Linux
Special Feature(s) AMD Hammer and Odessa support; built-in TV tuner; built in Bluetooth; Dual-DVD+-R/+-RW
System Architecture
Spindle Design 2+Card Reader
System Architecture PC2002
Main Chipset VIA K8T800+VT8235CE
System Bus/FSB FSB800
BIOS Size/Name Phoenix; 4MB; WFM V2.0/SMBIOS2.0; DMI; ACPI; WOL; WOR
Processor
Processor Make/Class AMD/ Athlon64; Mobile Athlon; Hammer; Odessa
Socket Type/Spec uPGA754
Processor Speed(s) up to 3700+
Cache (L1/L2) L2: 512KB/1MB
Video and Graphics
Video Memory/Type 128MB DDR SGRAM
Video Architecture/Chipset 8xAGP; ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (M11)
Built-in PC Camera 300K
Display
LCD size/type/resolution 17-inch WXGA; 1440x900
Memory
Maximum RAM/# of sockets 2GB; 2
RAM Type/Spec/Pinout DDR400; 200-pin
RAM Configuration(s) 512MB; 1GB; 2GB
Storage
Hard Drives: total # ; max capacity/rpm 1; 80GB; 7,200rpm
1st HDD: Max capacity/height/interface 80GB; 12.5mm; IDE
2nd HDD: Max capacity/height/interface N/A
3rd HDD: Max capacity/height/interface N/A
4th HDD: Max capacity/height/interface N/A
Internal Floppy Drive external via USB
1st Optical Drive Bay height/options 12.5mm; COMBO or Dual-DVD+-R/+-RW
2nd Optical Drive Bay/Height N/A
DVD-ROM Module 8x
CD-Burner (WxRWxR) N/A
Combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW DVDxWxRWxR 24x
DVD-Burner 2x Dual-DVD+-R/+-RW
Audio
Audio Architecture AC'97 2.2
Audio Chipset/Spec SB Pro Compatible
Internal Speaker(s) 4+1
Audio-Out 1- S/PDIF
Microphone Audio-in 1-
Headphone Out/Jack 1-
Built-in Microphone/Spec 1-
Communications
on-board LAN / Chipset 1- RJ45
Internal Modem Type/ Spec 1- RJ11
Internal Wireless LAN spec 802.11b/g via miniPCI
Internal Bluetooth Optional
PC Card Slot(s)
PC Card Architecture/Chipset CardBus
# of slots/Type/Voltage 1 type II
Zoom Video Port N/A
Internal miniPCI # of slots/Type 1- for 802.11b/g
Interfaces (Ports)
on-board FireWire (IEEE1394) 1- IEEE1394a
Flash Card Reader/Type 3-in-1; MMC/MS/SD
Internal Modem Interface 1- RJ11; MDC module
LAN on-board interface 1- RJ45
Video-In interface 1- S-Video in and 1- Coax with TV Tuner
USB # of ports/Version 3 - 2.0
TV-Out (chipset/spec) 1- S Video Out
External Monitor: port type; max resolution 1600x1200
Parallel Port /Spec 1- LPT1 - ECP/EPP
Serial Port 1- COM1
IrDA (location/spec) 1- IrDA 1.1 FIr/SIR/ASKIR; front
PS/2 Port 1- supports both mouse and keyboard
Port Replicator Connector via USB
Port for Security Cable and Lock 1- Kensington
Built-in Antenna for Wireless LAN standard
Input Devices
Internal Keyboard # of keys / hot keys 102-keys with numeric Pad
Built-in instant keys 3; www, email, applications
Numeric Keypad with keyboard
Multi-language Keyboard(s) English, French, Spanish, German, etc
Internal Pointing Device TouchPad
Battery
1st Battery: # of cells; capacity; life 8-cells; 4400mAH; 65.2Whrs
2nd Battery # of cells; capacity; life N/A
Dimensions
Product Dimensions WxDxH (mm) 393x275x37.5
Product Weight (kg) 3.85kg w/o battery
Packaging L xWx H / N.W. / G.W. .
Included Accessories
AC Adapter/Model #/Max Output 120W; auto-switching
Carrying Case Included
Drivers and Utilities CD Included
Extra Accessories
Internal MP3 Player N/A
Internal TV Tuner w/Remote optional; NTSC, multi-PAL
Internal IP Sharing Module N/A
Extra 1st Battery Pack Available
Optional AC Adapter 120W; auto switching
Optional 2nd Battery Bracket N/A
Optional Car Adapter Car Invertor
Air and Car Adapter N/A; via car invertor
MPEG-2 H/W N/A
Internal LS-120 Drive N/A
Optional Modem N/A
Optional Port Replicator via USB
2nd HDD Bracket/Height N/A
Internal ZIP Drive/Capacity N/A
Internal Sub-Woofer standard

 

I don't do boutique companies anymore, Alienware turned me off to that. If I can't try or see the product I won't buy it if there is a restocking fee. I'd consider sager if they had a A64 or PM notebook with a 9700, but haven't seen it yet.