Considering C90

Hi to all!
I was pretty much set for a dv6500 or E1505, when I stumbled on the Asus line. G1 is truly cool, but the C90 appealed me a lot!
Anyway, given the specs:

Carrying Case: Included
Warranty: 3 Years Warranty $125.00 $125.00
RAM: 2GB DDR-2 667 SODIMM (1X2GB) $120.00 $120.00
HD: Seagate Momentus 100GB 7200rpm S-ATA $119.00 $119.00
Operating System: None
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6320 1.86 GHz 1066FSB 4M $184.00
Heatsink, Fan, Thermal Paste: Included
Arctic Silver 5 (CPU purchase required) $3.00 $3.00
WiFi: Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11 a/b/g/n $49.00 $49.00
AC Adapter: One AC Adapter Included
Webcam: Built-in 2.0 MP Webcam
Bluetooth: Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.0+EDR
Optical Drive: 8 x DVD-RW Dual Layer Super Multi
GPU: Upgradable GeForce 8600 GT 512MB MXM 2.0
Screen: 15.4" WSXGA+ 1680X1050 Glossy
Availability: Pre-Order, ETA mid June
Fingerprint Reader: Built-in

My question is: how does the Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6320 compare to the usual 7x00 serie? I understand the dv6500 uses Santa Rosa (thus running @800Mhz), but this one is running 1066Mhz?...

Anyway, any suggestions? This laptop will be used for college as well as gaming.
Ah, the price: 1,569.00

Regards

 

The C90 is pretty much the perfect notebook until you notice its battery life expectations. If you're going to be glued to your desk it will be appealing, but the Conroe processor, which is a desktop processor, pretty much caps the battery life at 70 minutes. Otherwise...

It's perfect!

 

Santa Rosa - the new Celeron platform (I think) - I'm not a general fan of stuff that new but I've not heard anything drastically wrong with it.

It's not a bad laptop - I'd reckon go for it unless anything else really strikes you.

 

Intel's desktop C2D chip runs with the 1066 FSB, while the newest C2D mobile chip platform (SantaRosa) runs @ 800FSB. You'd have to google around and see if there are any direct comparisons of the desktop Conroe chips to the Merom mobile CPUs.

The biggest problem with the C90 is that it's going back to the era of putting desktop cpu's into portable platforms. As noted, it's going to shred any semblance of battery life and be "portable" only in the loosest sense of the term, i.e. the Dell M2010; you will never be able to effectively use this for notes or anything else in classes, given this limitation. Everyone is intrigued by mushing desktop components into this thing, and you can build a decent performance system on the cheap compared to other options from Sager or Clevo, but this is rarely going to leave your desk and will function only as a desktop replacement. Plus, no one really knows how loud those big fan outflows mounted on the back of the chassis are going to be. The Conroe chip runs cool as desktop processors go, but I doubt it can match the Merom cores - volume is going to depend on how Asus' engineers were able to manage the thermal profile, how big of a fan diameter they were able to stuff in there and how low their rpm's end up being.

Chances are even IMO that Asus or Nvidia will also not release components in the future that will allow any upgrades beyond what's in the chassis now, because new ones will likely have different thermal heat levels and/or incompatible size dimensions. For what you're looking apparently wanting, consider spending the extra $300 and get the G1S, which seems to be quite popular among the college/gaming set these days.

 

With that configuration, I'd bump up to an E6600. If you buy it at, say, Newegg, you can get it for only $40 more, and it's much more powerful. One of my favorite things about the C90 is the overclocking. It'll auto-overclock most CPUs in it to a good sweetspot. They give some example on the ASUS's site product description. The 2.4GHz E6600 will be bumped up to like 2.9 I think they said.

That there is th C90S. What I think I'm doing is waiting for the C90P. Supposidly, it will be the same, but with a Bearlake chipset(P35 instead of 945P). What that'll do is allow next-generation Intel chips to work in it, like the upcoming 1333MHz E6x50 Core 2 Duos. These will be fantastic chips at much lower prices. According to what I've seen, the new CPUs will be priced as follows:
E6850 - 3.00 GHz, $266
E6750 - 2.66 GHz, $183
E6550 - 2.33 GHz, $163
So, very cheap, high performance, if you wait just a little bit longer. A month or so, if everything goes according to plan.

but if you want battery life, I'd say get the Asus G1S. Very portable. Very high performance.

 

I have yet to see anything remotely official about the "C90P," of course that doesn't mean that ti isn't coming out on a month or so, but you don't want to lead people to believe something is a sure thing when it's not clear that it is. I could have also simply missed the more official announcements.

 

It wont be quiet for sure... but it certainly won't sound like a jet taking off either.

 

Sorry. Yeah, I guess I've only ever read one article on it, but this article makes it sound liek the info is direct from ASUS:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/hands_on_asus_core_2_duo_powered_c90s_notebook
And, of course, we're not sure on the E6x50 pricing either, but even if it's remotely close to that, it shoudl be good.

Don't hold your breath, but keep it in mind.

 

I dunno how valid it is since like you said thats the ONLY article on it when there are tons are articles on other models supposedly even further out in release time like the C80.

I think its a mistake on there part or its a project that was droped in favor of the other projects due near xmas time.

 

Supposedly it's not that loud, the fans are so large and numerous that they don't have to spin very fast, so it's more like a gentle hum, if it's audible at all.

 

Asus really fought fire with fire here. If The Desktop processor is going to produce desktop heat, then they will just put on a desktop fan system to do desktop cooling. What I really like is that there is finally a computer that doesn't stupidly blow hot air out underneath the chassis. Hot air should be transported as far away from the chassis as possible, like these fans do.

 

Thats a good point, maybe more lap friendly than your aveage laptop despite the idea it puts out more heat.

 

With just websurfing my gpu hits 80 and my processor 60, however I really notice no noise from the fans at all, I hope they are working, god I wish there were some sort of fan control software out there. I always liked those.