DELL XPS Montevina / Centrino 2

Hi,

can anyone tell me - is Montevina / Centrino 2 a big step forward in terms of performance?

And will the new XPS laptops with Centrino 2 be available before September?

I want to buy a new XPS Laptop for around £1700 but I am not sure of the benefits of waiting for the refresh...

What are the latest 128MB Graphics cards like compared to the GEForce 7800 Go that I have in my current Inspiron 1705 (2 years old)?

any thoughts?

thanks

 

about montevina heres a good read :

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3356

as to gpus they tend to come at 256mb +

look at this :

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

If you regard performance as being pure unadulterated grunt, then no. If you regard performance as being increased efficiency (thermally, electronically and functionally) then yes.

Here is an article that just landed in my inbox that you might find of note: http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/why-you-need-a-new-centrino-2-laptop-422002?artc_pg=1

 

hopefully this montevina processor will stop the heat problems in the m1330.

 

if you satisfy with your Inspiration up to now, keep it!
you mind wanna check out xoticpc for some new Centrino 2 laptop . I Dont think Dell will upgrade the XPS line soon.
good luck & make the right choice!

 

Performance - no big step forward, will be about the same as last generation Penryns.
XPS - define available, you might be able to order before September, but will you get it by then is another story. The 7800 Go is still a pretty good card and easily beats the current XPS, which has the 8600M GT (a mid range card).

 

Currently its really not that great. Just power and efficiency now.

In the fall period, around mid August to September, they will be releasing a "refresh" of sorts to Montevina to add more built in functionality.

 

Well, it's not just the 9 Series GPU's but also the capability and features of the Echo Peak chipset (such as on board WIMAX, GPS, faster DDR 3 RAM etc)...

I guess I'll wait as I'm in no great hurry.

I expect there will be a full XPS Montevina feature set by the October November, and that's fine...so long as I have it by the end of the year.

There's no major problem with mine that a complete format and reinstall wouldn't fix, but I'd rather do that to sell it...as it'll take a full day at least

Philip

 

if by end of year, then look out for nehalem..... early reports show nehalem might be released in september-october.... maybe one of those chips will find a way into Dell XPS?..... [penryn->nehalem (processor) is much better upgrade than santa rosa->montevina (chipset)

 

Nehalem = Penryn with Hyperthreading Technologies

Basically like P4 with P4 Hyperthreading.

I'll wait for Calpella.

 

That is for the high end desktop chip. Nahalem is scheduled for Q2 2009 for notebooks.

 

Yup, and Calpella will be coming Q4 2009 with a whole new chipset that offers a much greater increase in performance compared to Montevina.

 

and it just never ends. keep waiting

 

You can wait forever for updates...they are always gonna keep coming out with something faster, more power efficient, sleeker, cheaper, and smaller.

 

true dat!^