Compal NBLB2

I don't think this has been posted here yet.

NBLB2 - 15.6" Full HD Display Intel Calpella Platform

Key Features
15.6-inch Full HD Display (1920x1080) w/ LED backlight
Intel® Clarkfield Quadcore Processor
ATI Madison with unparalleled 3D Graphic Performance (DirectX 11 supported)
Microphone Array Offer Clean Voice Communiation
Fingerprint Reader for Data Security
Built-in High Resolution Webcam for Wire-free Video Communication
Elegant Surface with Shiny IML Coating
HDMI Interface
Optional TV Tuner for Mobile Entertainment
High Audio/Video Performance with Blu-ray Playback

Marasst

Thanks to RePaRaQu for reminiding me about that web site.

 

sounds good

 

Sure does. Seems like Compal has completely abandoned NVidia.

 

Hmmm, Madison. I wonder what would be its official designation in the Mobility Radeon 5xxx line? Anyway, thanks for the info! First DX11 laptop I've seen so far.

 

Can't really blame them... their middle class graphic cards arent that good (altough the GTX 260M and 280M just rock) and the 8600M GT might have caused them a lot of trouble.

 

I think it will be either 5650 or 5670. The 250M of nvidia isn't that bad either, even better 260M. I'm kind of used to nvidia. And fond of.

 

A lot of OEM have given up on NV since the 8600m fiasco...

 

Hopefully it will get better when Fermi architecture goes mobile next year.

 

I got an email from a Compal Distributor.

1080P LED + midrange 5000 Series GPU. Hopefully they manage to keep the price down with i7, but I doubt it.

 

I was just about to post here and I find this. Anyway it's not what I wanted to say so.. Herre it is... Tadadaaa

Seems like it's already out. Well not quite, it's for preorder. From Deviltech site:

Little bit confusing, right?
It's already reviewed here. Check the pictures, they're the same. So it is NBLB2.

Your thoughts?

I'm not impressed, but for that price... I was hoping for more. Only a 10% improvement. And considering there is a new CPU, 5650 is not that much better over 4650. Am I overseeing something?

 

I've been waiting for this one as well.

I'm liking the 1080P panel and the battery life, but I don't need Core i7 which is driving up the price. The 5650 is pretty good at 720P, but not $1000 USD good. The budget gaming GTX 260 laptops for less make this one hard to justify.

I rather build a desktop for $400, and get a budget ultra portable.

 

Deviltech already has an option for Arrandales.

 

Is it just me or does this laptop have a bad design ?

 

Thought the same... looks pretty crappy. I my opinion it's a big step back (altough I already disliked the layout of the JHL92 and KHBL2, the FL90 still looks best to me, except for it's lid which looks better on the newer models). I never liked this silver/grey color, black just looks so much more classy and this round chassis is also not my cup of tea.

 

Glad to know I am not the only one...

 

I have a JHL90 and I love how it looks

 

I think it's not that bad. Looks pretty similar to KHLB2 but more shiny. This wavy design pretty much resembles the one from MSI EX625. I'm now testing a NBLB2 sample and there are some rather heavier issues than the design lacks

 

WoW, I am really interested in knowing what are does. Are you going to write a review or something?

 

Yeah, review will be available at HD5 Mobility launch - on 7th January.
- there's some image distorsion - some strange lines at the upper right corner of the screen. It's visible while moving windows fast in that area. It seems to be the some issue on card <-> LCD line, since when i try to record it with camstudio it doesn't show it. I'll try to use the camera instead later.
- while making stress tests (furmark + prime95) on battery it just turned off and started to flash a orange battery indicator meaning that there is some problem with the battery - which just stopped working. After a few plugs/unplugs it came back to life though.
- Processor throttling to 667MHz under heavy load on battery - even in powersaving mode it doesn't go under 800MHz
- No software is able to read the clock speeds and temperatures and there are no other drivers working aside from the ones I got with the sample. And those are like 9.9. But that's sample unit, so it's justified somehow

 

I see, well those don't seem major problems in my opinion as long as we are talking about a pre-release version. If you report them back to Compal I am sure they will fix them.

1. the first issues seems to be an LCD problem. Try an external monitor to make sure.
2. that does seem to be a problem. I think what happens is that the battery is not able to give enough power to the components under heavy load or the battery itself has an issue.
3. I have no idea what to say, what CPU are you testing with? 720M ?
4. Yeah, that's normal if you are using an Arrandale CPU.

How are the temps? CPU and VGA under heavy load?

 

I'll try - but it seams to happen only @ 1920x1080 res.

Quite likely you're right. But I'm pretty sure this shouldn't happen.

Yup. At normal conditions the lowest clock speed he gets is 800HMz but after a couple of seconds of heavy load it throttles to 667MHz.

No, it's Clarksfield And I don't think the CPU has anything to do with the GPU readings. I suppose it's just too new, so that's not really an issue.

Don't know about the GPU as it's difficult to read its temps without any software that is able to recognize the hardware and I tried a whole bunch of these tools
CPU reached about 89-90 degrees under prime95 + furmark.

 

That's a reasonable temperature for the CPU...but after how long? 20-30 minutes ?

So GPU-Z or HWMonitor are not able to read the GPU temps ?

 

CPU temps stabilise after about 3 minutes at ~89-90 and stays there after half an hour.

I tried GPU-Z, HWMonitor, AMD GPU Clock Tool, ATI Tool, and couple of others and not a single one was able to read these temps
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/9354u/ GPU-Z wasn't able to recognize the hardware either.

 

I see, well those CPU temps are alright.

My CPU for example ( currently a QX9200 at 2.93 Ghz) reaches 93C max after 20 minutes, and I have never seen it going over that.

Regarding the temperature... it is actually possible that ATI did not include a temp sensor in the GPUs. It is not the first time they do this.

 

I'm sure they did. It's just that the card didn't even had its official announcement, so it's hard to expect that any current software will support it.

 

I suppose you may be right. We just have to wait and see the final product.

 

In the notebookjournal review there is no GPU temp as well.

 

Here is a 3D Mark Screen shot from the NBLB2. This was taken from a Pre-Production unit. ATI HD 5650 1GB GDDR3. Intel I720QM CPU installed.

 

That's some very good performance for its price. Although I would be more interested in a test using an Arrandale CPU as most buyers will probably opt for an i520 or i540.

 

Arrandale will be support in NBLB2?

Justin,

Do you have price for this model?

Thanks

 

http://service.futuremark.com/home....AA9EE20CA2A6C6?resultId=1719720&resultType=19 and there's a Vantage score.

 

@Justin - what resolution was that 3DMark06 benchmarked at?

 

1280x1024. Mine's got 7160 at this resolution

 

^^ Exactly right, 1280x1024. We are unable to get a GPU temp as bagienny has stated. Dont know if they did not put a sensor on it or why it will not read a GPU temp.

 

Justin, have you experienced the problems I mentioned above? Image distorsion, occasional hangups while playing videos, processor throttling, etc?

 

No image distortion, will look into the other items and let you know.

 

I must say I'm not impressed with the performance of the 5650. It's merely better than 4650.

 

In real life use (eg. games) it is quite a bit faster than 4670. I also expected more, but it's not bad. There still a hope that 5700 cards will give the mainstream-performance segment a good kick.

 

For it's price, I think this Compal is a really nice machine. However, I don't know what to say about reliability/quality.

 

I did not notice any distortion.

Tested it for 1 hour Prime95 + 3DMark06 on battery. Worked just fine.

Under heavy load (Prime95 + 3DMark06) CPU throttled to 667MHz in power savings mode on battery.

 

Interesting, You can try also using furmark in Xtreme burning mode. Might as well be a problem with my unit.

Does throttling occur also while working with AC plugged in? In my case after a while CPU frequency was throttled to 996MHz or so. CPU temperature was about 85-90 degrees.

 

After how long ?

 

http://www.purepc.pl/files/Image/artykul_zdjecia/Compal_NBLB2/temps.png
That's max temperature reached. Screenshot was taken after about 15 minutes of furmark + prime (temperatures did not change even after 30-40 minutes of load, which is understandable since the CPU was throttled to 933MHz).

 

That's... well, doesn't make much sense. The CPU threshold it 100C. 87C is a decent temperature. I manage to score 93C max on my QX9200 OC @ 2.93 GHz. It's probably something in the system BIOS that limits the multiplier to 7x.

As a side note... are you going to sell Compal's in Poland ? May I ask what company, I just want to add you to the EU Compal reseller list.

 

No, I got it from icecomp.pl

I know this whole throttling thing doesn't make much sense - especially at this kind of temperature. I'm now waiting for a reply from Compal, curious about what they'll have to say about it.

 

Any news from compal?
I am interested in this model.
Also does it support i7-620m ? I saw it offered by some resellers... but none answered my questions..
Something fishy about it?

l.e. their site is so poor quality and the driver suport seems a joke (for this model at least) makes me wonder how they are(used to be?) no.2 ...

 

It does support 620M, check here for resellers in Europe.

 

Also review.

 

They don't have switchable graphics if ordered with one of the dual core processor models do they?

EDIT: Ah I see now it uses a chipset that I think makes it impossible. Nevermind.

 

Actually it looks like it is supported http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/16517/35/

unless I got it wrong ofc