2.8Ghz Z, will it happen anytime soon?

Hi,
I'm going to place my order this weekend. How many of you think the 2.8 processor will be available in the Z anytime soon? Is there any coming processor up date within the next few months?

 

I would expect it in the next refresh. I'm not sure how long is normal before a refresh, but I would expect 6 months at least.

By the way, are you sure you want 2.8Ghz? It's a 35W CPU and very few applications will actually benefit from it.

 

Isn't the 2.54Ghz 35W CPU also? I'm trying to get the best processor possible, basic RAM and Harddrive for now since upgrading RAM and SSD seems simple enough as of for now.

 

Nope. The P9500 is 25W TDP just like the others. It's only the 2.8 which is 35W...

 

I think that the Lenovo T400 is using the 2.8 processor and battery life appears to be excellent. I don't know for sure but maybe you won't lose as much battery life as some people might think if you opt for he 35W CPU.

 

The P9500 has a TDP of 25watt. a 35watt CPU could make the fan go on more often than you'd like.

What I meant to say was if you don't use a lot of maths, encoding/decoding stuff there's no real benefit in 2.8Ghz. Even a 2.26Ghz CPU will rarely be the bottleneck for 90% of the users.

 

but i think thats due to the larger battery, correct me if i'm wrong..

 

The 6 cell battery in the T400 is rated at 56wh so it is rated the same as the 6 cell battery that is in the Z. One benefit though of getting a 25W CPU is that it in theory it should run a little bit cooler.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=290903

 

but shouldnt we consider the capacity? e.g. the mAh

 

From googling on the net it looks like the T400 6 cell battery is rated at 5200mAh. The 6 cell battery in the Z is rated at 5400mAh. Anyway my point was that going for the 2.8 35W CPU might possibly not affect battery life as much some people think that it might.

 

They already have it on the Chinese version. I think in Japan they also have it.

 

Yep, 2.8 ghZ is already available in Japan. Sony also uses a different fan for this model so it should be the best choice imo, refering to early reviews of the 2.53 ghZ models that they have a noisy fan in the contrary of this high-end model of the 2.8ghZ. Great idea putting another kind of fan.

 

Are you sure about this armadilo?

I thought it was just unconfirmed speculation.

 

Are you refering to the different cooling sustem
A user (Isamux) from the huge Z owner's thread told this. It makes sense to me.

 

I was referring to the different fan.

The way i understand it is that Isamux did not think his fan was very loud, so he said 'so maybe I have a different fan'.

It could be true, but I think the more logical explanation is different people hear different things, and the interpretation of 'noise' is very subjective.

 

Maybe you are right. We should ask someone in Sony so we know officially. Maybe nixon knows something about this?
I mean users with the P9500 complain about the fan and those with the P600 claim that is fine? Yeah is all subjuntive but..

 

The different cooling system and fan for the T9600 is confirmed (scroll down http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/0807/22/news071_3.html and you'll see the pictures of the two different cooling systems). Also you have to understand that a TDP (thermal design power) is not how much power the processor eats/needs, it's how much power needs to be dissipated when the processor is used at full power. This means that under a low/normal load, the 35w TDP 2.8Gz will not need much more power than the 25WTDP, as its speed will be throttled down with a lower multiplier. However, when it goes full speed, it does need a full 35W heat dissipation, hence the larger/better fan/cooling system. This also means that when running slower (ie doing office, browsing web, etc), the better cooling system fan will be dissipating the heat better, hence will probably run less/slower. This is why isamux experiences a less noisy fan.

 

Great job, Manni! +1 rep

If I pull the trigger for the Z I will definitely take the P9600. More power, less heat (under normal usage). Is P1 offering this option?

 

It isn't confirmed. The picture shows the fan of a SR and Z side by side. There is no way that the 35w fan will be quieter than the 25w. It make zero sense for that to happen. Anybody thinking otherwise is just in denial.

We also have no idea what isamux is hearing. Unless he has both a Z t9600 and a Z t8100 to compare against, his opinions about the fan is subjective.

Every single review on the net and reviews on this forum (including mine) have touched upon the fan noise of the Z. Its not super loud (at least in silent mode), but it isn't the quietest around.

 

Thank you for explaining but I already understand what TDP means.

And I think Dadoes is right. Those fans are SR and Z.

By the way, regardless of the TDP discussion, I do believe the 2.8Ghz uses more power than a 2.26Ghz.

I doubt it. At it's lowest multiplier it will be clocked higher than a P9500, thus creating more heat than a P9500 when idling.

 

Wrong. The two pictures shows two different cooling systems, one set for the S, one set for the Z. In the picture that shows the two systems for the Z, one is for the TDP25 CPUs, the other for the TDP 35WCPU.

Bad translation by Google: "In addition to the direct sales model TDP 35-watt Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8GHz) can be built up, T9600 and to select a heat sink and fan blades will be some changes. 冷却機構をわざわざカスタマイズしてまでT型番のCore 2 Duoに対応する姿勢に開発陣の意地を感じる"。

In better English, it means that a CTO model with a TDP35W T9600 (2.8Ghz) can be built, which includes a specific cooling system (different heat sink and fan blade).

I'm sure Isamux can take a picture of his fan and cooling system, and we'll compare it with someone who has a TDP25W processor.

 

Well that may be interesting but the original question was does it make less noise. So it would be interesting if someone could measure the noise of both Zs.

By the way a fan made for 35 watt TDP would theoretically also use more power.

 

I didn't mean you didn't know , it's just that the way you say it sounds like one needs 25W and the other 35W.

I agree with you, the 2.8 will idle with a clock that is slightly higher than a 2.26, but we were talking about a 2.53 and I think in that case the difference will be marginal. The heat grow exponentially as the clock goes up, hence the superior TDP. At the lowest multiplier, the better design of the fan/cooling system will definitely override any slight increase in heat dissipation.

 

It is related to the noise issue, more than the power consumption!
My point is that at low load, the better cooling mecanism of the T9600 will dissipate heat faster/better than the one for the lower frequency processor, hence is likely to make less noise at low load. It is also more likely to make MORE noise at full load (more heat to get rid of!).

Again, I am not pretending that the 35TDP processor will use less power than the 25TDP ones...

 

Wrong, on the second picture are just the same cooling systems (S & Z) from other side... here they're showing how does it look like inside and as you can see, the fan looks completely the same as the usual one and it's opened T9600 version....

I'm sorry, my English is not perfect, but my Japanese is better

 

It's an interesting theory, i don't know it it is true. It would be nice if someone could test it.

I know, that's why i said "By the way ...."

 

My mistake, you're right (it's actually obvious now you say it). As your Japanese is excellent, could you please translate exactly what they say about the different blade and fan for the T9600? Otherwise I'll have to find another source, I'm 100% sure about the different cooling system, I haven't invented it!

 

Hehe, my Japanese is far from being perfect and my wife is already sleeping, so I can't ask for perfect translation ,) But it's something like "it's said, that if you'll choose T9600, the blades and the heat sink will be a bit different"...but again, if you'll take a look a the videos I sent in a post above, you'll see, that it looks quite the same...so I'm not sure, if they just didn't expected it...

 

Different blades may be very suble changes, maybe just the angle.

To go off topic - helicopter blades.

I once read that a little flap at the end could reduce noise levels significantly. Related to the whole rotor, the change seems negligible, however its significant.

Also, some person somewhere, I believe it was New Zeeland or Australia developed a new model for more efficient propellers, thus also more efficient fans.

So what looks the same may be completely different.

 

Here are some nice pics from hardware components SZ vs Z



As you can see Z cooling unit has 2 cooper coils as oppose to SZ.


and more images:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3644735&postcount=1898

BR
Miki

 

Yes, and judging from that little "label" its 8g heavier.
But then -2 coils = more copper, thus more thermal energy transfer.

What I'm wondering though - that smaller mainboard, isn't that more difficult to cool than the SZ's larger one??

(I just "love" the SZ and dislike the Z, although it is a bit more powerful)

 

Well yes and no. Bigger housing means better heat control/dissipation so we could assume that bigger housing will provide less heat problems. On the other side materials used for housing are also important as well as heat flow throughout the housing. So engineers have a lot of issues to cover when building/designing housing.

For example my old 15.4'' FZ was running hotter than my SZ, even SZ much smaller and stronger spec.(and I always use Speed mode)

BR
Miki

 

I think the really interesting thing is:
- Is there really a different fan/cooling system used for the 35W processor
- Is it less noisy
- Can one order it separately to any country
- Does it fit in any Z model
- Will the Z which used to be noisy now be less noisy with this fan model from the 35W processor

I guess its interesting for all people not having the chance to buy a 2.8GHz config...

If all the points above prove to be true, I would exchange my fan!

 

am really unhappy coz am waiting my Z 2.53 with fan issue .. i i know i will wait but i already ordered it .. any thoughts

 

People got mad. Beyond the fact I don’t believe there's much difference between those two fans (if they really exists) as we know just from one user, that he thinks it's a bit quieter....the T processor is an older technology and despite we don't know if that processor makes the battery life shorter or not, all the Japanese reviews with this processor are showing much shorter battery life than with P procs (it's true they were not testing the final product though). I wouldn't go with T procs for sure, as I was waiting for new Montevina processors...

 

The only online Japanese review that i have seen of the Z was of a Z laptop configured with the T processor and 2 SSD drives. How you will run your laptop will also factor in what type of battery life you will get.

This video review of this laptop that was configured with a 7,200rpm drive, blu-ray drive and the 2.8 processor they said that this laptop got 4-5 hours battery life with high performance usage. If they did use the computer quite a bit for high performance stuff then that is a not bad battery life to get at all.
http://wow-pow-blog.blogspot.com/2008/08/video-review-of-sony-z90-us-mobile.html

The Blu-ray drive also might consume a bit more power as might the 7,200rpm HD.

Also the 2.8 processor is not using old technology. This processor is still a Monteniva processor using the same 1066 Bus but it is just a 35w as opposed to a 25w CPU.

I think more reviews need to come out so that people can compare both models properly.

 

I saw this video before and I don't know what to think about the "reviewers"...at first they're using 5400rpm HDD not 7200, that's just a mistake. Second, if they're able to say "If you need a Crysis graphics crunching laptop this is the one but it will cost yah as isn’t cheap.", what do you think? Whould you call Z as a "Crysis graphics crunching laptop"?

But if you're right, that 2.8 procs is also Montevina, I'm taking it back. I thought that 2.8 procs in Japanese models are non Montevina, as I thought that all Montevina models starts with "P".

 

This is some info about the different processors.
http://laptoping.com/intel-montevina-penryn-cpu-prices.html