Taking the plunge on the A_series - questions

I'm going to go for it this week I think, if anyone can help me with a few niggling questions that would be great:

##1 - Big performance difference between 1.6 and 1.7 centrino? (price difference is high)

##2 - "1MB L2 Cache" and "2MB L2 Cache" can someone explain? whats the difference performance wise?

##3 - 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 and 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, both 64mb graphics cards to me. Whats the difference here?

##4 - A forum review says that A-series come with 2 partitions on HDD, I find this irritating and don't really see the point. Is there any way to easily remove this? without a full reformat or too much effort.

Anyones thoughts on the A195HP would also be welcomed as this is the machine in question; http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/product.asp?recorprod=1&product=213&cat=75&ph=&keywords=&recor=&SearchFor=&PT_ID=

Thanks in advance

 

From my research here is what I have gathered:

1MB cache was a big deal when the first centrino chips came out vs desktop pentium which has less cache maybe half a meg. Apparently the large cache bridges the difference in performance between the higher clock speeds of the desktop vs lower clock speed of notebook. In which applications it makes a difference I don't know, but think of future I think better to have 2mb of cache.

I don't think the 1.6 has 2mb of cache, but if it does then take it vs 1.7 which has 2mb of cache.

9700 has 30% better performance than 9200 ATI, so if you want to play the odd game you will enjoy it. I have had the a170 for the past 4 days and I continue to be in awe of the screen, I don't have games yet, but my friends are getting me Fry Cry and Halo and others.

Before I loaded software I asked Sony help if I could remove the partition, they said it could be done but not recommended, however, they did walk me through a process in which I changed the allocation. Originally, C and D were 20/60 split, now they are 40/40 split.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the help screener, I agree with you the extra cache and graphics is more than appealing.. the problem is I don't want the 17" version! just the 15" for me which doesn't seem to come with any of the above

 

The footprint of the 17 inch is big, 16 inches wide, and 8.6 lbs. takes a good amount of deskspace compared to my old 15 inch notebook. For my needs not an issue since I move my notebooks around 3 to 4 times a year for travelling. If I needed to move around on a daily basis I would recommend the 15 inch notebook for smaller footprint.

Note I think the 15 inch A series still better than the ZR1 because bigger and better screen. I would not be surprised video card is better too, note re video card you will never notice a difference in regular office applications. Only with high demanding new 3d games.

 

Yeah, I only really want to play Championship Manager and Sim City. The laptop is to be for internet, office etc.

I definitely don't need 17", its too big for me. The only concern then is the cache from what you say the jump from 512 to 1mb bridging those clocks means a 2mb must be very beneficial to centrinos, I would agree that 2mb has the obvious advantages. If only the 17" model spec (minus the screen) was on a 15" notebook. in that sense I guess the 195HP must be the model for me.

When you spoke to sony help was that an expensive phone call? or were they generally good service and reasonable rate. If you have any other observations then please speak out

Thanks, Adam

 

Sony customer service has so far been very good. They are helpful, well informed. I had bad experiences with HP customer service, Sony clearly better.

No cost for the call from US it is toll free. I get the feeling for the first 30 days they answer questions no problem, no fee.

 

Screener,

I'm curious, how difficult was it to adjust partition sizes to 40/40?