X-bit labs

Asus F5R Notebook: Competition within the Same Company (page 7)

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 02/01/2008 | 03:08 PM ]

Configuration

The ASUS F5R is equipped with an Intel Celeron M 520 processor (1.60GHz clock rate, 1024KB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB). This is a single-core CPU based on the 0.65nm Merom core. It has a typical heat dissipation of 27W.

The Intel Celeron M processor is a greatly cut-down version of the Core 2 Duo that provides an optimal balance between performance and price. The purpose of such a CPU is in using a high-performance core in inexpensive notebooks. The Celeron M lacks all the power-saving technologies of the Merom series, but unlike its predecessors on the Yonah core the CPU with a rating of 520 (and with a rating of 530 – among those present on the Intel website) supports the 64-bit extensions to the x84 architecture called Intel EM64T.

The F5R is based on the ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 1100 chipset which doesn’t differ greatly from its predecessor Mobility Radeon Xpress 200. The RS480M North Bridge and the SB400 South Bridge of the older chipset are replaced with RS485M and SB460 chips, respectively, in the newer one. The transition to a thinner tech process helped reduce the power consumption, according to ATI. The North Bridge features an integrated graphics core equivalent to the ATI Radeon X300 working at a frequency of 300MHz (the Mobility Radeon Xpress 1150 has a graphics core frequency of 400MHz, which is the difference between the two chipsets). The graphics core can be allotted up to 256MB of system memory for its purposes by means of HyperMemory technology. It features ATI’s exclusive power-saving technologies, although we couldn’t see them in action. The Mobility Radeon Xpress 1100 supports Intel’s CPUs and a bus frequency of 1000MHz. The South Bridge is compatible with the SB600 as a kind of a reserve for the future. It offers the same functionality as the Xpress 200: one PCI Express x16 slot, four PCI Express x1 slots, 8 USB 2.0 ports, 4 Serial ATA ports with support for RAID 0 and 1, and two ATA/133 channels.

The notebook comes with a Hitachi HTS541680J9SA00 hard disk drive (2.5” form-factor, 5400rpm spindle rotation speed, 80GB capacity, SATA interface) and a TSST TS-L632D DVD-burner with the following speed formula:

Writing:

• CD-R – 24x
• CD-RW – 24x
• DVD-R DL – 4x
• DVD-R – 8x
• DVD-RW – 6x
• DVD+R DL – 6x
• DVD+R – 8x
• DVD+RW – 8x
• DVD-RAM – 5x

Reading:

• CD-ROM – 24x
• CD-R – 24x
• CD-RW – 24x
• DVD-ROM – 8x
• DVD-R DL – 6x
• DVD-R – 8x
• DVD-RW – 6x
• DVD+R DL – 6x
• DVD+R – 8x
• DVD+RW – 8x
• DVD-RAM – 5x

The ASUS F5R works with DDR2-667 SDRAM. One of the notebook’s two memory slots is occupied by a 512MB module. The other slot is free, so the memory subsystem works in single-channel mode by default. The maximum supported amount of system memory is 2048MHz, so you can easily upgrade this notebook.

We measured the temperature of the hottest spots on the notebook’s surfaces with an infrared thermometer after it had worked for half an hour in the Classic test mode of Battery Eater Pro 2.60 (the ambient temperature remained constant at 23°C during this test) and got the following numbers:

• LCD panel – 40°C
• Keyboard – 31°C
• Bottom panel – 35°C
• Vent hole – 40°C

The next table lists the technical specs of the tested notebook in comparison with its opponent ASUS X51R: