A great review.

Could you try to get a Merom W3J since that's the ASUS model I'm interested in.

What's more, when you are talking to ASUS maybe you could point out the fact that the latest specs from retailers indicate that the W3J shipments coming to North America will only include a T5500 which is disappointing for a $1799 notebook. Maybe you could mention to ASUS that something like a T7200 would be nice for that price range.

I thought I should point out that you should do a comparison between Yonah and a 4MB Merom too, to see if the extra cache is needed to better feed the CPU.

The ASUS W3J-H026P (I know I'm bringing this up again) comes with a T2500 and if you can get ASUS to give you a W3J with a T7200 that would give a good comparison of how important the L2 cache is.

Interesting read. Two thoughts:

1) For anyone who is worried about eventual 64-bit compatibility, they only have to upgrade the processor, not the whole notebook. So, you get excellent 32-bit performance with Yonah, and an upgrade path to 64-bit Vista when that eventually arrives. And it is something you never have to upgrade to if you don't ever have the need. How un-Intel like....

2) I would like to see the next slowest model processor Merom go against the Yonah - and THEN compare the battery life. I'm tired of seeing performance benchmarks where one processor gets better benches across the board and then loses in the very-important battery life measurement. Could x-bit do this?

I read an X2 TL-60 comparison where the AMD actually tied a Merom C2D in battery life, all the while the C2D demolished it in performance. This is really a false equivalence.

In short, 8% in battery life IS significant.

F*&$ing great article! I've been considering getting a Core 2 Duo to replace the T2400 in my Latitude D520 but this has pretty much shown me it's not worth it. The extra ~10% performance is offset by the extra power consumption of the Core 2 Duo. The only reason I may still upgrade is for the 64-bit support if I start doing more development work.

AMD 4x4 Forever

Good clear information wich can be used before you decide!! Compliments

fantastic review for the mobile market. I assumed that core2duo is better than coreduo. Now, I know how much better exactly.

good text, +- c2d = cd