System setup and notes
Hardware and Software
Test Platforms
| System | ASUS W1 Carbon laptop | ASUS A6JA laptop | Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 | Rock Xtreme Ti 3.8 laptop |
| Processor(s) | Intel Pentium M 750 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB - single-core) | Intel Centrino Duo T2500 (2.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB, dual-core | Intel Pentium M 770 (2.13GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB - single-core | Intel Pentium 4 570J (3.8GHz, 1MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB - single-core |
| Mainboard | Intel i915PM Sonoma | Intel i945PM Napa | Intel i915GM Sonoma | Intel i915P PCI-Express |
| Memory | 1GByte (2x512MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | 2GBytes (2x1024MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | 1GByte (2x512MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | 1GByte (2x512MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | Memory timings | 4-4-4-12 @ DDR2-533 | 4-4-4-12 @ DDR2-667 | 4-4-4-12 @ DDR2-533 | 4-4-4-11 @ DDR2-533 | Graphics Cards | ATI Mobility RADEON X700 128MB | ATI Mobility RADEON X1600 256MB | NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra | ATI Mobility RADEON X800 XT 256MB |
| Graphics Card driver | ATI 8.183.4-050212a-021287C | ATI 8.183.4-051031a-027919C | NVIDIA ForceWare 71.89 | ATI CATALTST 5.2 |
| Disk drive(s) | Fujitsu 100GB 4,200RPM | Hitachi 100GB 5,400RPM | Seagate 100GB 4,200RPM | 2x 60GB Hitachi 7,200RPM in RAID0 |
| Screen | 15.4-inch WSXGA (1600x1050) | 15.4-inch WXGA (1280x800) | 17-inch WUXGA (1920x1200) | 17-inch WSXGA (1680x1050) | Operating system | Windows XP Pro SP2 | Windows XP Pro SP2 | Windows XP Home SP2 | Windows XP Home SP2 | Price | £1500 inc. VAT | £1500 inc. VAT | £1700 inc. VAT | £1700 inc. VAT |
Benchmark Software
HEXUS.in-house Cryptography BenchmarkHEXUS Pifast Benchmark
ScienceMark 2.0 (7th February 2005)
Realstorm Raytracing 2004
DivX 6.1 encoding benchmark
CINEBENCH 2003 multi-CPU render
HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.97a (Intel HT compiler) - 701MB WAV
picCOLOR 32-bit v4.0 (b479)
KribiBench v1.1
Simpli Software's HDTach 3.0.1
Quake 4 - HEXUS custom benchmark
3DMark05 b1.2.0
Far Cry - HEXUS custom benchmark
Notes
We'll be comparing the W1 Carbon's benchmark performance against its Yonah-powered stablemate, the A6JA that we reviewed a few weeks' back. It uses a faster CPU, better graphics card, faster-spinning hard drive and 2GBytes of memory, all for the same asking price as the W1 Carbon. It doesn't look as good, though, and its native resolution was lower, running at WXGA (1280x1800).
We've also added in a couple of desktop-replacement models from Dell and Rockdirect, respectively, to see how it fares against high-end competition.
Issues
We're listing some of the issues we ran across for the sake of completeness. We're adamant that the vast majority were attribitable to ASUS sending the W1 Carbon for evaluation at the last minute.
The Bluetooth module could not be correctly switched off via the hotkey on the right-hand side of the laptop. Rebooting the laptop caused it to be re-activated, and the only method of switching it completely off was to manually disable it from XP's device manager.
The supplied set of CATALYST drivers weren't enabled with ATI's PowerPlay technology (no tabs present), meaning that clock-speed modulation during mains and/or battery use wasn't working correctly. The InstantON function supports AVerMedia's M103 tuner, that is, the ability to run it outside of an OS environment. However, the sample wouldn't work correctly in a non-XP environment.
We found that power profiles didn't work correctly when switching from DC to battery mode. The clock speed remained constant throughout. Additionally, unplugging and replugging the mains adapter caused it to sporadically stop working. It's worth reiterating that the problems are due to ASUS' eagerness to send us out a sample rather than underlying faults with shipping systems.
