Specification
| Time Platina A64 3200+ | |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 Model 3200+, 2000MHz, 1MB L2 |
| Display | LCD TFT, 15.1", SXGA, 1400x1050, 32-bit colour, S-Video and VGA output ports |
| Northbridge | VIA K8T800 |
| Memory | 1GB, 2 x Micron DDR333 512MB SODIMM |
| Graphics | ATI Mobility Radeon 9600, 64MB |
| Southbridge | VIA VT8235 |
| Disk Storage | Hitachi Travelstar 7K60, 60GB, 7200rpm, UDMA5, 2.5" |
| Removable Storage | Matsushita UJ-815, 2 x DVD-R, 1 x DVD-RW, 2 x DVD-RAM, 16 x CD-R, 8 x DVD read, 16 x CD-ROM read |
| Audio | CMedia CMI9738S AC'97 PCI Audio, fed by VT8235 |
| Audio Connectivity | Line output, mic input |
| USB | 4 x USB2.0 ports |
| Firewire | 1 x FireWire400 4-pin unpowered port |
| Networking | VIA 10/100Mbit wired Ethernet, 802.11b WiFi wireless Ethernet |
| PC Card | 1 x Type-II PC Card slot |
| Card Reader | Multi-media card reader (CompactFlash, SD, MMC, XD) |
| Misc | IrDa transciever, stereo speakers |
Quite the desktop PC eh? That's the beauty of these things, you get desktop hardware in something that isn't that hard to carry about. A64 Model 3200+, 1GB of DDR memory, MR9600, SXGA LCD, DVD-R, 7200rpm IDE disk, WiFi, USB2.0, FireWire400. All technologies that sit fine in anyone's power computer.
A couple of things irk me in that specification list though. Why no 802.11g WiFi? The standard has been around for months now (and it shortly to be superceded), where's the support? Why only DDR333 memory? 512MB DDR400 SODIMMs are on the open market and the C0 stepping A64 runs it just fine. Unpowered FireWire ports just annoy the hell out of me full stop. Put a powered 6-pin port in and ship a convertor cable.
That said, there's lots to like. Nice touches like a flash memory reader put a smile on my face. But specification is barely 10% of the story. It's execution, how it's put together and things like warranty and upgradeability that are important. Let's see how it looks, so we can delve a little deeper.
Note the 1.6GHz CPU clock speed in the System Properties dialog, one of the Cx power states the Model 3200+ supports and the one the unit happened to be in when boot speed was sampled. It's normally 800MHz, the lowest Cool and Quiet setting possible (4 x 200).
