Configuration

The ASUS M5A notebook is based on the updated Centrino platform that includes a new mobile chipset, a central processor Intel Pentium M, and a WLAN controller. I’ll dwell upon some aspects of the platform shortly, but now I want to offer you a table with the technical characteristics of the ASUS M5A as opposed to the Acer TravelMate 6003LCi which has a similar configuration but is based on the older version of the platform. I think that it’s going to be interesting to compare notebooks on the old and new Centrino between themselves.

The models in question are both based on integrated chipsets: the ASUS M5A on the i915GM (Alviso) and the Acer TravelMate 6003LCi on the i855GME. The new mobile chipset supports the PCI Express bus with such features as high bandwidth and the option of disabling some lanes at low load or in the sleep mode. Different memory allocation technologies are used in the two graphics subsystems. The Acer TravelMate 6003LCi uses Shared Memory Architecture which allows the user to set (in the BIOS) the amount of memory (8, 16 or 32MB) to be given to the graphics subsystem. Of course, the more memory you give to the graphics core, the less memory you leave to 2D applications.

The integrated graphics subsystem of the ASUS M5A deserves a closer scrutiny because it uses Intel’s new graphics core called Graphics Media Accelerator 900 that ensures good image quality, compatibility with a wide range of applications, output to two monitors, expandability (the PCI Express x16 port allows installing an external graphics controller) and optimized use of system resources (Dynamic Video Memory Technology version 3.0) for a balance between the performance of the graphics subsystem and the notebook at large. The technical characteristics of the Intel GMA 900 list the following: up to 333MHz graphics core clock rate, up to 224MB of system memory can be allotted for the graphics subsystem, hardware DirectX 9.0 acceleration, four pixel pipelines with one texture-mapping unit per each, version 2.0 pixel shader support, OpenGL support. The next table will help you compare the integrated graphics subsystems of the old and new Centrino:

The ASUS M5A uses DDR2 SDRAM clocked at 400MHz (the Acer TravelMate 6003LCi supports DDR SDRAM clocked at 333MHz). The Acer has two memory slots, both occupied with 256MB modules (the maximum memory amount supported by this notebook is 2GB). One of the slots can be found at the bottom of the notebook, under a cover. The other slot is hidden under the keyboard and in order to access it you have to unfasten two screws at the bottom of the case (marked with the letter “K?, remove the panel near the screen hinges and shift the keyboard out of its place towards the screen. The ASUS M5A has only one memory slot, which is occupied with a 256MB module. Additional 256 megabytes are integrated directly on the mainboard, so the maximum memory amount you can have in this system is 768MB.

The new integrated audio standard High Definition Audio from Intel is implemented in the Intel 915 Express family of chipsets and, accordingly, in the ASUS M5A. This technology was developed for multi-channel recordings with support of 7.1-channel speaker systems. Two audio streams can be reproduced at once, and older audio files can be reproduced in the 7.1 format. Dynamic reassignment of the connectors is supported, too. That is, the system automatically determines the type of the device attached and configures the connector accordingly.

I measured the temperatures of the notebooks with an infrared thermometer as they were doing the Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 test. Here’re the results:

• ASUS M5A: 32°C on the top panel and 37°C on the bottom panel
• Acer TravelMate 6003LCi: 40°C on the top panel and 47°C on the bottom panel