Performance

We stuffed the OpenBook 1559-JL with up-to-date components to check its performance. We did so to fully reveal the advantages of the Sonoma platform which is the foundation of this computer. So, the standard configuration of this barebone was completed with the following hardware parts:

• Pentium M 770 processor (2.13GHz frequency, 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache)
• 2x512MB SO-DIMM DDR2-533 SDRAM from Kingston with 4-4-4-12 timings
• Fujitsu MHT2080BH hard disk drive (Serial ATA, 80GB)
• QSI DVD+-RW SDW-082 optical drive

We installed Windows XP Professional SP2 on the notebook.

The results of our running various performance benchmarks are listed in the following table:

You can see that the performance level of the OpenBook 1559-JL is very high. This notebook, equipped with a modern processor and memory subsystem, can well challenge mainstream desktop systems. In fact, the performance of the reviewed platform is closer to the desktop replacement rather than to the full-size notebook class. This is all thanks to the new Intel Centrino (Sonoma) platform which ensures a very high performance of mobile systems.

We also see that senior Pentium M models can work at the speed of the Pentium 4 which is currently the highest-performing Intel processor for desktops.

Besides speed, there is another parameter important for any mobile computer ?the time it can work on its own battery. We measured this, too, using Battery Eater Pro 2.50. We performed our tests at the default settings. That is, all the power-saving technologies were turned on.

As you see, the high performance of the OpenBook 1559-JL has its downside, too. The battery life time of this notebook is smaller than with many other machines of this class based on the Intel Centrino platform. We can identify the cause quite accurately ?there is an external and rather fast graphics card NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 in this OpenBook, which is an additional consumer of power. The power consumption of this graphics card is close to that of modern mobile processors, so the battery is depleted sooner than when mobiles chipsets with an integrated graphics core are in use.

On the other hand, the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 has advanced means to control its power consumption, particularly PowerMizer 5.0. By adjusting the parameters of this technology through the driver you can achieve a reduction in the consumption of the graphics subsystem, although sacrificing in its speed.