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64 Bit Athlon Notebooks Hit the Market
Omega1045 writes "Our friends at News.com.com.com are reporting that one of the first notebooks powered by the 64 bit Athlon will be made by (drumroll, please) eMachines. Slashdot has mentioned eMachines venture into 64 bit Athlon technology before. You also might note from this past press release that eMachines claims to be the 3rd biggest PC maker in the US. Hopefully this will have the dual effect of pushing the new chip into the market, and keeping it afforable of laptop junkies like me."
The heat from the laptop caused the market to catch fire, which at this time is still burning.
I don't have much need for a 64 bit laptop, but I welcome this because it will naturally drive down the prices of what I might actually buy. Way to go, eMachines.
Quote:
"Hopefully this will have the dual effect of pushing the new chip into the market, and keeping it afforable of laptop junkies like me."
This is the only part I can see as a plus to this. However I would take a guess that it will do little to the latter, in that most companies know E-Machines general reputation with the people who would be first in line to buy a 64 bit laptop, so I don't forsee that they will try to compete with E-Machines in the price category for some time.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
for 30 minutes of 64 bit computing
HOW'S MY POSTING? CALL 1-800-POSTING
The only experience I've ever had with eMachines are two systems- one was my sisters' old P-166 machine- it lasted for 3 years without a hitch, till I blew it up by trying to put Win98 onto it (long time ago :)
The other one is one of those widescreen eMachines Athlon laptops- my friend bought it a while back- it's a really solidly made machine that has had no problems so far. YMMV
I'm glad to see some OEMs going away from the relatively expensive, and in the case of the Celeron, weak Intel architecture. You can build a heck of a General-Purpose / Gaming / Development machine based on AMD CPUs for next to nothing. You can easily put together an AMD64 3000+ / Radeon 9600 / 19" monitor system for under a grand.
I hope to see more PC makers go this route. Diversity is good. Now, if they would start considering alternate OSes as well...
This comment is a direct repost of this one.
It has a "high-capacity 8-cell LiIon battery." Still, no mention of batter life in the specs. Hmm, I wonder why?
I've been working with 64-bit chips since 1998 (DEC ALPHA systems and now G5's) and there has always been problems with heat and power. What's the battery life going to be on one of these machine?
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
I live in a Pentium 350 world and home and have been limping along, quite happily actually. I admin a Win2K network at work so keep one foot planted there, and have been learning and living on a steady diet of Linux the rest of the time. While eMachines don't thrill me, I am thinking more and more that I should postpone any upgrades until I can truly dive into the 64 bit world. I realize I will be stuck running plenty of 32 bit applications, but is my wait worthwhile? I am really getting the itch to get into serious gaming again but (obviously) my current system is not up to much more than the Ultima Online I played for 5 years. Perhaps this question fit better as an Ask Slashdot question, but I didn't feel it was worthy to stand on its own so I welcom your comments.
We win together or suffer without.
Not everybody shopping for a 64 bit notebook would buy something cheesy like an eMachines laptop.
VoodooPC has been selling their high end m:855 for some time now. Based on the Athlon 64, it also has ATI Mobility 9600 Graphics Pro chipset.
Bah, I'm going to hold out for a dual 64 bit laptop. With a RAID array.
Yet for all those "advantages" there are just as many disadvantages. Ever try typing a *lot* of information on a laptop? They are just not typically ergonomic enough for extended typing use. At least not compared to a "natural-type" keyboard. Then there is screen size. Call me insane, but I happen to like my 21" of crisp CRT goodness. No 15" LCD is going to quite match it. The list can go on.
The point being, yes, for some a laptop can replace a desktop, but not so for others. Almost all the reasons you gave could be an argument for *both* a desktop and a laptop (with wireless card.)
VoodooPC has been doing this for over three months already.
hypersonic pc has been selling one for a while as well. They seem to be pretty decent machines, might by one with my tax refund. -siniset
I guess if this eMachines thing has a 1-year warranty you can get an "extended" warranty from Best Buy for a few hundred bucks more. I'd definitely advise doing that. But it means you have to figure it into the price of the machine.
eMachines are just a crappy as Dells or Gateways but you avoid the brand tax with them. Unlike Dell and Gateway, eMachines doesn't pretend it's selling you some top of the line system but is honest about the fact that you're getting the house Chianti, as it were.
All's true that is mistrusted
Looks like this laptop comes with XP Home installed. Now, I'm no expert, but does XP Home even support a 64-bit proc? I know it'll at least run in 32-bit mode, but what's the point? If your OS can't deal with the newer instructions, why not just get a 32-bit Athlon at a higher clock speed?
I looked on MS's XP Home system requirements page, and it makes no mention of 64-bit support - XP 64-bit version looks like a totally different product.
Call me naive but, if that's what you want, why not buy a dell?
I have one. Its 2.5 years old with a 1600x1200 LCD. Its shoddy build quality has put it out of service though. I need to summon the energy to get it through tech support's head that the note to "update my video drivers" from the last time I sent it in has nothing to do with the laptop not turning on.
No more Dell.
I think it's the M305 or something. It was the first one they offered. Bought it at Best Buy for about $1000. Had better graphics and more memory than the others in the price range, which is why I bought it in the first place.
So far, it's been a trooper. It's rock solid and reliable, battery life is good. It's also fairly thin and easy to handle. I like the widescreen a lot, as it makes the whole laptop less deep (every inch counts when you fly coach.)
I love it. If this one ever gives out, I'd buy the 64 bit one in a second.
With Dell you get a three year 24 hour warranty. While Dell has never serviced my laptop warranty claims within 24 hours, they often get them within 48.
So Dell promises, but it can't deliver. Interesting.