Whoa, Nelly! Just weeks after Intel came clean with its new Pine Trial nettop and netbook platform, the company is today cutting loose with a few more. This go 'round, we've got the 32nm Arrandale (which consists of the Core i5 Mobile and Core i3 Mobile) heading for the laptops and the 32nm Clarkdale chips over on the desktop front. Starting with the former, most reviews found the CPU + GPU solution to be faster than rivaling Core 2 Duo + integrated GPU options, with the Core i5 being particularly potent in highly threaded applications. Better still, battery life didn't seem to take a hit even with the extra performance, though high-end, high-res gaming was still a lesson in futility when working without a discrete graphics card. Overall, the chip was a welcome addition to the fold, but we got the feeling that the first wave was priced too high and offered too little of a performance increase on the gaming side to really warrant a wholehearted recommendation. As for the Clarkdale? The Core i5 661 that everyone seemed to snag was found to be blisteringly fast, with most folks deeming it the outright champion in the dual-core realm. Unfortunately, the integrated GPU was -- again -- not awesome for hardcore gaming, and the questionable pricing didn't exactly thrill some critics. Do yourself a favor and dig into the benchmarks below -- we get the feeling we'll be seeing oodles of machines hit the wires this week with these chips within.
Update: Check out the Arrandale in action after the break!
I was waiting for Arrandale MacBookPros in February before buying my first Apple portable since '02. Was hoping for more power and lower battery consumption. The summary makes it sound like the battery life might not be much better, but, meh. Only reason I waited this long is that I didn't need to buy, looks like the Arrandale chips are a nice upgrade if not a huge change.
It's important to understand that these sites are generally afraid to bite the hand that feeds them so you'll almost never see a bad review. These CPU reviews are no exception.
Comparing the sites' conclusions, we see a range from "These new CPUs represent marvelous new technology" to a wishy-washy "Yeah, these are expensive but we can understand why they're priced this way."
Kudos to the few sites who outright called-out Intel on the i5 prices: "I had to call Intel to ask why this was not a worthless product"...
I don't bother reading anything other than anandtech.
Thankfully the site with the least bias is also the site with the most knowledgeable writers. I was really happy to see Anand start writing for engadget.
why is it that all of the Arrandale reviews focus on i3/i5 only??? according to Intel's website, Arrandale i7s launched on Jan 3rd as well. I want my i7-640UM reviews!!! seriously though, I want to buy the current Asus ul30vt but I'm afraid they'll release a i7-640UM like a week later. anybody know why reviews are i3/i5 only???
Intel only gave reviewers the one Asus notebook, so they all benchmarked the same chip.
We will have to wait until or after CES to see what the i7s do, but I don't think they are all that compelling. Think about it, a ULV laptop sells for as little as $367(acer 1410 on Tiger Direct with bing cashback), and a single i7 costs $300. Then you have the chipset which costs $50. That leaves $17 for the rest of the laptop. We might see these things in some models, but I seriously doubt we will find it in anything selling for less than $800.
The only thing I care about: Clarkdale chips will have integrated 7.1 HD Audio format bit-streaming capabilities as well (once software and drivers catch up, of course).
Needed: One (1) cheap nettop with Clarkdale chip = HTPC Nirvana.
This chip marks a step forward in the right direction :) 2011 will be a tight year for the Tick (Tock) action on the 32nm chips. Clearly with the inclusion of somewhat discrete level GPU's into the CPU die, they are working towards some really tight battery extending SOC action in the near future. With the introduction of Apples A4, we should see full sized i7 performance within a 5watt thermal envelop within a few years :) Year to Gordon Moore and his wonderful law ... ^^
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posted January 4th 2010 1:09AM
I was waiting for Arrandale MacBookPros in February before buying my first Apple portable since '02. Was hoping for more power and lower battery consumption. The summary makes it sound like the battery life might not be much better, but, meh. Only reason I waited this long is that I didn't need to buy, looks like the Arrandale chips are a nice upgrade if not a huge change.
It's important to understand that these sites are generally afraid to bite the hand that feeds them so you'll almost never see a bad review. These CPU reviews are no exception.
Comparing the sites' conclusions, we see a range from "These new CPUs represent marvelous new technology" to a wishy-washy "Yeah, these are expensive but we can understand why they're priced this way."
Kudos to the few sites who outright called-out Intel on the i5 prices: "I had to call Intel to ask why this was not a worthless product"...
@arcasinky
I don't bother reading anything other than anandtech.
Thankfully the site with the least bias is also the site with the most knowledgeable writers. I was really happy to see Anand start writing for engadget.
why is it that all of the Arrandale reviews focus on i3/i5 only??? according to Intel's website, Arrandale i7s launched on Jan 3rd as well. I want my i7-640UM reviews!!! seriously though, I want to buy the current Asus ul30vt but I'm afraid they'll release a i7-640UM like a week later. anybody know why reviews are i3/i5 only???
@mtvis4luzers
Intel only gave reviewers the one Asus notebook, so they all benchmarked the same chip.
We will have to wait until or after CES to see what the i7s do, but I don't think they are all that compelling. Think about it, a ULV laptop sells for as little as $367(acer 1410 on Tiger Direct with bing cashback), and a single i7 costs $300. Then you have the chipset which costs $50. That leaves $17 for the rest of the laptop. We might see these things in some models, but I seriously doubt we will find it in anything selling for less than $800.
MissingRemote's review should be added to the Clarkdale list - http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4489&Itemid=250
The only thing I care about: Clarkdale chips will have integrated 7.1 HD Audio format bit-streaming capabilities as well (once software and drivers catch up, of course).
Needed: One (1) cheap nettop with Clarkdale chip = HTPC Nirvana.
Enough said. :)
All I know is the Dell tower I picked up this weekend with a Core i7 and a 1GB Radeon 5770 seems to work juuuuuust fine. :D
This chip marks a step forward in the right direction :) 2011 will be a tight year for the Tick (Tock) action on the 32nm chips. Clearly with the inclusion of somewhat discrete level GPU's into the CPU die, they are working towards some really tight battery extending SOC action in the near future. With the introduction of Apples A4, we should see full sized i7 performance within a 5watt thermal envelop within a few years :) Year to Gordon Moore and his wonderful law ... ^^