We live our lives under too much influence by corporate marketing teams. It’s a fact, not something you would disagree. We buy what some PR guru made us, we eat more and more food that has better package than content, we drive cars that never seem to be good enough to not to break, we even believe a multi-billion company as Intel would make something out of pure heart and good intentions. Do we, really? When Intel came out with their new amazing CULV platform everyone kneeled and praised them for the idea, but very few people asked the exact question of “Is it enough for everyday use? We did, and the answer is no.
If you read carefully most of the PR stuff you will notice that someone already thought ahead of you and explained that those low power platforms are good for tasks that don’t require much processor power – browsing, looking at photos in Flickr and SD videos at Youtube, using it for Skype calls or for office work like Word and Excel. Given that most Atom-based netbooks (another “success”story behind Intel’s back, as they sold millions of cheap to make processors combined with old chipsets in netbooks, before they started to look obsolete.
But what if those equally undemanding tasks we do everyday are used together at once (which is very common, actually), and what if you want to watch movies and you never look if that trailer or Youtube video is in SD or HD? You will quickly realize low power Core 2 Solo processors are too restrictive, but again – someone at Intel thought ahead of you and released bunch of dual core low power CPUs to meet your demands. They are more expensive than the single core processors, plus they still run at too low speed, but they gave AMD a chance to release their own low-voltage platform. And then everyone were gone mad about low voltage, even if people didn’t embrace that low-voltage philosophy. Not because they knew someone is trying to rob them, but because 2 GHz is more than 1.4 with almost fifty percent and sounded better, plus much too often it comes with decent graphic card.
One of the first Acer n(e)otebooks that employed the CULV platform
What everyone missed in the battle of low-power computer was the fact (Intel would object here) that almost every Penryn core with less than 6 megabytes of L2 cache will work at less than 1V at full speed and consume the same power as current low voltage processors. 1V or even less. At full speed. At a cost same or better than the price of ULV cores Intel currently offers. Most enthusiast didn’t miss it by chance – as it is much harder and sometimes rather risky to overclock a laptop, many of us went the other way around and undervolted our processors. Which is de facto overclock as you are supposed to have less speed when your processor works at lower voltage. And by the time T8300 came around (later it gained a hundred more MHz and became P8600) we all ran them at lowest possible voltage with great success, as if we all bought much more expensive SL processors with less cache.
Then Intel decided to realease thir CULV platform and it all went to hell, manufacturers started to sell us underpowered Intel processors which we would crass our hearts Intel picked from their defective higher end cores. And media bought it, without even telling people those ultra thin notebooks aren’t meant to replace a regular notebook or cheap desktop. They have their niche – small, light and with long battery life, but that’s more suitable for people that move a lot, not those that use their notebook mostly at home.
Intel made up the whole thing and AMD followed them later. What they now sell to you is nothing as special as they say. It’s exactly the opposite – they sell us expensive processors with lowered cost. They can make them much much better (we don’t know about AMD as their 45 nm process disn’t seem to do much for their CPUs’ power consumption. There was however one decent effect – notebook brands started to sell much lighter and thinner models previously we were unable to buy outside the high-end business class. Today there is more sense in buying cheap Acer Timeline or similar TravelMate than expensive, based on regular low-voltage processor from the SL9xxx line system, except if you aren’t after the perfection that those high end model can offer.
So how twisted is to sell undervolted, underpowered processors for more money than they cost in their natural form?
CULV is 1/7 twisted, but at least it made the manufacturers to invest some more attention in low end budget models based on the platform. You have to accept the fact underpowered processors have their uses, just not in the way Intel (and now AMD too) tells you, but in netbook-style.
Higher Twisted Rating is worse!
Next time we would answer to AMD unanswerable questions about battery life. Stay tuned.
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Hey, I googled problems with ultra low voltage processors and I found this article in the course of my research. Thankfully, I was tipped off about the processing problems before I bought a Dell Inspiron 1470. However, most of the info I’ve read about CULVs report the problems while using 3GB DDR2 RAMs. My first question is would the 4GB DDR3 RAM available with the Inspiron 1470 compensate for the CULV low processing speed while still maintaining an excellent battery life? I am essentially shopping for a laptop for under $750 that has a decent battery life (a battery life like the CULV is a huge plus since I will be taking it to law school in a few months and the portability would be nice, but I need a 3 hr. min), is well built (won’t fall apart if it gets knocked around in a backpack a bit), has Win 7, and a good Memory (how much benefit/longevity value in the DDR3 over DDR2?). Built in CDRW/DVDRW is important but not necessary as I could get an external one pretty easily for around $50. Webcam and Bluetooth also plusses but not essential. I really like the Inspiron 14 with core 2 duo SU7300, but read better reviews on the HP DV6-1355DX with core 2 duo T6600. Any question you at The Twisted Team or any other readers could answer would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been doing a lot of computer shopping and I’m learning a lot quickly, but am still woefully underinformed on computers and I just don’t want to buy something I’ll regret. (By the way, yes I realize I’m bargain shopping with a price ceiling of $750, but I don’t use a comp for intense gaming, I just want a good, reliable computer that’ll last for the next 5-6 years and I can listen to music while having multiple webpages up, while writing a paper, and having Messenger or Skype running in the background). Sorry for the long message but I could use the help!
Now first of – DDR3 hasn’t got much more value over DDR2 and, in fact, is slower than DDR2 in those cases it works at 800 MHz (line in GS45 with 800 MHz FSB processor) due to worse timings compared to DDR2.
Thing is that it works with less voltage, which also saves power.
It doesn’t really matter if you use 4 GB over 3 GB – most people still use 32-bit OS, where all you get is a bit over 3 GB (if you have four), and Windows Vista is as good with 3 as with 4 anyway. After all, you are considering ULV platform, so it’s not all about performance.
Our advice is to also seek something similar to Acer’s Timeline (13″ is Acer AS3810T or TZ, 14″ is AS4810T or TZ and 15.6″is 5810T/TZ), with both dual core CULV processor (SU4100 or SU9400, but the later is more expensive) and ATI Mobility Radeon 4330, which would allow you to have everything in one sub 1.8 kg. notebook. May be Acer 4810T, as it’s light and fast enough, plus it doesn’t compromise biuld quality (excellent) or performance (sure it’s under DV6′s T6600, but with 3+ hours battery life on top of the HP), and it has DVD too.
Not sure if Dell have something close to Timeline and at similar price.
You can always take a model w/o descrete graphics, as Intel’s GMA 4500M is suitable for everyday work and even movies (it has H264 acceleration for Blurays and such with DXVA, read: Media Player Classic Home Cinema, for example)
Any questions are welcome.
I think ultra portable laptop will replace all the netbook soon enough. Just take a look at the new Dell Adamo XPS.
What about it? Expensive and made for show-off. They are releasing similar Dell Vostro 13 now (you already can buy one at Dell UK), again based on those low-performance processors.
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