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Durable Notebooks for Corporate Users

Posted on: Thursday, 24 February 2005, 00:00 CST

IT all started in 1984 with the humble desktop computer "business" in Michael Dell's dormitory room back in college. Today, Dell (the company) has evolved into a full information technology (IT) solutions provider offering desktops, notebooks, servers, workstations as well as expanding on peripherals such as monitors, handhelds, projectors and printers.

What still remains is Dell's "configured to order" tagline which the company has expanded on the corporate scene by introducing a new range of Latitude D-Family notebooks and two new additions to their Precision mobile workstation family.

The Latitude D410, D610, D810 and Precision M70 and M20 are the latest additions to feature a faster Pentium M processor with a 533- megahertz (MHz) front-side bus and two megabytes (MB) of L2 cache along with the new PCI Express and next-generation DDR2 architecture courtesy of the 915PM and 915GM chipsets.

The Latitude family utilises either the 915GM with Intel's integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 900 or the 915PM chipset with ATI's Mobility Radeon X300.

The Precision family comes with the 915PM chipset with the PCI Express graphics solutions with ATI Mobility FireGL V3100 on the Precision M20, and Nvidia Quadro FX Go1400 on the Precision M70.

The original Precision M60 is expanded into two separate products, the M20 and the M70, based on customers' feedback.

According to Dell's Latitude product marketing manager Doreen Koh, the Latitude family, equipped with the onboard shared graphics Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 (up to 128MB of onboard memory), offers a good solution for corporate users who want to utilise it mainly for office applications.

Dell also offers the ATI Mobility Radeon X300 for those who have higher graphics needs.

While many may frown on the sluggishness of an onboard shared graphics solution, Koh disagreed, saying that from the tests conducted in Dell's headquarters, it was found that the onboard graphics performed up to 73 per cent faster than the discreet graphics solutions in certain office applications.

The smallest and lightest of the Latitude family, the D410, is designed to cater to corporate customers who demand the lightest notebook and performance. The D410 employs a mainstream Pentium M processor instead of an "ultra-low voltage" (read: low performance) processor typical of slim and light notebooks.

Unlike desktop machines which spend 90 per cent of their time on the desk or under it, a notebook is mobile, thus it's lugged around everywhere, accidentally dropped on the floor, knocked around or thrown into the boot of a car where temperatures soar over 40 degrees Celcius in tropical climate, etc.

Thus, Dell has taken a proactive measure by adding shock absorbers and an alloy frame to protect the vital components from being damaged.

Importantly, Koh said low cost doesn't mean low quality.

"Ninety per cent of the orders from the United States are shipped directly from the Dell plant in Penang. The hinges, for example, cycled through some 20,000 cycles, and to put that in perspective, that equals to about 15 to 20 times of opening and closing every day for the next three years, 365 days a year," she explained.

The Latitude D410, D610 and D810 retail at RM5,732.30, RM5,456.80 and RM7,482.20 respectively while the Precision M20 and M70 cost RM7,254 and RM9,188 respectively.

More information on various configurations can be found at http:/ /www.dell.com.my.

Source: New Straits Times

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