Dell Studio 15 Laptop Computer (Intel Core 2 Duo T5850, 320GB HDD, 3GB)

Parsing the intended markets for Dell's ever-shifting in-house brand names requires a bit of tea-leaf reading, although it's been easier of late, with the company stripping down its consumer brands to just the Inspiron and XPS lines. Now the company is adding a new line between the budget Inspiron and the high-end XPS. The new Studio line, as personified by the $1,250 15-inch Studio 15, has the same tapered shape, slot-loading optical drive, and rounded hinge as the Dell XPS M1530, but a similarly configured Studio system costs roughly $300 less than a similarly outfitted XPS.

The trade-off is mostly in size and finish. Even though it has a similar look, the Studio laptop is about 25 percent thicker and slightly heavier than its more upscale XPS cousin, with plastic accents instead of metal. We'd be tempted to toss in the extra $300 for the brushed-metal wrist rest and slimmer design of the XPS, but the Studio line does offer personalization options (lots of colors and graphic imprints) beyond what's available for Dell's other laptops, along with a slot-loading optical drive and credit-card-style media remote for about $200 more than a similarly configured Inspiron 1525 (not including discrete graphics, which are not available on the 1525).

Price as reviewed / Starting price	$1,189 / $799
Processor	2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100
Memory	2GB, 667MHz DDR2
Hard drive	250GB 5,400rpm
Chipset	Intel GM965
Graphics	ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400
Operating System	Windows Vista Premium
Dimensions (WDH)	14 x 10.16 x 1.25 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	15.4 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	6.0 / 7.2 pounds
Category	Mainstream

While clearly inspired by the popular XPS M1530, the Studio 15 has a more angular look, with its large side hinges curving the screen down at a sharp angle; the XPS presents a more rounded look. At 6 pounds, it's a bit heavy to tote around every day, but still at the lower end of the 15-inch scale, around 6 pounds. Our early review unit had a matte midnight blue lid, but there are a variety of color options. We've also seen some leaked shots online of several artistic designs motifs that should be available in the future, which we've previously covered on Crave.

The Studio 15 follows Dell's recent, and welcome, trend of putting HDMI outputs and touch-sensitive control buttons on just about every laptop--you can also get those on even the cheapest Inspiron 15-inch. Like the XPS 1530, it has a slot-loading optical drive and an Express Card slot that doubles as a holder for a credit-card-style media remote.

Also like the XPS M1530, the Studio 15 has a 15.4-inch LED backlit display with a native resolution of 1,440x900, which is standard for higher-end midsize laptops. Dell's cheaper Inspiron 1525 has a 1,280x800 display, but the extra screen real estate at the higher resolution in the Studio 15 makes for a much less cluttered desktop. We prefer these newer LED displays (over older LCD models lit by a fluorescent lamp) because of their lighter weight, brighter whites, and lower power consumption.

	Dell Studio 15	Average for category [Mainstream]
Video	HDMI, VGA-out	VGA-out, S-Video
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	4 USB 2.0, mini-FireWire, multi-format memory card reader	4 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Expansion	PC Card slot	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Modem, Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth	modem, Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional WWAN
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

Intel's 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU is the current default for mainstream performance, and the Dell Studio 15 easily outperformed Dell's 14- and 15-inch Inspirons with slower 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processors, as well as the most recent XPS 1530 we looked at, which had an older 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500. But for most typical tasks, including Web surfing, working on Office documents, media playback, etc., any of these CPUs would be more than adequate. We'd expect new CPUs from Intel's Centrino 2 refresh later in the summer.

While it's not the top of the video card food chain, the 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD3400 will provide for some basic gaming muscle. We got around 17 frames per second on Unreal Tournament III at 1,280x800. Tweaking the settings and turning down the detail level should get more playable frame rates in the mid-20s, but this system is targeted more at creative types, not hard-core gamers.

The Studio 15 ran for 2 hours and 46 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included six-cell battery. That's reasonable for a midsize laptops, and our battery drain test is especially grueling, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and office use--we got more than 3 hours out of it in anecdotal use.

Dell includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty with the system, which includes extra features such as 3GB of online backup storage space though Dell's DataSafe program. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line, and an extensive online knowledge base and driver downloads.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell XPS m1530

949

Dell Studio 15

1,040

Dell Inspiron 1420-123B

1,169

Dell Inspiron 1525-122B

1,176

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Studio 15

202

Dell Inspiron 1420-123B

226

Dell Inspiron 1525-122B

231

Dell XPS m1530

273

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron 1525-122B

205

Dell Inspiron 1420-123B

204

Dell Studio 15

167

Dell XPS m1530

186

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron 1525-122B

135

Dell Studio 15

166

Dell Inspiron 1420-123B

195

Dell XPS m1530

202

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations:
Dell Studio 15
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1; 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD3400; 250GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Dell Inspiron 1420
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750; 3072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 250GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Inspiron 1525
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750; 3072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 250GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Dell XPS M1530
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition; 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Massive cache for 8-core processor designed for high performance, low power and high yield

Intel recently described a 24MB 24-way set associative 8-ported 3rd level cache for an upcoming 8-core Intel® Xeon® Processor with design emphasis on high density, low power and design reuse. It features a 0.3816 μm2 bit cell in a 45nm high-k metal gate technology using 9 copper interconnect layers. Sleep transistors are used extensively to minimize the leakage power. A shutoff option is available to eliminate the leakage power in disabled portions of the cache. Fine-grained clock gating is implemented to reduce dynamic power. A separate power supply for the cache allows it to be run at the lowest operating voltage to minimize power consumption while meeting the frequency target. During shutoff, the power supply of the SRAM can be as low as 0.36V, which saves approximately 83% of leakage power. There is an extensive redundancy scheme to ensure the manufacturability of the processor. Together, these features enable Intel to produce a massive 45nm cache, which in turn enables a very high performance, yet also very energy-efficient, Intel Xeon processor. Details were presented recently at the 2009 VLSI Circuits Symposium in Kyoto, Japan.

Intel's new technology : The Itanium 2

Intel's Itanium processors were 64-bit chips, specifically designed for high-end enterprise and high-performance applications. The Itanium 2 processor was the second in the Itanium processor family. Intel faced major challenges in gaining acceptance for Itanium. Intel had put tremendous amounts of energy and money behind Itanium. Intel's IA-64 fund, started by Intel for encouraging the use of Intel architecture, had invested heavily in start-ups to assist them in developing Itanium-based applications and worked extensively with established hardware and software
manufacturers to get them involved in Itanium-based projects. Would Itanium 2 also share the same fate as Itanium 1 or would the tech world embrace this new processor? The article illustrates the challenges involved in gaining market acceptance for a new technology.

In early 2003, Intel, the largest producer of microprocessors in the world, launched the company's new 64-bit microprocessor, the Itanium 2. Intel spent billions of dollars on Itanium 2 to take on IBM and Sun Microsystems [Sun] in the $25 bn market for the 64-bit servers.

The predecessor to Itanium 2, the Itanium 1 was a failure. The Itanium 2 processor is the second in the Itanium processor family. Itanium processors were specifically designed for high-end enterprise and high-performance applications, like business intelligence, databases, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, high-performance computing, and computer-aided engineering. The Itanium 2 supports high transaction volumes, complex calculations and vast amounts of data and users. The processor's Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) design[1] and 3 MB integrated Level 3 (L3)[2] cache enables high processing rates and performance for faster online transaction processing, data analysis, and simulation and rendering.

The processor also boasts advanced reliability features, including extensive error detection and correction on the processor's major data structures. Itanium 2 also has an advanced Machine Check Architecture for intelligent error management and recovery of complex platform errors to prevent data loss, corruption and down time.

The Itanium 2 is also socket-compatible with two future generations of Itanium family processors to allow them to be easily swapped into existing Itanium 2-based systems. This extended the value and longevity of customer investments in Itanium 2-based platforms. In addition, Intel has five future Itanium processor family products in development, with designs already underway that reached into the second half of the decade. But Intel faced major challenges in gaining acceptance for 64-bit chips. The shift to 64-bit computing is not merely a matter of upgrading the Pentium. Itanium 2 requires computer makers to redesign their hardware and software companies, effectively requiring them to rewrite all their code. While Itanium I has been a failure, the timing of the launch of Itanium 2 is a cause for concern. Following the dotcom crash, the tech market is witnessing a major downturn.
The Itanium 2

The Itanium 2 processor has been designed for demanding enterprise and technical applications. Intel claimed the processor offered up to 50% higher transaction processing performance than comparable platforms from Sun Microsystems [Sun] and at lower costs. Intel also believes Itanium provided flexibility and choice through the support of a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, HP, and Linux and via a growing base of applications targeted at high-end enterprise and technical computing environments. Itanium 2 offers as much as twice the performance of its parent chip, the Itanium 1. Itanium 2 enables computer manufacturers to build either four- or eight-way Itanium 2 servers. A Scalability Port enables manufactures to expand outwards into configurations beyond eight-way systems. The Scalability Port (SP) is a point-to-point cache consistent interface to build scalable-shared memory multiprocessors. The SP interface consists of three layers of abstraction:

The Physical Layer, the Link Layer and the Protocol Layer. The Physical Layer uses pin-efficient simultaneous bi-directional signaling and operated at 800 MHz in each direction. The Link Layer supports virtual channels and provided flow control and reliable transmission. The Protocol Layer implements cache consistency, synchronization, and interrupt delivery functions among others. The first implementation of the SP interface is in the Intel's E8870 and E9870 chipset for the Intel Itanium 2 processor and future generations of the Itanium processor family. The E8870 chipset is the first of a new generation of chipset architecture, specifically designed to meet the needs of high-end server platform segments. The E8870 chipset, optimized for the Itanium 2 processor, provides new levels of performance, scalability, and enhanced error detection, correction and containment. Forward-compatibility with future versions of the Itanium processor family is also a feature of the Itanium 2 processor.

Itanium 2 is fabricated on an .18-micron process, similar to Itanium, and initially shipped at 900MHz and 1GHz. The top clock speed is only 25% faster than the Itanium but Itanium 2 demonstrated 1.5 times performance improvements in applications over Itanium. The improved performance is due to both micro-architectural improvements and chip/platform bandwidth enhancements. One of the biggest performance enhancers is the L3 cache being on-die in Itanium 2 versus off-die in Itanium[3] . As a result, significant reduction in latencies and increase in bandwidth is possible.

Itanium 2 could only process six instructions (two bundles of three instructions each) at once, similar to Itanium 1, but Itanium 2 could handle more diverse groupings of instructions. Though IA-64 supported a 64-bit address space, and Itanium 2 supported 64-bit virtual memory addressing, it only supported 50-bits of physical address pins and larger than the 44 bits of physical addressing on the Itanium. Intel claimed four customer-specific chipsets would support the Itanium 2: The HP zx1; the Hitachi ColdFusion-2 (CF-2); the IBM Enterprise X-Architecture's “Summit” chipset; and an unnamed NEC Itanium chipset. In addition, Groupe Bull and Unisys were adapting the E8870 architecture to develop customized systems. The companies designing Itanium 2 chipsets represented first-generation Itanium customers. In total, counting some unannounced products, Intel believed nine chipsets supported the Itanium 2.

Intel reveals new technologies EUV technology

In the middle of the African desert, among the Moroccan dunes of Mezouga, Intel decided to present to the French press the strategies for the near future regarding the development and marketing of the processors. After launching at the beginning of this week the dual-core processors and after long debates about Moore's law which is still standing even after 40 years, the company began to talk about a new perspective on the technologies regarding the manufacturing process.

After a brief mentioning of the first silicon processor, Intel emphasized its advantages on the production of advanced processing solutions. Having 5 factories spread all over the world and the possibility to manufacture wafers of 300 mm, Intel wants to push the manufacturing process to a whole new level: the company targets the implementation of the High-K technology and migrating until 2007 to the 45 nanometer graving solution. The secret to this is a grid isolator whose role is to prevent the electron leakage. In the same time, Intel will start using metallic electrodes, and starting with 2007 and until 2009, the producer estimated it will change the structure of the transistors by introducing the Tri-Gate solutions. Using an original non-planar arrangement of transistors, Intel hopes to optimize their properties. This optimization consists in the simplification and acceleration of electrons, avoiding in the same time the specific problems of electron leakage.

Normally, the electrons flow in a horizontal plan, but using these solutions will make them flow both on vertical and on horizontal direction. The cells of the Tri-Gate processors will communicate through nanomolecular connections, and once the nanotube type transistors appear, the diameter of each transistor will decrease under the 2 nanometer limit.

Intel is also planning the progressive transition to the EUV technology, or Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography, a solution that allows the graving of the processors at 32 nanometers and which will be available by 2009.

Getting to the Core -- Intel's new flagship client brand

Nehalem. A small town along a river by the same name in Oregon, and also code-name for Intel’s next generation microarchitecture. Today Intel announced that upcoming products based on this new architecture will officially be called Intel® Core™ processors. Will Nehalem fade away as a code name? Probably not right away. But over time, if you want all the goodness that Nehalem represents, think Intel Core processor.

Speaking of goodness, a fair amount is known about Intel’s new microarchitecture, but not all technical details have been revealved. Expect to see and hear more about the new architecture and the upcoming Intel Core processors at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco August 19-21. Keep a close eye on Pat Gelsinger’s keynote speech on August 19.

The first products in this new family of processors, which will be in production in Q4 and feature a unique mix of performance and energy efficiency, will also carry a new identifier and be formally branded the Intel® Core™ i7 processor. Believe it or not, this new naming scheme should make it easier for PC buyers to decide which technology is right for them. The “i7” identifier is the first of several new identifiers to come as different Nehalem-based products launch over the next year.

So the Intel Core processor will become the foundation, the primary client brand going forward, with individual identifiers distinquishing different features and capabilities with the family of processors

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