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Price: $999.99 at Costco
Model: AV7170-EC1
CPU: AMD Turion™ 64 X2 TL-50 Dual-Core Processor
GPU: nVIDIA Go 6100
OS: Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition
LCD Size: 17" WXGA+ LCD with AveraBrite™ (High Definition Video Capability)
Optical Drive: Dual Layer DVD/CD Burner
Hard Drive: 100GB SATA 2.5-inch 7200 rpm
Memory: 1GB DDR2 (533 MHz), user-expandable up to 2GB
Wireless LAN: 802.11b/g
USB: (3x) 2.0
Dimensions (WxDxH): 15.5" x 10.9" x 1-1.37"
Weight: 7.2 lbs.
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Summary
The Averatec AV7170-EC1 is one of the most impressive mobile PCs that I have ever seen on the market at a reasonable price.
It is loaded with enough power to walk and chew gum at the same time without tripping or choking
to death. The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 Dual Core processor makes the machine fantastic at multi-tasking. I never thought that a dual core PC would be that much different than a single core PC until I started to listen to music on my iTunes library and install a copy of the latest Need For Speed franchise installment. I was even able to import music off of CDs and onto my computer while the installation was in progress. I recently tried to do the same thing on a brand new Sony VAIO single core mobile PC and it really couldn't handle doing two things at once. The dual core technology is one of my favorite new technologies simply because you can do more than one thing at once without compromising any speed once or ever.
The AV7170-EC1 is loaded with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition. It isn't that much different from the average Windows XP Professional, but it adds in a bit of a media experience. The media center feature is very neat to have and it looks pretty neat once you get it setup and working. I live on a boat so it is nice to have a home entertainment center built into my computer. The only downside to Windows XP Media Center Edition is that it doesn't take advantage of the 64 bit capabilities of the processor.
The nVIDIA Go 6100 graphics card seams to get the job done. It idles around at about 59-60 degrees celsius when it isn't doing anything. The graphics card control panel is very nice and easy to use. It has all sorts of features that you can use and tells you about what they do. One of my favorite things is that the control panel actually tells you how hot your graphics processor is running, something that I haven't seen in many laptops before. Now the important thing here is gaming. I have loaded up some games such as Need For Speed Underground, Farcry, Half Life 2, and some of my other favorites. They all seam to work quickly and smoothly at default settings and some of them can even function on the more detailed settings with things like reflections and shading turned up to high quality. I'll let you know what the Futuremark scores are in a little bit.
The 17" WXGA+ LCD with AveraBrite™ (High Definition Video Capability) is a great monitor. I have watched a few movies over the last couple of days and the picture quality is amazing. The display is also viewable from almost any angle unlike traditional LCD and Plasma displays. When I first saw the high picture quality, I thought I was in the toy isle at BestBuy because the quality looked like something you would get out of a 5,000 dollar HD tv.
When it comes to memory, drives, and other items along that line, this light computer is well equiped. It's dual layer DVD burner allows burning for the burning of high capacity media files. As we all know, one thing that can slow down the best optical drives is a slow disk drive. The Averatec AV7170-EC1 is equiped with a 100GB Hard Drive with a 7200RPM speed. I was blown away when I discovered that the hard drive was just as fast as your average desktop hard drive. The dual layer DVD drive works like lightning when it is used in conjunction with the fast hard drive. With 1GB of DDR2 RAM, you can also run a fair amount of applications at once straight out of the box. Yes, it is also standard with this machine and most other Averatec machines to have built in 802.11B/G wireless networking. Among other features are the 5-in-1 portable media reader, 3 USB ports, and one FireWire port.
All in all, this is a fast mobile PC for the business CEO and gamer alike. One point that I forgot to mention is that the widescreen display is great for looking at spreadsheets that typically run off the edge of your screen. The widescreen display is also excellant for watching movies, playing games, browsing the internet, or even having two programs open side by side when you are multi-tasking. I give this computer a five out of five. And yes, it is Windows Vista Capable according to the nice Microsoft reminder sticker.
Review by Rudy Bankson, Copyright 2006 BetaSource.net. Any unauthorized distribution of this article is prohibited.
Edited by error51, 30 August 2006 - 12:44 AM.
. my wife is looking to a lappy in the near future, and the build of this is fairly persuasive...
