The Affordable Notebook For Those With A Little Time To Tweak
Written: Jan 30 '05 (Updated Mar 13 '05)
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Pros: silver case, 80 gb hard drive, dvd writer, affordable price
Cons: Quality control issues, viewing angle on screen, some heat issues, battery life, needs additional tweaking
The Bottom Line: A very affordable notebook with a large hard drive and excellent wireless support. It needs some tweaks to really perform as intended.
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| digitaldoc's Full Review: Averatec AV3250HX (av3250hx80) PC Notebook |
Introduction
I needed a notebook computer for the basic tasks of email and word processing. The old adage for a notebook was half the computer for twice the price; now it's more like half the computer for about the same price as prices have dropped in the last year as notebooks have become increasingly more popular. This is especially true when you figure in the cost of an LCD monitor which is included with the notebook. In general, I am a proponent of building your own computer. For those limited in space, I am also a fan of the small form factor (SFF) PC's, which I have reviewed on this site. http://www.epinions.com/content_138039561860
As I can't build a notebook (I did look into it), I searched for something to fulfill my requirements at an affordable price point.
Unfortunately, for those of us that think a portable computer should actually be mobile the choices are more limited.
There seems to be no shortage of widescreen notebooks weighing over 10 lbs which are ok for apartment dwellers that will not move their system after setup, but not for commuters. This notebook is on the lower end of the mainstream notebook weight of 4 to 6 pounds. Dimension wise it borders on a sub notebook which is technically under 4 pounds, but usually are not too powerful. In my view, this notebook successfully straddles the mainstream and sub notebook categories as very few notebooks do (the iBook with the 12" screen is the other that comes to mind). I like very much that I can fit the computer with battery and power cord in a regular backpack with room to spare avoiding the need for a separate notebook bag which announces I have a notebook in here, come rip me off!
Buying Experience
The Averatec 3200 series is sold at Staples, Best Buy, Circuit City and Costco. The model I purchased was the 3250HX which features the 80 GB hard drive, and the DVD+/-RW drive which is sold exclusively at Circuit City. Purchased elsewhere, it features the 60 GB hard drive and a DVD/CDRW combo drive (does not write to DVD’s) and retails for $100 less. The notebook was purchased for $1099 with $200 back in rebates.
I rarely buy things in Circuit City, and I was reminded why with this purchase. The sales staff attack you at every stage in the store. At least they have most of the models displayed. Unfortunately, they're bolted down so it's hard to pick them up and get a sense of their heft, or even see the back, or what they look like with their lid closed. On top of that, they have a 15% restocking fee on a notebook purchase. You have 14 days to exchange the notebook for a replacement if it is defective; this seems too short to me on an expensive purchase like this.
I went to the store and went through the models and decided on this one. As I wanted something around this size and weight, this was really the only choice. I waited for it to have rebates. It was $1099, with a $100 manufacturer's rebate, and a $100 rebate from Circuit City, exclusively for online customers. The web site ordering process was efficient, and they emailed me my invoice. I printed out the invoice and brought it to the local Circuit City. I had to wait on line in the store for over 30 minutes as it's the same line for returns/exchanges- not exactly a great process for an expensive purchase as I'm waiting for folks to return DVD's ahead of me. If the store wants to encourage its online presence, there should be a separate pickup line to stream line the process.
Unfortunately, after 13 days the computer would not boot, even after I used the Windows recovery discs. On day 14 of the exchange period, I had to return the notebook and exchange it for another. It was quite obvious they were not happy it was back, and to make matters worse after 10 minutes of searching I was informed that they had no replacement model to give me. I had to go to another store on another day to pick up the new one. Interestingly, the replacement featured a different optical drive which I will detail later.
Features
Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor (Barton 1.6 Ghz/ 0.13 micron technology/512 kb L2 cache) with PowerNow! technology
10.9" x 9.6" x 1"; 4.5 lbs with battery
80 GB 4200 rpm hard drive
DVD +/-RW (QSI 082 or LiteOn 852s)
Windows XP Home (with 3 recovery cd’s; not on hard drive)
512 MB DDR (one stick, no empty slot)
12.1” LCD 1024 x 768 resolution
Wireless 802.11 b/g (not ‘a‘)
Built in 56k modem V90 protocol
VGA monitor port (dual display capable), 10/100 ethernet port, usb 2.0 x 3
Shared video ram (8 to 64 mb) S3 Unichrome video controller
Built in audio, headphone jack, mic in jack, volume wheel
Touch pad with vertical and horizontal scrolling
Kensington lock slot
Lithium ion battery
Standard size keyboard, 19 mm pitch
Stereo speakers, AC '97 audio, volume control knob
PCMIA slot (type II)x 1
Includes Microsoft works, and Cyberlink burning software
1 year limited warranty, 6 months on battery
no firewire, parallel, or serial ports
In Use
In this section I will detail each of the notebooks major subsystems and my experience with their performance.
Appearance
The notebook is encompassed in a relatively lightweight and small case. With only 1" of height, a lot had to be packed into the small silver case. It has a modern appearance which appears like brushed aluminum. It is stated that magnesium goes into the case to reduce weight, but it feels very much like a high quality plastic. The lid is held onto the body at 3 points which contributes to a solid feel. Some feel that the whole design was heavily borrowed from Apple notebooks; however that is probably a good thing. While less flashy than some of the current designs from HP or Toshiba, this notebook has a kind of industrial refined tech look to it that imparts power more than gimmickry.
Keyboard and Touchpad
This notebook features an almost full size keyboard. The key travel is slightly shallow at 19 mm, but still adequate.
The row of numbers, and the F keys at the top row are both half size to save space. There is no separate numerical keyboard, but there is a numbers lock and a numerical keyboard superimposed on the letters for spreadsheet work. For those of us that mostly do advanced "hunt and peck" it is more than adequate. What also impressed me is that as I went up the row at Circuit City, I pressed in the middle of all the notebook keyboards. Amazingly this one sagged the least of the entire row which made the whole computer feel more solid. This may be due to the smaller size of the notebook.
The touchpad is appropriately sized. It has a built in scroll bar section for both horizontal and vertical scrolling; it would be better if it were textured like an HP. It is not overly sensitive. There are left and right mouse buttons below it. There is no pointing stick. I find the keyboard and touchpad above average compared to other notebooks.
Screen
The screen has a resolution of 1024 x 768. The advantage is that this is a very standard screen resolution to avoid display problems. The brightness of the screen can be controlled from the F6 and F7 buttons. The display dims when on battery power compared to AC power to save energy. Compared to other screens the viewing angle is less both vertically and horizontally. You can definitely tell when you are not directly perpendicular to it. It is otherwise bright with good colors and refresh rate.
Processor
This computer is built around the Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor. A full review of the processor would be beyond the scope of this review. Thankfully, it is based on the Athlon XP processor which I have previously explained and features all the same technology. http://www.epinions.com/content_128486379140
This processor has a clock speed of 1.6 GHz (max speed 1658 mHz), and has 128 kb of L1 cache, and 512kb of L2 cache. It is part of the Barton family of processors with 0.13 micron technology.
The one difference to the desktop processor is the PowerNow! technology which is what makes this a notebook chip. Be careful shopping as many notebooks out there use a desktop chip to save money which in many cases run very hot and limit battery life not to mention hard drive life. The PowerNow! system works to vary the clock speed of the chip to the task at hand. When running a processor intensive application the chip runs at the full clock speed, when running on battery at a less intensive application the processor throttles back to a minimal speed, for this chip 400 mHz. This serves to maximize
battery life, as well as keep the notebook from running so hot. The counterpart technology from Intel is known as Speedstep and works in the same fashion.
How does this all work on this notebook? Less than ideally unfortunately out of the box. The chip runs at clock speeds of 1.2 GHz to 1.6 GHz, but does not seem to throttle back like it should despite the PowerNow! technology. I have also updated the PowerNow! driver from the AMD website, but it does not seem to make any difference. This unfortunately will limit the battery life. To get the PowerNow! technology to work properly requires a program called SpeedswitchXP. Using
version 1.4 which is the latest, I was able to get the chip to vary its speed from 400 mHz to 1.6 GHz. As is often the case, it takes some nice guy to write a freeware program to get the hardware to perform as it should. Additional battery life and processor control can be obtained using 2 other programs known as "the power trio" of which Speedswitch is one component. Look in the Averatec forum below to find the links to the download as well as detailed instructions for those interested in max battery life. The computer even runs cooler on AC power as an added benefit. The benchmark numbers below were the same with SpeedswitchXP installed.
In the benchmark department, the numbers look better. I ran the benchmark using CPU Bench with the computer set to max AC power and plugged in. The CPU Bench came up with a number between 475 and 499 on 25 runs of the program. Also, it would run Unreal Tournament at an acceptable 55 frames per second. This is about what I would expect from this chip and consistent with my testing of the Athlon XP 2800+ processor.
The crucial question in most folk's minds is how does this compare to a Centrino processor? Well, in terms of battery life the Centrino is a clear winner as it runs at a lower voltage. In terms of performance the answer is not so clear. Very few head to head tests have been done of the less common XP-M processor against the Centrino. The 2200+ designation refers to an equivalent Pentium 4 2.2 Ghz processor which this is probably roughly equivalent to (the Pentium 4 2.4 GHz only scored a 377 on my original testing with CPUBench). The one good battery of tests was done by Tom&'s hardware on 2 notebooks by Fujitsu and the Athlon XP-M ran almost as fast as a Centrino at the same clock speed on many tests. Therefore, I would consider this chip roughly equivalent to a Centrino 1.5 to 1.6 part. As the Athlon is a substantially cheaper part, it's probably fine for most users who don't need the most power in there notebook possible.
Hard Drive
The hard drive is a 4200 rpm model with an 80 GB capacity that formats to 75 GB. This is one of the larger notebook hard drives, especially for an inexpensive notebook of this size. I ran HD Tach 2.70 to benchmark it and the numbers were very good, especially when compared to a desktop drive in this review.
http://www.epinions.com/content_131774320260
Read speed: minimum 12.1 MB/sec, maximum 30.6 MB/sec, average 23.1 MB/sec
Random Access time: 26.9 milliseconds
Read burst speed: 79.8 MB/sec
CPU Utilization: 20.3%
For a notebook drive, I was very impressed that they were only a little off the mark of my desktop hard drive. I believe that the quick hard drive contributes to the overall responsive feeling of the notebook.
Optical Drive
This notebook is notable for its DVD+/-RW drive. This means the drive can read and write to both CDR's and CDRW's, as well as both types of DVD's- both the + and - variety. While it cannot read or write DVD-RAM (few desktop drives do), it can even write to dual layer media, the latest standard for optical drives. It is rated to read and write CDR's at 24x, DVD's are read at 8x, and written at 4x. While one of the better specs for a notebook drive, this is still several steps behind what current desktop drives can do.
There are at least 2 different drives used in this model of notebook. The first one purchased featured the QSI-082 drive. Unfortunately, QSI does not officially acknowledge the drive on its website. As such there is no official firmware upgrade available (look on the Averatec forum for some unofficial options). That said, the drive did read without any problem, and wrote to the one CDR I tried before it was returned.
I was very pleased when the new notebook utilized the LiteOn 852 drive. From my previous reviews, you can see I am a big fan of LiteOn drives in general.
http://www.epinions.com/content_123092242052
However, interestingly there is no official support or firmware on the LiteOn website either. There is at least an active community of LiteOn users, and people think of them as "open firmware" so there is at least hope that some unofficial firmware will develop for the drive. I've provided a link below.
Both drives featured 2 mbs of cache, and buffer underrun protection technology. To back up an audio cd took 10:46 of read time and 9:09 of write time for a 581 mb disc. The QSI drive was similar. I must say the discs were good, but the whole process seemed a little slow compared to my 52x drives.
Wireless Performance
The notebook has a built in wireless card that adheres to the b and faster g standards. Very few notebooks are setup to use the much less common a standard. It easily connects to available network hotspots. The stability of the connection is enhanced by installing the latest drivers directly from the www.ralink.com website which manufactured the wireless component.
When PC Mag tested this notebook they found it to have one of the longest ranges of any wireless card. I can confirm that in my experience. Compared to my Buffalo USB b/g adaptor (one of the best of the category), the connection is much stronger, and can connect to networks further away. In summary, the wireless performance is one of the highlights of this notebook, and is probably better than the Centrino package in terms of range.
Battery Life
The notebook includes a lithium-ion battery. It is important to calibrate the battery in the bios setup routine initially, and then once every 3 months or so. I have not exhaustively tested battery life, however, 2.5 to 2.75 hours is what I would extrapolate from the battery testing I have done.
Conclusion
No computer can be all things to all users. For those looking for a second computer, who value portability over having every last feature, this model warrants serious consideration. I would envision this being ideal for the budget conscious college student or commuter who already owns a desktop for their main computer needs. This computer needs to be plugged in for the majority of its use as its battery life is acceptable, but not fantastic. Ultimately, it packs a lot of power in a very portable package at a very aggressive price point which contributes greatly to its success.
Update: After 2 months of ownership, no problems.
Additional Resources
www.averatec.com
This is the manufacturer's website. It has specs, downloadable drivers, as well as the owner's manual can be downloaded as a PDF file which is nice to read before purchase.
www.averatecforums.com
This is an unofficial forum which is very active. In the 3250 sub forum is the information on this particular model of notebook. Folks also post info on upcoming models, and particularly good deals on this brand of notebook.
www.cdfreaks.com
This a website devoted to optical drives. In the LiteOn sub forum of the recording forum has a particularly detailed thread on the SOSW-852s drive and its firmware.
populartechnology.blogspot.com
My new website devoted to all aspects of technology.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 899
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 12 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
digitaldoc
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Location: New York
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
Men don't outgrow their toys, they just get more expensive.
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