MSI Megabook S271- a firstling on AMD Turion 64 X2
Impressions
The major advantage of MSI
S271 is of course its mobility. Almost three and a half hours of normal
operation, impressive viewing angles horizontally and vertically,
minimum heating of the housing, low noise level...
Among the shortcomings is
not quite convenient touchpad of some degraded sensitivity. The
keyboard has neither special features nor issues. The tested pre-sales
specimen has no Cyrillic characters engraved on the keys, but in any
case this model will be shipped to the Russian market as a "localized"
version.
The model is equipped with
three USB ports, which is quite enough for a device of this class, but
the relative distance between them is not enough – once a
massive USB device (e.g. a flash disk, a player...) is plugged in,
access to the other port is hindered. Interfaces of the audio adapter
are brought over to the front panel of the notebook, which is
convenient enough if head-phones with a limited cable length are
plugged in.
Benchmarking
Performance of the
combination "AMD X2 ML-50 + 1 GB RAM + Radeon Express 200M"
is impressive. Needless to say, it makes no sense to expect peak
results from the graphics integrated into the chipset at demanding 3D
applications, which was confirmed in 3DS Max 7 – while
displaying a scene more or less filled with polygons, the FPS dropped
below the comfortable level. At other application suites, the operation
of the notebook had nothing to complain about.
Let's look at the results
of tests run in SiSoftware Sandra 2005 SP3. We'll be comparing it
versus the kindred model MSI S270 which is based on the combination
Mobile AMD Sempron 3000+ (1.8 GHz) and the chipset ATi RS480M + ATi
SB400.
|
Test
name
|
MSI
Megabook S271 (AMD Athlon 64 X2 ML-50)
|
MSI Megabook S270 (AMD Sempron 3000+)
|
| Sandra CPU Arithmetic Benchmark, Dryhstone ALU;
MIPS |
14316
|
8278
|
|
Sandra CPU Arithmetic Benchmark, Whetstone iSSE3 (iSSE2 for Sempron
3000+); MFLOPS |
6552
|
3637
|
|
Sandra CPU Multimedia Benchmark, Integer x4 aEMMX/aSSE; it/s |
30085
|
17070
|
|
Sandra CPU Multimedia Benchmark, Floating-Point x4 iSSE2; it/s
|
32817
|
18361
|
|
Sandra Memory Bandwidth Benchmark, RAM Integer Buffered iSSE3(2); MB/S |
3741
|
2217
|
|
Sandra Memory Bandwidth Benchmark, Float Buff'd iSSE2; MB/S |
3712
|
2216
|
Evidently, that at
synthetic applications Athlon 64 X2 Mobile Technology ML-50 is
pre-eminent over the younger brother Sempron. At the memory bandwidth
tests, it is the undisputable advantage of DDR-II and integrated
dual-channel memory controller which make themselves felt.
Let's move on to Futuremark
PCMark benchmarking suites. This time, we'll be comparing it versus the
no less interesting model – Acer
Aspire 5670 based on the Intel Centrino Duo platform (core
clock speed – 1.66 GHz, L2 cache – 2 MB, the system
bus speed – 667 MHz, RAM – 1 GB). Remember that the
cores of Athlon 64 X2 ML-50 run at 1.6 GHz clock speed.
|
Test
name
|
MSI
Megabook S271 (AMD Athlon 64 X2 ML-50)
|
Acer Aspire 5670 (Intel Centrino Duo 1,66
GHz)
|
|
PCMark 2004 |
4173
|
5019
|
| PCMark 2005 |
2463
|
3245
|
While in PCMark 2004 Athlon
64 X2 ML-50 just a little bit lags behind its immediate competitor, in
PCMark 2005 the difference becomes more pronounced. Evidently, it is
the architecture and the L2 cache size which affect that.
3D synthetics - Futuremark
3DMark'03 and '05. Again we are comparing it versus Acer Aspire 5670,
but for better "obviousness we don't expect something special from
Radeon X200M, especially if compared versus the modern discrete mobile
graphics of ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 installed in Acer Aspire 5670.
|
Test
name
|
MSI
Megabook S271 (AMD Athlon 64 X2 ML-50)
|
Acer Aspire 5670 (Intel Centrino Duo 1,66
GHz)
|
|
3DMark 2003 |
1305
|
3339
|
| 3DMark 2005 |
655
|
1618
|
The superiority of ATI
Mobility Radeon X1400 in Acer Aspire 5670 is evident. Well, MSI
Megabook S271 is not a high-end gaming platform, but nobody expected
that from a model with integrated graphics.
We are finishing the tests
with the traditional Battery Eater 2005. The time of standalone
operation amounted to 188 minutes (3 hrs 8 min),
which is a very good result for such a compact mobile system equipped
with a 2200 mA*hr battery.
Final Words
The conclusions we are
making are made up of two parts - one related to the new line of AMD
processors and the other regarding the notebook which has been to our
test lab.
We start with the line of
2-core AMD processors built on the Taylor core. Of course, it has
proved a success for AMD – there has been achieved a new
frontier of power consumption and heat emission, and the superbly
operating power management system PowerNow! has been implemented at an
outstanding level. Take for instance the 3 hours of uninterrupted
operation with a 2200 mA*hr battery. The performance is a little bit
behind Intel Centrino Duo, but let's not make hasty judgments
– that was just a single model on this platform. It seems
like the Napa platform will soon see a matching rival.
Regarding the second part,
we note that a notebook by MSI is almost an ideal of modern mobile
computer regardless of the modest capabilities at 3D operation.
Pros:
- Good design
- Superb quality of the
TFT matrix
- High performance
outside 3D
- Long battery operation
time
- Almost no noise and
heating of the housing
Cons:
- Not the most convenient
layout of USB ports
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