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Notebooks: AMD Inside, Part Two

Second notebook we've seen with a 300-MHz AMD K6-2 desktop CPU doesn't match a Pentium II-300--but it is a good deal for the money.

By Rex Farrance, PCWorld   

In our current November 1998 issue of PC World we looked at UMax's ActionBook 330T, the company's new K6-2-300 Notebook, which was the first to use a 300-MHz K6-2 processor from Advanced Micro Devices (see "AMD Inside" link at right). AMD is planning to release a mobile version of its K6-2 in the first quarter of next year. But in the meantime some notebook vendors are trying to leverage the existing AMD K6-2 desktop CPU to give Intel some competition in the notebooks arena.

Although the K6-2 was designed for use in desktop PCs, it worked well in the UMax notebook, keeping its cool even after running for hours. We noted that its battery life was marginal at only 1 hour and 35 minutes, and its performance was about 20 percent behind the average for Pentium II-300 notebooks. The ActionBook 330T competed best on price: This model cost only $1749 with 64MB of RAM, more than $1700 below the cost of comparably equipped Pentium II-300s.

A Better AMD-Equipped Deal
Since we tested the UMax, we've been able to review AMS Tech's Roadster 15CTA, which also uses an AMD K6-300 desktop CPU. This model costs a mere $1495, although it comes with half the RAM (32MB) and hard drive capacity (2GB) of the UMax--otherwise, it's very similar. With a PC WorldBench 98 score of 122, it's about 3 percent slower than the UMax at 126. The smaller complement of RAM should more than explain this slight difference. But the AMS had an hour more battery life than the UMax, and AMS's three-year warranty is three times that of UMax's.

Not a Megahertz-to-Megahertz Comparison
It's logical to expect a 300-MHz processor to go toe-to-toe with another 300-MHz processor. But it doesn't always work that way in the real world. Granted, we see desktop K6-2-300s performing much like Pentium II-300s. But you can't make a direct comparison between a processor that's optimized for use in a mobile system with one that's designed for use in a desktop. AMD's Tom Kehoe says "You're not benchmarking the CPU, but the system as a whole. Issues like what bus interface it's using and the caching and such vary greatly from a desktop to a mobile system. That's why you see such a variation between mobile and desktop performance."

Price and Performance Are Key
When we rate models for our "Top 10 Notebooks," we look at everything but the megahertz rating of the CPU. "We're not comparing one processor to another," says Senior Associate Editor Vince Bielski, "we're looking at total value." Looking at the average performance range, the two K6-2-300 notebooks perform more like Pentium MMX-266s than Pentium IIs. But the prices of the two Pentium MMX-266s we've reviewed recently average from $350 to $600 higher than these K6-2 machines. The Pentiums, however, have battery lives that average about twice as long as the AMS machine--these are, after all, notebooks with CPUs optimized to reduce power use.

In the past we've urged readers to just say no when it came to buying a notebook built around a desktop CPU. In general, yesterday's processors used a lot more power and ran much hotter than those available nowadays--but that picture has changed. So when a desktop product performs acceptably in a notebook today, the resulting package may add up to a very good value. With the AMS Tech Roadster 15CTA, you get an inexpensive model that gives good performance for its price and has a satisfactory battery life. It's well worth considering if you want a bargain, and top performance and battery life aren't necessary.