Dual Core Laptops: This Isn't Your Last Year's Laptop!

By: Titus Hoskins

The laptop world is seeing double. The next evolution in laptops
is dual-core technology. Dual-core processors are quickly
raising the laptop experience to the next level and laptop users
are benefiting from the extra boost in performance.

Dual-core means exactly what you think it means, you have two
processors or CPUs in your laptop instead of one. Theoretically
this should mean twice the performance level for all those
multi-tasking chores we call upon our laptops to do. However,
you must have ways or technology (the platform) to utilize and
handle all this extra power. There is some catching up to do but
to keep things simple, Hyper-Threading, PCI-Express and SLI are
all ways of harnessing or using this extra power.

With the recent introduction of the new Centrino Duo Mobile
Technology, Intel has entered the multi-core arena. All this
extra dual power and Hyper-Threading will finally put some punch
into laptops and especially gaming laptops. Now almost on par
with desktop PCs, laptops and notebooks can finally hold their
heads high when it comes to performance. This isn't your last
year's laptop!

How quickly things change, Intel expects the Core Duo chip will
be in 230 different laptop designs in the first months of 2006.
Intel also claims this Duo chip will deliver 68% more
performance over the current Sonoma processor (many
manufacturers say this will be around 30%) and reduce battery
consumption by another 28% (Giving 5 hours for a standard
battery and 10 hours for an extended cell battery).

Still, dual-core processors coupled with Hyper-Threading
technology, will and does greatly improve the multi-tasking
functions of your next laptop. The only minor hurdle, many of
today's current video games can't use all these multi-
applications features. But as more games come on stream which
can take full advantage of all this new technology, expect your
gaming enjoyment to increase. As with any new technology there
will probably be a lag time before all the multi-applications
can be applied to the majority of new games hitting the market.

Some major laptop makers now sporting the Intel Core Duo include
Dell with its new "entertainment" Dell Inspiron e1705 line of
high end laptops. HP with its Pavilion dv1000 line of laptops,
which comes with a remote and you can play CDs and DVDs without
booting up.

Nor is Intel the only player in town with a lot of chips on the
gaming table. Intel's main rival AMD has introduced dual-core
into its mobile Turion 64 X2 processors. Also keep in mind, in
recent head-to-head CNET Labs testing, AMD's Athlon 64 X2 chip
performed better than Intel's desktop Dual-Core chip.
http://www.cnet.com/4520-6022_1-6410042.html

You're probably wondering, how will all this new laptop
technology be applied? And what does it mean for the average
laptop owner? What does it mean for gaming laptops?

Well, lets examine one sample notebook to see what all this next
generation technology will do for laptops. Take for example, the
Xtreme SL, a new gaming laptop designed by Rockdirect.
Rockdirect, formerly known as Rock computers, is a leading UK
laptop manufacturer who introduced some of the world's first
dual core laptops last summer (2005).

Rockdirect's latest gaming offering, the Xtreme SL has specs or
features which are rather awe-inspiring, even for the non-gamer.
It comes with an AMD Turion 64 ML-44 2.4GHz processor, sporting
1MB L2 Cache and 2 Gigs of DDR 400MHz RAM. More importantly, it
has twin NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX 256MB graphics cards with
PCI-Express and SLI (Scalable Link Interface).

SLI lets you have two graphics cards on your laptop, working in
tangent to increase or double your graphics performance and
visual quality. Throw in a 19 inch WSXGA+ X-Glass TFT Screen and
you have a perfect example of where gaming laptops are headed
with all this new technology.

For those involved in gaming, this means the ultimate gaming
experience can be best captured on a laptop with Dual-core
processors and dual graphics cards using all the latest SLI or
Hyper-Threading technology. And it is just not for gamers. The
new mobile multi-core chips are turning heads for ordinary
laptop users who want the best performance possible in their
sleek shinny new laptops or notebooks.

Besides, why should gamers have all the fun, these new
technologies will greatly benefit all laptop users. It means a
sleeker, faster, and more powerful laptop for everyone. It also
means longer lasting battery life for your laptop, a much needed
improvement. For the demanding laptop user working in
multi-media authoring, multi-tasking with video editing, spread
sheets, large graphics... these dual core laptops offers a very
capable alternative to the bulky and oh-so stationary desktop PC.

This new multi-core technology offers ultimate performance in a
sleek, quiet package that buyers will find hard to resist. It
will draw even more potential customers into the laptop market,
looking for the ultimate in style, portability, and performance.
Dual-core laptops may just deliver the goods.

This surely is not your last year's laptop.



About the author:
The author has an unhealthy interest in all things laptop!
Including Dual Core laptops. Gami
ng Laptops He also owns a modest website on Marketing Tools
for eMarketers. Marketing
Tools Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be
freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.