• Tag Archives Turion

  • Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron 1501

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Dell Inspiron 1501 was released in 2006 as a budget friendly laptop. Part of what determines whether or not a laptop is low end or high end isn’t just the specific components that are used but the timing of its release. For instance, the Athlon 64 was a high-end processor when released. However, the mobile version, the Turion 64, was somewhat late to the game. In particular, by the time it was included in this laptop, there were better things on the market. The Core 2 Duo was released the same year as this laptop.

    While the CPU may be a matter of timing, the graphics solution in this laptop was always low end. The Mobility Radeon Xpress X200 was basically the ATI’s answer to Intel’s integrated motherboard video solutions. It was perhaps a little better but not enough to make a difference. Certainly not good enough to play then modern games very well.

    Specs of this laptop include:

    • CPU: AMD Turion 64 MK-36 @ 2 GHz
    • RAM: 3 GB DDR2
    • Video: Mobility Radeon Xpress X200
    • Screen: 1280×800

    For more complete stats, see the output of HardInfo here.

    I’m not sure what the stock memory configuration was. Maybe 1 GB. The manual states that the maximum RAM configuration is 2 GB but clearly that isn’t true. This laptop has 3 GB and I suspect 4 GB would probably work. That’s plenty to run Linux though for a Microsoft OS I probably wouldn’t try to go past Windows 7 though I’m sure Windows 8 would work and at least early builds of Windows 10 as well. It shipped with Windows XP and was labeled as “Vista Compatible”.

    The screen is a reasonable 1280×800 which is a nice step up from what would have been a common 1024×768. For a low-end laptop the somewhat higher resolution is a nice feature.

    The biggest limitation of this laptop for modern usage is the fact that it is single core and that the memory is limited to 4 GB. Still usable for light tasks but you definitely don’t want to start opening a lot of tabs in a browser. However, the fact that it has a 64-bit CPU means that it will probably work with updated Linux versions for years to come.

    As a retro machine, it is going to be somewhat disappointing for games because of the lousy video chip. No doubt you can play games that are quite a bit older than when this laptop was released but contemporary games would, at least in large part, be out of its reach. Otherwise, I’m sure Windows XP would be lighting fast, especially for applications that don’t do a lot of multitasking (the CPU being single core).

    Like all the other hardware I run, both old and new, I have this one crunching away on various BOINC projects when it is running. So far it has done work for Asteroids@home, Universe@home, Einstein@home, Rosetta@home and World Community Grid. You can also check out how it is doing overall at FreeDC.

    The images above were taken from the Dell Inspiron 1501 Owner’s Manual.


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  • Digital Archaeology: Gateway M680XL

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Gateway, or Gateway 2000 as it was originally known, was my favorite producer of computers in the 1990s and early 2000s. I never bought a new laptop from them but I did get a couple of desktops over the years including a 486 model in 1993 and a Pentium II model in 1997. I would start building my own computers after that but Gateway also had nice Pentium III and Athlon based systems a little later on.

    I’m not sure when Gateway’s quality started to decline. I think it was probably around the Pentium IV era. I don’t know that they were necessarily unreliable or anything but they just seemed to be not as great of a value and they had a cheaper look and feel. I guess that was true of a lot of PC makers but it just felt like a bigger fall for Gateway. They no longer stood out from the crowd.

    As I recall, their laptops were pretty nice too, at least during the early days with the Solo line. This particular model, the Gateway 680XL was released in 2005 so it’s from quite a bit later than the Solo line. It doesn’t seem to be a bad machine. While it doesn’t really stand out from the crowd in terms of design or build quality, it at least seems to be a pretty good deal for the time and still something I would have considered had I been buying a higher end laptop at the time.

    The Gateway 680XL features the following:

    • Processor: Pentium M 770 @ 2.13 GHz
    • RAM: 2 GB DDR2
    • Video: ATI Mobility Radeon x700 (128 MB)
    • Screen: 17-inch 1680×1050
    • Hard Drive: HITACHI HTS541010G9AT00 Travelstar 5K100
    • Optical Drive: QSI 8x DVD+-RW SDW-082

    Plus the usual array of ports including 4 USB ports, firewire, VGA out, S-Video out, Ethernet, mic input, headphone, SD card and modem. Try finding that many ports on a modern laptop.

    You can see more detailed specs here.

    I would say that this laptop was a relatively high end unit. It wasn’t top of the line but it was close. It had a fast CPU, discreet graphics and a higher than average resolution screen and large screen size. The first laptop I owned was a slightly older Pentium M based Acer. Other than the slower CPU and smaller screen, it was actually quite similar. I think I would have been pretty happy with this one.

    The CPU is a 2.13 GHz Pentium M 770. This is one of the fastest Pentium M CPUs…the second fastest in fact. It generally matches the speed or comes close to the fastest Core Solo CPUs as well. It clocks in at 2.13 GHz with a 533 MHz bus and 2 MB L2 cache.

    This laptop also features a dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon x700 with 128 MB of RAM. It wasn’t the fastest dedicated solution available but again it was reasonably close. Having a dedicated video card put it miles ahead of most cheap laptops which tended to rely on chipsets that included video on the motherboard, usually from Intel. Many contemporary games probably would have been reasonably playable on this. In fact, the benchmark scores on this model indicate that it was within 10% of gaming laptops.

    At the time it was released, the biggest downside of this laptop was its price. It wasn’t overpriced for what you were getting but being a relatively high end laptop it had a relatively high end price. This laptop would have set you back in the neighbor good of $2100-$2700 depending on exactly when you bought it.

    In more modern usage, there are two drawbacks. First, having a 32-bit CPU is increasingly becoming a liability. Of course, 64-bit CPUs have been around a really long time at this point but 32-bit CPUs were still supported by modern operating systems until recently. Earlier versions of Windows 10 supported 32-bit CPUs for instance. However, later versions of Windows 10 dropped support for 32-bit CPUs and Windows 11 only supports 64-bit CPUs as well. In addition, most Linux distributions have dropped support for 32-bit CPUs. Debian still supports 32-bit CPUs but who knows for how much longer. This laptop is currently running an older version of Xubuntu. Given its potential for retro gaming, I might just install Windows XP on it.

    The other main drawback is limited RAM. This laptop probably shipped with 512MB-1GB and has since been upgraded to 2GB. However, I believe that this is the max amount of RAM that this laptop can handle. It’s definitely the maximum that is officially supported though it is possible that it might recognize 4GB. Even though there is at least one modern version of Linux still being released in a 32-bit version, you really want a full 4GB if possible. Software has gotten a lot more memory hungry over the years.

    So while it is still possible to use this machine in a modern environment, it probably works best as a retro machine. It was originally designed for Windows XP and would work pretty well as a Windows XP portable gaming machine.

    It’s not quite yet too old to run BOINC projects though options are somewhat limited. Fewer and fewer projects support 32-bit CPUs. Of my normal projects, this machine has only received work from Einstein@Home and World Community Grid. You can see how it is doing at Free-DC or BoincStats.


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  • Digital Archaeology: Gateway M-1629

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    When looking at another Gateway laptop almost exactly like this one in appearance I pondered when exactly when Gateway’s quality started to decline. I think it may have been with Core 2 Duo era laptops. While previous Pentium M and Turion 64 laptops (nearly identical in construction) may have lost some of the excitement of earlier models, they at least seemed pretty solid and of decent quality. The Turion based laptop I’m looking at here, while it has an attractive silver and red design, it also has a flimsier feeling keyboard and buttons. Still, I would say it holds up better than Dell Inspiron models of similar age.

    The Gateway M-1629 I am looking at here has the following features:

    • CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2GHz
    • Memory: 3 GB DDR2-666/PC2-5300
    • Video: Radeon Xpress 1270M
    • Screen: 1280×800
    • Hard Drive: Western Digital ATA WDC WD3200BPVT-6 (320 GB)
    • Optical Drive: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7560A

    Check out the output of HardInfo for a more complete look at the hardware.

    This is a lower-end laptop. The CPU is an AMD model which tended to be put in lower end machines because they were cheaper. However, this particular model is quite a bit faster than a similar Pentium (Core 2 Duo variant) laptop I looked at recently. Of course, the Pentium is typically clocked lower and has less cache than a Core 2 Duo. MHz for MHz a Core 2 Duo will be faster but also more expensive. The Turion 64 X2 is based on the K8 architecture so it is essentially the same thing as an Athlon 64 X2 only designed for laptops. The CPU is socketed so theoretically it could be upgraded to a TL-68 model running at 2.4GHz.

    The video hardware is also low end. The Radeon Xpress 1270M is integrated with the chipset and shares system memory. I suppose it is technically a little better than the equivalent Intel solutions at the time but it hardly matters. Neither was sufficient for what would have been modern gaming at the time.

    Vista was the version of Windows that shipped with this laptop. I’m not sure if it was the 32-bit or 64-bit version. It seems like the 32-bit version was typically included as the default install because 64-bit drivers were somewhat less available. Some users likely would have downgraded to Windows XP as well assuming drivers exist to support the hardware. Windows 7 and/or Windows 8 are probably the best choices for a Microsoft OS for this laptop. Any of those are fine for retro use but if you really plan to use it in a modern context then Linux would be the best choice.

    With a low-ish end CPU and a video solution that is near the bottom of the barrel, this was definitely a laptop for bargain hunters. Still, having two cores and a 64-bit processor it is really still good enough to run a modern OS. The cap of 4GB of RAM is actually the biggest limitation. Windows 10 really does better with 8 GB, especially when the rest of your hardware is already low end. However, I’m running a modern version of Xubuntu and it does fine. Web browsing is problematic because modern web browsers are such memory hogs. However, if you stick to 1 or 2 tabs then it is usable, if not exactly snappy. For some reason Firefox, the default browser in Xubuntu, is extremely laggy and seems to constantly eat CPU cycles. Brave does quite a bit better and there are lighter browsers available.

    It’s also still good enough to run BOINC and most projects, at least the ones I am most interested in. You can see how it is doing in Einstein@home, Asteroids@home, and Universe@home or see how it is doing overall at FreeDC.

    The photo at the top and the specs image were taken from The Gateway Computers Wiki. The other images are from the user manual.


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