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Two Good Buys
From Industry Giants
The FCW Test Center had the opportunity to look at the newest notebook computers from Dell Computer Corp. and Gateway 2000 Inc. Dell's
Latitude CP is a slick corporate machine that fits the term "desktop replacement," while Gateway's Solo 2300XL is a more standard model designed for performance- and price-conscious government buyers. In the end, both systems did very well, posting scores of 8.92 and 8.39, respectively.
For the government information technology buyer, Dell and Gateway are two of the most familiar and respected names in the computer business, and both ship large numbers of systems to the government market. Both companies produce highquality, cutting-edge computer systems, are located in the Midwest and deal directly with the customer.
To test these systems, we used the same weightings as in our last review of notebook computers [GBB, Sept. 11. Our tests were designed to reflect the notebooks' performance and feature differences. We used three benchmarks: Business Applications Performance Corp.'s SYSmark/ 32 for office applications, BAPCO's Battmark/32 for battery life and Intel Corp.'s Media Benchmark, which measures performance on MMX-enabled applications. All tests were designed to emulate tasks that users run in business environments. We also conducted a hands-on "taste" test, where a panel of users judged screen quality, audio quality, keyboard layout and pointing device ease of use.
At the heart of both laptops is the latest Intel 233 MHz "Tillamook" Mobile Pentium processor. This new processor offers performance increases of up to 20 percent over previous Pentium processors, and it is created using Intel's latest 0.25micron manufacturing process. Not only does this new manufacturing process enhance overall performance of the chip, it also allows the processor to consume far less power -1.8 volts vs. 2.45 volts - which helps curb battery consumption.
Both the Dell and Gateway notebooks also use the latest Intel Triton 430TX Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) chipset. This fifth-generation Intel chipset is designed for maximizing performance of multimedia applications enabled by MMX technology. The chipset also features Intel's Dynamic Power Management Architecture, which offers far less battery consumption than previous chipsets.
These systems also offer good feature sets and a great deal of expandability. Both systems use modular bays that can accommodate either a...