Hasta La Gadget!

MSI’s gaming laptops have looked the same for years, but we aren’t going to judge. As Mother always told us, it’s what’s inside that counts, and the new GX640 — now stateside after a two month vacation in Europe — is quite the upgrade. That familiar red-and-black chassis now houses a 2.26GHz Core i5-540M alongside 4GB of DDR3 memory, and the 1680 x 1050 LCD display is driven by a Mobility Radeon HD 5850 for mondo graphical performance. 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a six-cell battery and a 500GB, 7200RPM HDD round out a value-packed $1100 Amazon.com package, but if you’re looking for a little more juice (and prepared to squeeze), you’ll find you can customize this mean, 5.8 pound machine with a Core i7 CPU, up to 8GB of RAM, SSDs and a nine-cell Li-ion at XoticPC.

MSI’s customizable GX640 gaming notebook now shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gateway busts out Core i3, Core i5 NV series laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We told you Lenovo’s ThinkPad team was up to something, and two days earlier than its predicted Earth Day launch, the ThinkPad L Series has been released into the atmosphere. While it may look like the ThinkPad R Series — which it will eventually replace — Lenovo says the 14-inch L412 and 15-inch L512 are the greenest ThinkPads ever made. Besides being 40 percent more power efficient than “other laptops,” they’re partially made from recycled office water jugs and miscellaneous used equipment. If all that green stuff doesn’t stir your soul, the L Series has the standard ThinkPad chassis and can be specced up to be a pretty solid mainstream business system — it’ll be available with Core i3 or i5 CPU options along with integrated or ATI Radeon graphics. For those with a bit less cash to spare, an entry-level $649 model is equipped with a Celeron P4500 CPU, 160GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. Pricing on the higher end models remain ambiguous, but these puppies should be available for pre-order on Lenovo’s site soon enough, and then ship in what we expect to be very eco-friendly packaging early next month. Until that fateful day arrives, feel free to enjoy the gallery and press release below.

Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad L Series arrives for the eco-conscious professional

Lenovo ThinkPad L Series arrives for the eco-conscious professional originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This transition from the last crop of Core 2 Duo chips (which Apple introduced in June of last year) to Intel’s Core 2010 chips has caused quite the unprecedented wait, but at last we’re staring down a fresh crop of MacBook Pros and all is right with the world. The 13-inchers are sticking with Core 2 Duo, but the 15.4-inch and 17-inch models are now Core i5 and Core i7 through and through. The higher end models are nabbing NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 330M graphics with something akin to Optimus switching (though Apple just calls it “automatic graphics switching technology,” and claims to be using its own tech), while the 13-incher get NVIDIA GeForce 320M scraps. Along with the faster 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz chips in the 13-inch, Apple claims to be able to squeeze 10 hours of battery life from the machine, but the real meat is in the Core i5 2.4GHz (520M), Core i5 2.53GHz (540M), and Core i7 2.66GHz (620M) processors in the larger models. The 330M graphics are twice as fast as the 13’s 320M, but thanks to the magic of Optimus, er, “automatic graphics switching,” which switches the GPU on and off on the fly based on the needs of the task at hand, Apple still thinks you’ll manage 8 to 9 hours of battery life on these big guys.

All machines come with 4GB of RAM, and while hard drives are standard (320GB and 500GB in the higher end), you’re free to add a 512GB SSD to your machine if you so choose, for a mere $1,300. Interestingly only the 15-incher is getting that top Core i7 chip, with the sole 17-inch model is consigned to the 2.53GHz Core i5 (though you can choose Core i7 in the build to order options). Prices range from $1,799 on the 15 (up from the last-gen’s $1,699 base price!) to $2,299 on the 17, with a $1,199 starting price on the 13. On the 15-inch you can pick between a 1440 x 900 “glossy” display, a 1680 x 1050 glossy display for $100 more, and an anti-glare hi-res display for another $50 on top of that (you 17-inch users are stuck with 1920 x 1200 and glossy). The biggest tweak outside of these beefy internals is “inertial scrolling” support for the trackpads, à la iPhone, though we’re not sure why this couldn’t have been added with just a software update. Everything’s up on the Apple Store right now for your perusal, with the bigger models shipping “within 24 hours” and a 2-4 day delay on the 13-inch.

Apple refreshes MacBook Pro family with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors… at long last! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, we know you’ve got choices, and when it comes to motherboards, you’ve got options galore. If you’ve been eying a new Core i5 or Core i7 rig to replace that aging Pentium 4 486 system of yours, but aren’t quite feeling the pre-fabricated thing, a whole slew of mobo makers have pushed through new boards to support Intel’s P55 Express chipset. The gurus over at Hot Hardware — gluttons for pain no like other, it seems — rounded up mainboards from ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI in order to see which ruled the roost, and more importantly, which was right for you. Options ranging from $140 to $340 were taken into account, and while the top-end EVGA P55 Classified obviously performed well under pressure, just about every single contender had a little something special to offer. There’s no cut and dry “winner” when it comes to something like this, only detailed explanations as to which board suits what kind of buyer. Tired of paging through Froogle without actually knowing what you’re looking for? Tap that source link and get some enlightenment.

ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI do battle for P55 motherboard throne originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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