Building A Whitebox Notebook: Part 1

The Processor: Intel Pentium-M 1.7GHz

Since our notebook has been chosen (ASUS M6N) we already knew which CPU we had to purchase, the only question was which Pentium-M CPU. Much to our surprise we readily found Retail boxed Intel Pentium-M processors both locally and at on-line retailers!May 24, 2004oom and has them already in pretty boxes for the store shelves! The Intel Pentium M processor is based off the old Pentium III core and and includes several innovative features like an advanced branch prediction and data prefetching, Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 support, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology support, Intel MMX media enhancement technology support and advanced thermal monitoring capabilities.

The Intel Pentium M processor is the CPU of choice for those looking to achieve high mobile performance at very low level of power consumption. The Pentium M processor supports Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology at multiple operating points instead of two points on older mobile processors. Real-time dynamic switching of the voltage and frequency between multiple performance modes is based on CPU demand. This occurs by switching the bus ratios, core operating voltage, and core processor speeds without resetting the system and can be controlled by the user. Multiple Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology operating points enable optimal performance at the lowest power. Since we plan on gaming we went with the fastest Pentium-M processor on the market the Pentium M 1.7GHz CPU. We also went with the retail version of this CPU since it comes with a 3 year warranty.

The Memory: Kingston DDR333 200-Pin SO-DIMMs Model # KVR333X64SC25/512 (PRICING)

We knew from the start that we were going to need 1GB of memory for our notebook due to our performance expectations. After seeing the prices on a single 1GB SODIMM module we opted for two 512MB modules. Kingston is a leading supplier of desktop memory modules and we also found that they have a large selection of notebook memory also. Since the ASUS M6N notebook we selected could handle up to DDR333 memory we decided to go with Kingston’s ValueRAM line of notebook memory. With CAS Latencies of 2.5-3-3-7; 1T we felt that this memory was an easy choice for our whitebox notebook. This memory is backed by Kingston’s great lifetime warranty and customer service.

The Hard Drive: Fujitsu 40GB 5400RPM, Model # MHT2040AH (PRICING)

We knew we wanted a hard drive that was able to play games and be able to keep up with our multimedia needs so we decided to go with a 5,400RPM model in the 40GB size range. While a 5,400RPM drive speed will decrease our battery life over a 4,200RPM model we thought the extra speed would be worth it for our needs. We found that the Fujitsu notebook hard drives were competitively priced on the market and came with a three-year Limited Warranty, which was better than other companies. We also took into consideration that since this notebook would be used on trips that we wanted a hard drive that could handle some minor bumps along the way. The Fujitsu hard drive that we are using has a pretty high shock tolerance (900G, 1 ms, non-operating; 225G, 2 ms operating) that should be able to put up with the abuse we put it though. To sum it all up the Fujitsu MHT-AH Series hard drives deliver the characteristics today’s mobile applications demand, but also suit the needs of the user.