News Bits: Toshiba P105-S921 Gaming Laptop, Fujitsu 200GB Drive, Centrino in Desktops

Toshiba's new Satellite P105-S921 is coming out with Nvidia's new GeForce Go7900 GS graphics chip. Dell used to be the first one to have the new Nvidia chips first, but it appears that has changed. Dell is set to release a new XPS gaming notebook in April, also powered by Nvidia graphics.

The Go7900 GS will not be as powerful as the desktop GeForce 7900GTX naturally, but it should bring more horsepower to the table than the current Go7800GTX.  The P105-S291 will be the "deluxe" Satellite P105, while there will be two more less spec'd out models. The high end model will have a Core Duo T2400 and 1GB RAM, 17" TruBrite display, and weigh in at 7.2 lbs - not bad for a 17". Other features include a 160GB hard drive and a DVI-D (finally!) port. Expected retail price: $1,999.

Toshiba will also introduce two new mainstream notebooks, the Satellite M105 and the A105, which will also feature the Intel Core Duo processor. Screen sizes will vary from 14.1" to 15.4", and go up to 17" in the desktop replacement models. Built-in fingerprint readers and harman-kardon speakers are two options, and several versions will have Windows Media Center Edition 2005. None of them, oddly, will have integrated TV tuners, nor options for USB ones.

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Intel expects five hour battery life for Merom, Crestline notebooks

Roadmaps seen by the INQ show the "ideal" specifications for Merom dual-core processors during the first half of 2007. The "Santa Rosa" platform is the successor to the current Napa platform, which uses the Core Duo processor.

Ideal specs for a Merom-based notebook with a "Crestline" chipset would be a 15" display, two hard drives, and a battery life of over five hours. The notebook would use the Crestline GM (integrated graphics) chipset, and also the upcoming "Kedron" 802.11.n/a/b/g/WLAN, EM64T 64-bit technology, and "Nineveh" LAN. The typical Merom processor will probably be a T5000 or T7000 class. Intel is also planning to produce Celeron M chips with the Merom core.

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Vista delay helps Intel

According to analysts, Intel's "ViiV" entertainment platform will benefit from the recently announced Windows Vista delay by allowing them to establish themselves in the Christmas market, before the new operating system hits the shelves. So who doesn't benefit? As per the report: PC Makers such as Dell and HP, who will miss the chance to sell Christmas presents.

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Intel Centrino for desktops soon

Intel's "Pro" Platform is basically Centrino for business desktop PCs. The platform will supposedly be released on April 27th, according to The Inquirer. Given the success that Intel has had with Centrino, this platform has a bright future.

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Fujitsu plans 200GB notebook hard drive

In Q3 of 2006, Fujitsu expects to ship the largest capacity notebook hard drive to date -- 200GB. Last year, Fujitsu said the drives wouldn't be available until 2007, but according to the new schedule, they could be available this year.

The largest 2.5" notebook drive to date from Fujitsu is 160GB, and uses a Serial ATA (SATA) interface. The new 200GB drive will follow suit, and will primarily be used in multimedia and entertainment notebooks.

In 2005, the 2.5-inch hard drive market was 81 million units, in 2008, Fujitsu expects it to surpass 150 million, and in 2010, 210 million. On the other hand, their desktop hard drive market is expected to shrink from 240 million units last year, to 190 million in 2010.

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Low prices not bringing new notebook buyers to market

With the help of the notebook segment, the PC market can still manage double-digit growth rates. However, a report released by Parks Associates says that the majority of users who plan to purchase a notebook computer in the next twelve months already own one -- the "latecomers" only account for 2% of the 10.5 million households expected to buy a notebook next year.

Although new notebooks can be found for a mere $500 and less, it's not the latecomers who are taking advantage of the low prices. Existing owners of PCs are buying them to compliment their existing computers.

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