Even as early as this morning, industry sources were quoting March 22 as the release date for Acer's revamped Timeline notebooks. Coming in ahead of schedule, however, Acer today officially unveiled its Aspire TimelineX 1830T thin and light laptop, as well as a handful of other models.

Built around Intel's Calpella platform, the TimelineX 1830T sports an 11.6-inch display and weighs 3 pounds. Acer didn't get too specific with the processor, saying only that it feature an Intel Core 2 Solo chip, but reports suggest it will come outfitted with Intel's Core i5 520UM CPU clocked at 1.06GHz.

Other accouterments include Wi-Fi, a pair of memory card slots, HDMI port, optical audio, three USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 2.1, and up to 8-hours of run time on the 9-cell battery (a step up from the 6-cell battery found on previous Timeline models).

Other specs are so far unknown, including RAM and hard drive capacity. So too is the price.

Image Credit: Acer

MSI is pretty stoked about the latest entry to its gaming notebook line, the 17-inch GE700. The new notebook couples an Intel Core i5 processor with ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics (with 1GB GDDR3 memory), along with a few other noteworthy goodies.

Among them are two "cinema-class" speakers and a subwoofer, an HD webcam capable of 720p video up to 30fps, two hard drive bays for up to 1TB of storage, MSI's exclusive GPU Boost technology (switch between the integrated and discrete graphics solutions), HDMI output, eSATA, 4-in-1 memory card reader, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

MSI put a bit of attention into the GE700's styling, including a "super-cool exterior" with a glossy black finish. You'll also find luminescent touch-sensitive hotkeys.

No word yet on price or availability.

Imagw Credit: MSI

The new Core i5 and Core i7 mobile CPUs are already finding their way into some products. Panasonic has announced that the Japanese version of the Toughbook laptops, known there as Lets Note, will be getting some speedy new Nehalem-based processors. The new rugged (and a little ugly) offerings will come in four flavors.

The S9, N9, and F9 will have a Core i5-520M CPU. Screen sizes range from 12.1 inches (S9 and F9) up to the 14.1 inch screen on the F9. This screen will probably look quite nice with a resolution of 1440 x 900. The real gem here is the R9 model which will have a Core i7-620M, 250GB HDD, and 2GB of DDR3 RAM crammed into a chassis the size of a netbook. A 10.1 inch screen with that kind of power makes for a desirable ultraportable computer.

A Japanese launch is scheduled for February 17th. No word on if these PCs will find their way here. If you were able to get one of these, what would you pay for it?

CES is just a few short days away, and in keeping with tradition, the rumor mill has been working overtime to try and leak announcements in advance of the massive event. In the laptop space Intel has been making our job easy since new Arrandale based Core i3 machines have been popping up for sale around the web, and the good news here is that they are much cheaper than we would have expected based on it being a new architecture. Canadian based retailer Future Shop is offering a Core i3 based Gateway machine for less than $700 USD, or for just $70 more, you can opt for the Toshiba Satellite with a slightly larger display.

Core i3 is the new budget platform from Intel offering most of the advantages of the Core i5 and i7 parts, with the key exception being a lack of Turbo-Boost. The Core i3's will also only come in a dual-core design, and will have slightly smaller caches than there more expensive brethren. Arrandale specific benefits include Intel's fastest integrated graphics solution which is now built directly onto the CPU, and Hyper-Threading support which will make a huge difference for applications that are heavily multi-threaded. The new 32-nanometer design also promises to be much more power efficient, always a plus where you're talking about laptops.

Let's just say now is a great time to be on the market for a new laptop, but I'd still hold out until CES if I were you.

I have a confession to make; I get a kick out of leaked Intel roadmaps. They almost always tend to be revealed mere days after I purchase a new CPU and are pretty effective at taking all the joy out of my new purchase. Of course, in the world of technology my fancy tends to be fickle, and a bit of CPU lust never hurt anyone.

The latest Intel roadmap doesn’t contain too many surprises but it does show that the transition to 32nm is well underway. The few standouts are a new sub-brand called Core i5 “S” that drops the chip down from 95w to 82w, and a Core i3 that strips away the turbo mode to bring down the cost. Intel’s movement at the low end of the market clearly shows their commitment to taking on AMD in the budget realm and it will be interesting to see benchmark comparisons on these new parts.

As for the high end, the new Core i9 “Gulftown” 6-core chip appears to be currently on schedule for a Q2 release next year. This gives us about 6 more months to enjoy our measly old quad cores. Click the image below to check out the detailed roadmap, or hit up PC Watch Japan for all the gory details in “loosely” translated Google English. 

Are you going to upgrade to a Core i9?

Citing anonymous sources from notebook heavyweights, news and rumor site DigiTimes says we can expect Intel to launch four 32nm dual-core Arrandale CPUs (Calpella platform) by the second week of January 2010. These will include the Core i5 520M and 430M, and Core i3 350M and 330M.

Details weren't available on all four chips, but it looks like the Core i5 430M will come clocked at 2.26GHz and include Intel's Turbot Boost Technology, which could bump the clockspeed up to 2.53GHz for a single core. The Core i3 350M will also boast a 2.26GHz clockspeed, but no Turbo Boost.

The Core i5 will feature a graphics clock running at 500MHz and up to 766MHz with Turbo Boost, whereas the Core i3 will also run at 500MHz, but top out at 667MHz. All four chips will support DDR3 memory, come equipped with 3MB of L3 cache, and come rated with a TDP of 35W.

Image Credit: hardwarezone.com

HP may have jumped the gun a bit when they listed an “Envy 14-1000” on a support page recently. The Envy line of laptops currently come in 13 and 15-inch varieties. The PCs bear a striking resemblance to Apple’s MacBook Pro line with chiclet keys and large trackpads. The Envy 13 packs a Core 2 chip, while the Envy 15 is equipped with a Core i7. Might we see a Core i5 in the new Envy 14? It certainly would fit nicely in the lineup.

No specs were actually listed on the support page. Mobile Core i5 CPUs are expected to make the scene in the first quarter of next year. So, watch for an Envy 14 announcement around then.

Intel has kicked off a PC Mod contest to help generate some publicity and enthusiasm over the new Core i7 and Core i5 processors. Not that Intel needs to drum up any excitement about the processors; most enthusiasts have been anticipating them for quite some time.

The contest involves building, or modding, a computer with the new technology and submitting photos of your build to Intel. There will be a preliminary judging by Intel and sponsors and the top mods will be sent to the People’s Choice finals where the public can vote on the mod they like the best.

You can get more details at the Intel Core i7 Custom Challenge site. The deadline for submissions is November 16th and voting begins November 23rd.

Proving that a mini tower can pack a punch, Dell this week released a new Vostro desktop for small businesses that makes use of Intel's latest processors.

Released yesterday, Dell's Vostro 430 desktop comes standard with an Intel Core i5 750 processor (2.66GHz, 8MB L3 cache), 1GB of DDR3-1333 memory, an 80GB hard drive spinning at 7200RPM, an ATI Radeon HD 4350 videocard with 512MB of onboard memory, and Windows Vista Home Basic. From there, virtual system builders can opt to add more muscle in the form of an Intel Core i7 870 processor (2.93Ghz, 8MB L3 cache), up to 4GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and an Nvidia GeForce GTS240 videocard with 1GB of memory.

At $700 and up, the new Vostro is a little more than what small business owners are accustomed to paying for Dell's Vostro line, which typically run between $300 and $400, but the 430 is the only one to be built around Intel's latest architecture.

Image Credit: Dell

Some sources are saying that, at least internally, Intel is talking about shipping one million Lynnfield processors for desktops by the end of 2009. Should Intel meet its goal, it would put the pressure on motherboard makers to keep up.

Asus and Gigabyte are each on pace to ship 400,000 P55-based mobos by the end of the year, leaving 200,000 units for other manufacturers to pick up the slack. MSI, ECS, and ASRock are expected to ship around that many mobos, but all it takes is for one manufacturer to miss its goal for there to be more CPUs than there are mobos.

Asus looks to be the most active for the rest of the year. According to company VP Joe Hsieh, Asus' expects to ship between 5.5 to 6 million motherboards in the third quarter, 6 million in the fourth, and 22 million total. Going forward, Asus says P55-based boards will account for 10 percent of all shipments.

Image Credit: en.expreview.com