CyberpowerPC's Compal PBL21: The Shark's New Teeth
by Dustin Sklavos on July 11, 2011 12:30 AM ESTBattery, Noise, and Heat
Once again, as with our review of the NBLB2, it's worth noting that the notebooks advertised on CyberpowerPC's site offer a 48Wh battery while our review unit sports a 58Wh battery. This seems to be fairly common, but given the relative size of the battery in the unit I have to wonder if it's just an error on the site.
Either way, the PBL21 gets to take advantage of NVIDIA's Optimus technology, while hybrid graphics solutions from AMD still seem to be somewhat rarefied. The Alienware M17x R3 we reviewed recently had switchable graphics off of its Radeon HD 6970M, but it was nowhere near as seamless as Optimus has been. Ironically the best place to find good battery life with solid AMD graphics right now may very well be Llano!
The Dell XPS 15 doesn't just sport a bigger battery than the Compal PBL21, it uses it better too. Battery life for the PBL21 is actually quite poor, which is disheartening given the advantages it leverages. We're really past the era where three hours of useful battery life is an acceptable minimum; Sandy Bridge offers better efficiency overall and we should be using notebooks that take advantage of that. The Dell XPS 15 runs roughshod over Compal's offering; its battery may be less a little than twice as large, but it's pulling more than twice the running time of the PBL21. If you prefer a comparison with similar size batteries, here's how the PBL21 stacks up to the XPS 15 with a 56Wh battery.
Thankfully, it may be a testament to the PBL21 that I didn't notice it much during testing (apart from its bright, brilliant screen). Noise levels are comfortably low even under extreme load, and subjectively it didn't run particularly hot.
These temperatures remain reasonable for a mobile quad-core and decently-powered GPU. Given the PBL21's relatively quiet profile, Compal seems to have struck a good balance between thermal performance and acoustics.
Apart from a mild hotspot in the corner, the surface temperatures of the Compal PBL21 remain entirely reasonable and even a bit cool. Whether rendering out video or enjoying a gaming session, the PBL21 isn't likely to intrude too much.
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Hrel - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I wish compal would release a 15.6" with a GTX560 in it... sigh. Oh well, just ordered the Clevo.I'd be curious to know if DDR3-1333 with CAS latency 9 is faster or if 1066 with latency 7 is faster. Like I said, I just ordered this laptop and intend to add or swap out the RAM. Came with 1333, so I know it's CAS 9. It's always made sense to me to reduce latency whenever possible. But I'd like to know for sure. What do you think, 1333 at CAS 9 or 1066 at CAS 7? Gaming, video editing, web surfing. Media playback is the usage model. Tests would be great, but that's asking a lot.
It annoys me that they put so much RAM on GPU's in notebooks. Like you said it can't use anywhere near that much. They just wanna sell more RAM and don't want you to have a choice. So they just let the price creep up. Similar feeling to the old RAM price fixing issues from a decade ago. Same idea, just forcing quantity on you instead of straight price.
Finally, I'd like to see the Seagate Momentus XT compared to a laptop 7200rpm drive. Anand's review of it compared it to a 5400rpm drive, hardly a reasonable comparison considering the XT runs at 7200rpm AND has 32MB of cache. I ordered it already anyway, but I like numbers:)
On to the rest of the review!
Hrel - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I like the keyboard mostly. The NBLB2 never bothered me except where the ctrl key is. They 10-key on this looks good, all the numbers and enter key at least. The other keys I just couldn't fit to the right. I'm ok with that. I can still do the number part as fast as ever, just have to alter brain patterns to hit the + - / * keys.I hate one mouse button, give me two actual buttons please.
I know it's silly but I want a fingerprint scanner. Seriously, how much can they cost? 15 bucks? I got that.
Overall I agree. Much improved but still in need of work.
Hrel - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Final thing I should mention. If you google "cyberpowerpc coupon" you will find multiple coupon codes that STILL work. Can save you about 20-80 bucks depending on some variables. Basically paid for shipping and then a little thank you for me.GuinnessKMF - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
The latency is a measure of how many clocks, so comparing latency directly is misleading. 1333mhz, 9 clocks is 6.75 microseconds (my units might be off, but I'll be consistent), and the 1066 with CAS 7 is 6.56 microseconds, less than a 3% degradation in actual latency, but you're looking at about a 25% throughput improvement. Different applications demand different performance characteristics, but I think for the most part a DDR3-1333 at CAS 9 is going to be an improvement over DDR3-1066 CAS 7.PlasmaBomb - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
It would be nanoseconds (ns), and I don't think 3% is enough to be worried about (you probably won't notice it due to benchmarking variations). Other than that thumbsup.tzhu07 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Tacky build quality and design + glossy screen on a laptop = auto-failBleh.
DanNeely - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
"Unfortunately, the PBL21's keyboard is more of a lateral move than anything and I'm beginning to think that despite the ability to cram a 10-key into a 15.6" chassis, manufacturers should probably just avoid it."Yeah, if there's only room to fit 3 columns naturally I'd much rather see the ins-pgdn keys and the arrow T in a proper desktop layout than anything else.
wurizen - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
why does a modern gpu like the gt 540m have trouble playing in 1080p when console games like the PS3, which is like 5 yrs old have no problem w/ it?Dustin Sklavos - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Consoles typically render at 720p (sometimes lower) and then upscale the image. The lion's share of the time they're not ACTUALLY rendering at 1080p.wurizen - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
huh? aren't ps3 games already 1080p? no need to upscale. are you saying ps3 developers render their games at less than 1080p and tell you it's 1080p? i think you can sue them for that.