Intel Merom notebooks reviewed

So now that we have had Conroe for over a month, what's next? Some might naturally say "Kentsfield," but that would be missing a surprisingly quieter launch that's also occurred. Our sister site TrustedReviews has gone in-depth on Intel's Merom this week, showing what this quiet little chip can do.

The article covers some of the basics of Merom before going on to review three new notebooks that contain the chip. Systems that are undergoing TR scrutiny include a Rock Extreme notebook and a model from AJP, compared against an IBM Thinkpad Conroe setup and a desktop Conroe 6600. The results are actually quite surprising - there is a lot of power in that low-wattage chip.

For those unfamiliar with the Merom architecture, it's essentially the same as the Conroe chip. You can read Tim Smalley's incredibly in-depth, more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know coverage here, if you somehow missed it. As for the differences, well....Merom's main difference is just a slashed FSB, down to 667MHz from 1066MHz. Other than that, it's all about efficient use of power, dropping the chip down to a puny 34W.

The article is a good read, so we won't spoil the ending with how well (or poorly) the chip or the notebooks perform. Head on over and give it a read, then feel free to leave us your thoughts in our forums.