(c) PC Plus, October 2006 (page 59)
Budget Mobile
Rock Pegasus 665
The Pegasus 665 is exactly what Intel see many manufacturers doing with these new chips - dropping them into existing chassis to have laptops ready the moment the NDA has passed. This is essentially the same as the Pegasus 660, but with a Core 2 Duo processor. In this instance Rock has used the most affordable member of the new family, the T5500, which has a 2MB Level 2 cache, and operates at 1.66GHz.
This sleek black machine boasts a reasonable graphics subsystem in the form of the Nvidia GeForce G0 7600, and is accompanied by 512MB of DDR2 533MHz RAM and an 80GB hard drive to form a solid core. This specification isn't going to redefine benchmarks, but it's not outrageously mismatched for this budget chip either.
At 3.1Kg, the Pegasus 665 may be pushing its portability mantle, but not to the point of needing to be labelled a desktop replacement. The screen offers a good output in a variety of conditions, and the keyboard is comfortable to use. The real problem in the portability stakes is the six-cell battery; one hour and 20 minutes isn't long enough for a machine of this size.
PCPlus Verdict: 3.5/5
Rock Pegasus 665
Price : £849 (£723 ex VAT)
Supplier : Rock Direct (0870-9909090)
Info :
www.rockdirect.com Warranty : Three years' collect and return
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Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz, 2MB cache, 667MHz)
Memory : 512MB 667MHz
Chipset : Intel 945PM chipset
Hard Drive : 80GB, 5,400rpm SATA
Graphics Card : 256MB GeForce Go 7600
Monitor : 15.4in WXGA screen (1,280x800)
Optical Drive : DVD +/- RW DL
Speaker : Stereo
Battery : 6 cell Li-Ion battery
Ports : 3xUSB2, Firewire, DVI, Microphone, Headphone, S-Video, RJ45, RJ11
Extras : 4-in-1 media card reader, v90 56K modem, Intel 802.11 a/b/g wireless
Dimensions : 326x276x31mm
Weight : 3.1Kg
OS : Microsoft Windows XP Home
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Performance
SYSmark 2004 : 200
Battery Life : 80 minutes (playing DVD with screen brightness to max)
Memory Throughput : 3600
Windows Media Encoder : 172 seconds (re-encoding HD 1,080p trailer to DVD quality sound and video)
3DMark05 : 3300
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Note: all the above performance figures are approximately eyeballed 'cos the graphs had no actual figures apart from the gridlines.