Wednesday, February 20,2008 @ 10:50am
Dell adds Intel's Penryn to Inspiron notebooks
Dell on Wednesday followed up on previous upgrades to its XPS line with speed boosts to its Inspiron line based on Intel's 45 nanometer Penryn processor architecture. The 14-inch Inspiron 1420 and the 17-inch Inspiron 1720 now have the option of Core 2 Duo processors that use Intel's new platform to run cooler as well as faster than older designs. As Dell's desktop replacement, the 1720 is the fastest and uses a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo with 6MB of Level 2 cache; the 1420 scales back only slightly by using a 2.4GHz processor with 3MB of Level 2 cache.
The price of each notebook varies based on configuration. A base 1420 with the 2.4GHz processor costs $924 with 1GB of memory, a 120GB hard drive, and basic integrated graphics; the 2.5GHz Inspiron 1720 is set at $1,199 but is also available with the slower 2.4GHz processor for $1,074. Most configurations should ship within a week and are otherwise close to standard models. Dell has yet to update the 15-inch Inspiron 1525.