From The Inquirer:

Intel Prescott notebooks coming in Q1

Watch out for bargains


By Mike Magee: Tuesday 11 November 2003, 19:04

EARLIER THIS week we wrote that, as expected, Intel will introduce "desktop" Prescotts in Q1 of next year. We saw roadmaps at a system builder conference that confirmed our earlier stories that Intel would position Prescotts in a similar way to Pentium 4s – as suitable chips for notebooks that act as desktop replacements.
We've already noted that the initial clock speeds of Prescotts will be at 3.2GHz, 3.4GHz and 3.GHz, and now details of a Sager 8790 machine has appeared on the Talk Notebooks web site.

Machines that use these types of processors will be quite clearly differentiated from those using the fab Pentium M/Centrino combination. But it appears that when Intel starts rolling out Prescotts, it won't be long before we see them replacing the current Pentium 4 desktop/notebook chips that some vendors are selling.

Intel, generally speaking, is better at winning designs for notebook machines than its competitors AMD, Via and to a lesser extent Transmeta.

That's not because of the technology – never underestimate the marketing muscle Intel brings to the design win game.

Come Q1 next year, this means that there are going to be some real bargains for notebooks using the Pentium 4 desktop chip, and to a lesser extent the Pentium 4M. And the introduction of a 90 nanometer "Dothan" Pentium M with 2MB of cache means that Centrino notebooks will also present some real bargains too, if you choose the time to buy wisely.

Currently, Pentium M chips clock at 1.7GHz - during the course of the next three to four months we'll see them clock higher, come with 802.11g wireless and other tweaks. But it's important not to measure these machines on chip frequency ratings.

We've now used a 900MHz low voltage Centrino based notebook on the move for close to three months. Its performance is way out of proportion to any clock speed. We intend to bring you our conclusions on this technology as we've used it in another article in the near future. µ

Yeah that new Sager looks sweet. Not only do they have the Prescotts but they also have the new M11 (mobility radeon 9700). If the performance of the mobile 9700 is anywhere near that of the desktop version then that is going to be one fast laptop.
I just hope Alienware is going to offer a video upgrade to the M11 when it becomes available.

Will the area-51m be upgradeable to the prescott?

Hope you realize that if you wait, then something new will be on the horizon to wait for, then you wait some more, and so on. It's a vicious circle! Just get a machine, and try to sell it when you want something new. Just my $0,000,000.02

Yeah, I know. I've been promising myself a Area 51-m since June. Totally frustrating!

Ditto...thats why I pulled the trigger this month.

...mine is on the way but am curious if the cpu is upgradeable to the prescott because AW states their cpu's are indeed upgradeable...just wondering if that is possible with the prescott.

It's true, you really could wait for the next upgrade only to find something new to wait for. I decided to jump in and not worry. I feel like i ordered my Area51m at a good time i guess. I read only after i ordered that the ATI 9600 recently became available, and that the Cyborg Green color just came out. So lucky i waited, even though i did not know it. Haha. It will always be that way.
You really can't worry about waiting. 6 months later, you will always see that something new is available. I still feel like i'm getting a killer laptop that will be above average for quite some time.