Sandy Bridge

Ever since I have acquired the Acer TimelineX 3820TZ, I'm more than happy to see that the core of the machine will last for more than a year. I am delighted to hear that the first generation of 'Core' cpus are going to be phased out by the second generation of 'Core' cpus with the codename of 'Sandy Bridge'. Basically with the second generation of 'Core' cpus, you will be looking at around 10-25% improvement over the Arrandale chipset.

At this moment, I'm thinking of upgrading the Pentium 6100 to a Core i5 520M. The cheapest used unit which I can find is around £70 including postage and packaging. However, CES 2011 is around the corner and I am more eager to find out the price for the Core 2540M (Sandy Bridge chipset) when it is launched! With the new cpu, it comes with the same 32nm wafer  but you do get dual core GPU, i.e. Intel HD 200 and it will automatically overclock if there is a need arises. The cpu is roughly the same as the present Core i series but it is slightly faster than the current Core i series. Surely with both cpu and gpu featuring Turbo Boost, it will surely be much faster than the current Nehalem-Westmere Core i cpus.

I will be waiting for the release of the Sandy Bridge cpus! If it is available on the PGA 988, it will mean that there will be a chance that I can upgrade the Acer laptop to accomodate the new cpu. This would be subjected to the necessary BIOS update (if necessary) by Acer.