Difference between revisions of "COMPAQ Armada 7710 7730 7750 7770 7790 7792"

COMPAQ Armada 7710 7730 7750 7770 7790 7792 (view source)

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Andrei.boiu

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 **13" TFT display (1024x768)
-*S3 M65 Aurora 64 V+ video controller with 2MB VRAM
+*S3 86CM65 Aurora 64V+ video controller with 2MB VRAM
-*CrystalWare CS4236B, SoundBlaster 2.0/Adlib capable emulation
+*CrystalWare ESS1878, SoundBlaster 2.0/Adlib capable emulation
-*16MB EDO RAM standard onboard, 40MB max with 32MB module(Intel 430MX chipset)
-* 11 and 12 inch laptops share the same model name using different display chassis:
-**    11.3" DSTN display (800x600 resolution, 30:1 contrast ratio)
-**    12.1" TFT display (800x600 resolution, 100:1 contrast ratio)
-*Trident Cyber9382 video controller 1MB VRAM, 16bit colour upto 800x600 resolution
-*ESS1688 Audio Card, SoundBlaster 2.0/Adlib capable emulation
 *0.8, 1 or 2GB 4200rpm PATA HDD
 === Other ===
-*Mono speakers (upfiring, below the keyboard)
+*Stereo speakers
-*2xPCMCIA Slots
+*2xPCMCIA Slots (Cardbus compatible)
 *VGA Output
 *10.8V 4800mAh Li Ion rechargeable battery
 *Dual PS/2, Serial, Parallel ports
-*16V power supply (separate)
+*integrated power supply
-*Windows 3.1, IBM OS/2 and Windows 95/98 support (slow on Windows 98)
+*Windows 3.1, IBM OS/2 and Windows 95/98 support
 </div>
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 == Best retro purpose ==
-Early Windows 95 era gaming released before 1997 or as office computer. Unfortunately, despite the somewhat adequate CPU speed, the video chipset is very slow (designed in 1994) and only DOS era games run reasonably fast and only those that do not require SVGA resolution and operate only on VGA, MCGA, 320x200 in 256 colors. The low RAM size and slow disk interface also limits any serious vintage gaming attempts.
+Early Windows 95 and Windows 98 era gaming for titles released before 1998 or as an office computer. The laptop offers a good balance between CPU and graphics performance, although the video chipset is not as fast as Neomagic ones. Compatibility with DOS is great but performance on SVGA resolutions such as 640x480 is far from being the best. The laptop fares very well on the compatibility side as it has two slots and allows large amounts of memory such as 48MB to be achieved easily.
 == Benchmarks ==
 == Durability and Repair-ability ==
-The mediocre plastic quality means that cracks of internal plastic screw stands are common, making disassembly and assembly operations quite difficult, with screws that are difficult to remove or tighten. The difficult access to the hard-drive, requiring full disassembly of the entire chassis is highly annoying. Going further with bad design choices, the LCD screen lamp is mounted vertically and it is very difficult to replace, requiring a full disassembly of the display. This means that you rarely can repair a screen without damaging or affecting something else with dust or slight manipulation mistakes.
+The plastic quality seems good, meaning that cracks are less common than on other laptops. Disassembly and assembly operations are simple but somewhat unpleasant as the laptop uses untypical screw heads, although a simple straight screwdriver can be used. Acces to RAM and harddrive is straightforward and the drive-s mounting on removable trays make replacements very easy. The laptop generally runs cold so the active cooling system is not used a lot, noise is kept to a minimum and the laptop is very durable. The only major drawback is that the removable floppy drive has a belt driven system that is very prone to failure.
 == Review ==
-A low-end, slim, business laptop, released in 1997. It had a somewhat reasonable mix of parts, while the chassis is slim. The choice of EDO RAM and a single user slot, as well as graphics chipset, L2 cache make a theoretically good laptop a very poor, low-end, result, just 1 year after its commercial release. By 1998 the laptop was just too slow to run any Windows 98 software or the operating system itself.
+An above average, considered high-end by the manufacturer, slim, business laptop, released in 1997. It had a good mix of parts in a compact package, with an attractive design. Although the laptop was quickly made obsolete by faster CPUs and more capable videocards, it was a stable, reliable computer.
-The graphics chipset is really old, obsolete and inadequate. Using an ISA generation card in a laptop of that age is such an example. It is impossible to understand why such an old platform was used, except for cost. Since the graphics chipset does not implement even many Windows 3.x era features, it is already slow even for such an old operating system. For instance, a lack of fast screen scrolling severely limits windows graphics updates making any 2D or 3D graphics slower than on similar videocards such as the venerable S3 Trio 64 or the Chips and Tech 6555x chipsets that were available by 1995-1996.
-The LCD TFT screen is somewhat alright but it uses a dated technology that results in low brightness, low contrast and very low long-term performance. Response time is somewhat reasonable. Definitely avoid the DSTN screens as they are way too slow, ghostly, and low-contrast.
+The graphics chipset is an odd choice. On the one side, the S3 lineage was famed for its performance, reliability and compatibility back in the day. Although the S3 Aurora 64V+ is far from being the fastest chipset in the S3 Trio lineup, somewhat below the S3 Trio 64V+ performance, the performance is decent. It could be reasoned that the chipset does not use dedicated video RAM, reducing performance and showing some cost compromises typical of low-end laptops. Compatibility is not perfect in the sense that even if it is a Trio 64 derived chipset it cannot use the much more common Trio64 drivers.
-The CPU implementation is quite bad. Even if the CPU is passively cooled, with no fan in the chassis, which is fantastic in terms of noise, the rest of the configuration is not that great. It seems that no L2 cache is included, a very strange design choice. This, along with the slow memory severely affects performance compared with a typical Pentium 100-133 CPU. It seems that the platform was actually designed in the first edition Pentium processors era, around 1994, explaining the quirks of its implementation, such as no USB support. Including a 100-133 MHz CPU was only an afterthought due to demand and not hinting at a good design. The keyboard is durable and with good tactile feedback. The trackpoint is mediocre in terms of reliability clearly below the level of the classic, renowned IBM quality.
+The LCD TFT screen is very good in terms of color rendering, showing them vividly, although it is not special in terms of contrast or brightness. Even on the 12 inch screen model, the display choice is perfect for retro gaming as the screen size is adequate on 640x480 resolution as well as the full 800x600 resolution. Another good feature of the laptop is that the screen has many levels of brightness that you can choose from, although the ramp is not great, with small differences between minimum and maximum. This was typical of many laptops of that era.
-Not having any removable drive capability is a very bad choice for such a laptop that does not have even a HDD tray. The rechargeable battery can be easily removed or replaced. The BIOS and timekeeping battery is a non-standard CR2016 3V button cell.
+The CPU choice is good, especially on the faster MMX range that goes beyon 200MHz. The L2 cache performance is adequate, keeping performance at a predictable level. The only configuration drawback is the lack of USB support, although this omission was typical of laptops of that era. The keyboard has very good tactile feedback, beyond expectations of typical laptops of that era and at the same level of IBM Thinkpad models. This is surprising as many Compaq laptops had unpredictable keyboard tactile feedback. The trackpoint is very good as well, responsive, and the trackpoint buttons are of very high quality, being highly comfortable. This is one of the most important design wins of this laptop.
-The chassis was slim, light, slightly uncomfortable due to the lack of rounded corners. The laptop's case is not durable, plastic frequently cracks due to age or shocks while the lid closing latch is poorly designed, frequently cracking the display case nearby. The display hinges are quite well designed, with no special attention. The integrated speaker is very poor, both due to its position and technology.
+The fixed drive flexibility is very good as the HDD tray is well sized, with many configuration options as well as having a pleasant design. Even tall harddrives can be used. The removable drives are a mixed choice. While the optical drive is fine, the floppy disk has a very poor, low cost decision, as the drive platter belt drive is certainly dead after some years of use. This was typical also of some Toshiba laptops of the same era, meaning that it was common to some extent. The rechargeable battery can be easily removed or replaced.
-The standard HDDs are way too slow for any Windows 98 since they cannot use DMA transfers it means that you are limited at 4-5MB/s transfers. Replacing the harddrive is not straightforward as the system does not accept late Pentium III era drives for a real speed boost.
+The chassis was slim, reasonably light, very comfortable due to rounded corners, being surprisingly pleasant to use long-term even with no palm-rest. The laptop's case seems durable alt as latches and hinges seem to survive quite well. Unfortunately, the keyboard and other chassis parts of the laptop are made of different plastic formulations, and they do age, yellowing quite differently. The keyboard ages the most. This was common of most laptops of the era so it is not surprising. The integrated speakers are very good considering their size, offering pleasant listening and coverage, despite being clearly lower performance than modern ones, they fare favorable to many laptops released during the same timeline, almost up the level of renowned Toshiba models.
-Software support is great if you like old operating systems. Due to the slow video chipset and RAM size Windows 95 is the most recent operating system you should install. Good DOS sound support due to the ESS1688 chipset that is Sound Blaster compatible means that vintage gaming is a good choice but seriously consider external speakers for reasonable sound quality.
+Software support is reasonably good although there is some difficulty in identifying video chipset ones. This is mainly due to the fact that there were few laptops that incorporated such video controllers, as they were not very popular. Both Windows 95 and Windows 98SE show good performance, so the better compatibility of the more modern operating system can be put to good use. Good DOS sound support due to the ESS1878 chipset that is Sound Blaster compatible means that vintage gaming is a good choice.
 {{footnotes|
-# There are some visual clues to differentiate between display types such as a single linear button to control the brightness on TFT ones instead of two, one of them being the contrast, in the case of the DSTN one.
+# There are some visual clues to differentiate between display types such as the larger one having speakers below the screen instead of sideways. Otherwise, configuration wise, the models have no other hinting.
 }}
 [[Category:Compaq]]