Pegasus Ti

Computer Shoper (August '04)

Rockdirect’s Pegasus Ti 2GHz is one of the first notebooks to include Intel’s new range of Pentium M processors with faster clock speeds. The 755 processor runs at 2GHz and has twice the level cache of the previous generation of Pentium M’s. The notebook combines this with fast wireless networking courtesy of an Intel 802.11g 54Mbit/s adaptor. There’s also a gigabyte of RAM, making this a hybrid between the thin and light designs generally associated with Centrino brand and more powerful desktop replacement models.

Its SYSmark2004 performance is excellent, with a score of 155. This is on par with a Pentium4 2.8GHz desktop and is extraordinary for a sub-3kg slim notebook. It’s certainly good enough performance for any Windows software.

The ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics accelerator with 128MB of dedicated memory powers the Pegasus to a score of 2,809 on 3Dmark03. This is the best score we have seen from a Centrino notebook, but we suspect that it’s still processor-limited. The 15.4” wide screen has a native resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels. This will cause older games that don’t support wide aspect ratios to appear stretched, but will make newer games and DVD’s look great.

This model isn’t ultra-portable but it’s light enough to be carried easily with dimensions of 34x355x253mm. It also runs quite cool.

Battery life is just short of two hours at 116 minutes. The charger isn’t especially powerful since, during gameplay on mains power, the charge level increased just fiver per cent in three hours.

The Panasonic slot-loading DVD writer supports 4X DVD+R and DVD-R writing. The 60GB hard disk is respectable for a notebook, but its real strong point is its 7,200rpm spin speed, which gives a performance boost over the usual 5,400rpm notebook disks and must partly explain the SYSmark score. There are no legacy ports, but three USB2 ports, a VGA port and a small FireWire connector should suffice. A PC Card slot provides for wireless upgrades when new standards arrive.

For high performance from a slimline, portable notebook, the Pegasus Ti 2GHz is great. It isn’t perfect, but desktop-level performance from a sub-3kg notebook is a rare and welcome treat.

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