14 DAY TRIAL // Even though Intel's Sandy Bridge processors won't be officially released until January 5, 2011, some manufacturers have already started shipping notebooks based on these CPUs to retailers, a Singaporean computer megastore already carrying an HP Pavilion dv6 laptop with an Intel Core i7-2630QM chip.
This news comes to us via the VR-Zone website, one of their editors stumbling upon a HP Pavilion dv6-4103TX notebook computer in a local mall that was featuring the second generation Intel Core CPU sticker.
After a quick inspection of the laptop, the editor found it to be powered by an Intel Core i7-2630QM processors as well as by an AMD Radeon HD 6570M graphics processing unit.
The Core i7-2630QM is built on top of the Sandy Bridge architecture and features quad processing cores together with Hyper-Threading support and integrated Intel HD graphics.
According to VR-ZOne, the CPU is clocked at 2.0GHz and can go as high as 2.8GHz thanks to Intel's proprietary Turbo Boost technology that dynamically adjusts the CPUs core clock depending on the application load.
The yet unofficial AMD Radeon HD 6570M GPU is a rebadged ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700 series discrete graphics card with a faster core clock.
This can be configured with either GDDR3 or GDDR5 memory, its performance ranging from Mobility HD 5730 to Mobility HD 5770 levels depending on the type of memory used.
Apart from these hardware changes, the HP Pavilion dv6-4103TX is really similar to all the other dv6 models available on the market, the system featuring a clad aluminum case as well as 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 640GB SATA hard drive and a 15.6-inch LED-backlit display panel built by AU Optronics (AUO).
Pricing is set at 1,899 Singapore dollars which translates into about $1,460 US, not so much considering a similarly configured Core i7-840QM packing dv6 will set you back $1499.
