Dell M102z gets AMD Fusion E-450 and C-60 tune up

The M102z is a 11.6 inch netbook from Dell that made its way to Australia, Japan and a couple of other countries a while back. It was equipped with AMD Fusion first gen chips, like the C-50 and E-350, but now, according to netbooknews.com, the netbook got an update. In Hong Kong, the mini laptop will run on C-60 and E450 processors. The same update is said to be offered to Australian customers as well.

The C-50 is replaced by the C-60 and the E-350 by the E-450- a nice, little symmetry that brings some welcomed performance punch. The new chips are part of the Brazzos line, which is a low power and low performance line. The C-60, in comparison with the C-50, comes with a better integrated graphics solution, namely the HD 6290, clocked at 400 MHZ, while the HD 6250 on the C-50 was clocked at 277 MHZ.

Also, the CPU supports, on the C-60, overclocking to 1.33 GHZ, from the usual 1 GHZ clocking. The E-450 also packs a better graphics card, namely HD 6320, which can be boosted to run at 600 MHZ. Another perk of the E-450 is that comes with support for DDR3-1333 MHZ RAM, while the speed of the CPU wasn’t improved that much, as you still have two Bobcats, running at a slightly better 1.65 GHZ speed.

Dell's M102z is the first netbook to get the new AMD Fusion chips

Energy wise, the two processors are similar to the previous entries in the series, with the C-60 having a 9W TDP, just like the C-50, while the E-450 has a 18W TDP. Still, keep in mind that these are entry level processors with integrated graphics, so you shouldn’t expect too much from them in comparison with current gen chips. However, normal day use will be a little smoother, and HD movies and apps and some games will be better supported.

The C-60 and E-450 might also appear in a few nettops here and there, as this type of platform is just right for a nettop: it’s light, takes in little power, it’s pretty silent and supports HD playback. Back to the M102z, the newly equipped netbook will be available in Hong Kong for about $540, in September, but for now there’s no info about a US or Europe release of this model. C-60 and E-450 chips are linked with a couple other machines, namely ASUS K53BY, HP G4 and Acer Aspire 7250, which don’t have a clear release date yet.

Tags: 11.6" netbooks, AMD Fusion, AMD Ontario, AMD Zacate, Dell

Last updated: March 31, 2012 | Published: August 6th, 2011 | Add the first comment!