17 inches of state of the art
While looking for some holiday gifts we stumbled upon a new Asus
notebook powered by a brand new Intel CPU and a fresh ATI GPU. Sadly,
it won't be available in time for Christmas, but it is a sign of things
to come, post CES.
The 17.3-inch Asus X77 has been around for a while, but a retailer
recently listed a new SKU based on Intel's Core i5-430M, a 32nm
Arrandale dual-core. In addition to the new processor, the revamped X77
will also feature an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730. We still don't have
the exact specs for this particular GPU, but there is a good chance it
will feature DDR3 memory, rather than DDR5 used on 5750 and 5770 cards.
The rest of the spec has been refreshed, too. With two 500GB hard
drives, 4GB of memory, eSATA, HDMI and a 1600x900 LED screen and
reasonably powerful graphics, it sounds like a pretty good desktop
replacement.
No word on pricing or availability yet, but it should show up in mid January, at around €1000.