Compaq Presario 900 1500+: The Radeon IGP Goes Mobile

It is the bottom side of the Presario 900 motherboard that contains both the RAM SODIMM slots and the mini PCI slot.

The system consists of two SODIMM slots, each able to accept up to 512MB of memory each. In our test system each slot was filled with one 128MB stick of PC2100 DDR memory. The memory was manufactured by Hynix and featured a CL rating of 2.5. The two slots sit opposed to each other and are both accessible via the memory access panel on the bottom of the system.

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Opposite the memory slots is the Presario 900's mini PCI slot. In our system this slot came outfitted with a 56kbs modem. Again, the slot is accessible so it would be possible to upgrade to a different modem if the need should arise (which it likely wont since phone line speeds have pretty much tapped out at 56kbs). There is always the potential of adding another type of mini PCI card to the system, although besides modems and 802.11b cards, not much else exists to put into the slot.

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Also found on the bottom of the motherboard is a TI IEEE-1394 controller and an Analog Devices AD1886A AC'97 sound codec.

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The Presario 900 that we received was outfitted with a Toshiba MK2018GAP 20GB mobile hard drive. The drive spins at 4200RPM and features an average seek time of 13ms. The drive is fairly similar to the other mobile drives we have seen implemented to date. Although we always say that performance of these 4200RPM, 13ms drives should all be about the same, we have recently devoted some time to seeing if this is the case. Keep on the lookout for a mobile hard drive roundup that will finally reveal if all mobile drives are equal.

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We already mentioned how much we enjoyed the sound of the JBL Pro speakers used in the Presario 900 that we received When we too the unit apart, we were surprised to see an interesting speaker configuration. Rather than have two small speakers on each side of the system, the Presario 900 with JBL Pro speakers consists of one long speaker enclosure. The speakers looked fairly similar to other notebook speakers we have seen but clearly had more area around the speakers for base reproduction. In the picture below, one can make out the ports located towards the system's center.

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The battery on the Presario 900 was actually fairly small compared to the massive batteries we have seen in desktop replacement notebooks such as the WinBook J4. The battery is actually an 8 cell lithium ion battery that is able to output 4000mAh, meaning that the smaller size of the battery also resulted in a lower power rating.