"Joe the Plumber" continues his search for Intel® AMT 4.0 capable Notebooks

By Gael Holmes (Intel) (81 posts) on October 22, 2008 at 11:59 am

Hint: Intel® AMT 4.0 is:

Intel WiFi 5100 A/G/N or Intel WiFi 5300 A/G/N
Chipset: M45 Series
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo
Check out the Intel® Centrino™ 2 with vPro™ Technology website to match up with the correct CPU Ids

Joe's shopping got cut short yesterday due to an exploding sink emergency. Today he has decided to continue his quest for a Notebook having Intel® Centrino® 2 with vPro technology. He decides to go and check out the Dell website looking for "small to medium business" notebooks. Joe sees four models: Vostro, Latitude, Dell Precision, and XPS & Inspiron. He looks for certain keywords, such as "AMT" or "vPro" but does not see them on this particular web page.

He is going to have to click on each of the models and determine which one has vPro (although he doubts that "Vostro-Great for Small businesses with simple networks" will meet his requirements, he starts there.) There are 4 Vostro models, and again there is no indication of vPro on the main Vostro page. There is a tab "Compare Vostro Laptops" so he goes there. Still nothing on this page indicating vPro (ie, which WiFI adapters, whether it is Centrino 2 or not...) He goes to see more information on the Vostro 1000 Laptop. He sees that the all of the Vostro notebooks are AMD based. No vPro there! That will save him some time.

He can now move to the next model, the Dell Latitude. There are 4 models and again and no indication of vPro on either of them. Joe takes a closer look at the Latitude E5400. Ah... the Latitudes are based on Intel® Core™ 2 Duo technology. We are getting somewhere. Again, nothing on this page indicates vPro capabilities, so Joe goes into the Tech Specs tab. Under connectivity, Joe sees the following: Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11g), Dell Wireless 1510 (802.11 a/g/n 2x2), Intel® WiFi Link 5100 [802.11a/g/n (1x2)]; Intel WiFi Link 5300 [802.11a/g/n (3x3)]. Ah Ha! Joes sees the 5100 and the 5300 adapters. This system must be configurable for vPro, and specifically AMT version 4.0, which is what he is looking for. Also, he sees that the chipset is the Intel® 45 Express Chip set, which supports AMT version 4.0 as well. Things are looking good.

But Joe is not done, assuming he wants to purchas an E5400, he must click on "Customize it." There are 3 different packages to choose from. Joe wants to buy the Base Package for only $599, but realizes that this Notebook is based on the Intel® Celeron™ technology - he just happens to know that only the Core 2 Duo sytems can support vPro. So he cannot choose that package. He then looks at the "Productivity Package". It has the right processor but it doesn't have the right WiFi link. So Joe cannot choose that package either. He then looks at the XP and Protection Package. It has the right processor, but it still doesn't have the right WiFi link. Joe is scratching his head. Did he miss something? The Tech Specs led him to think that one of the E5400 sysetems would meet his requirements. Joe then decides to go look at the E5500 notebooks.

On the E5500 page, only the XP and Protection Package meets the processor requirements so he can skip over the Base Package and the Productivity Package. Still, the wireless package is wrong for vPro. He then decides to go to the Latitude E6400 web page.

All of the E6400s have the required processor, but again, the wrong wireless adapters for vPro. Joe continues to scratch his head. The E5500 and the E6400 indicate that they are new so he figured that at least one of them would have AMT 4.0. He moves over to theE6500 web page. Same thing. Joe needs to dig deeper, it seems. He sees a link for the E6500 Spec Sheet. He clicks on it. The link brings up a comparison of the E6400 and the E6500 model. Nice. Both have the right chip set (M45 Series) and both have options for the Intel WiFi 5100/5300 AGN. Joe Scratches his head. Again. Joe decides to do a search for "vPro" in the PDF document and does find way at the bottom of the document next to "Systems Management" that both the E6400 and the E6500 have as optional: Intel vPro Technology's advanced management features. Joe decides to go back to the E6400 page and then try to customize in the "Productivity Package" offering.

Joe's experience customizing a hypothetical E6400 purchase goes as follows:

First he has to pick from one of the 5 CPU choices - They are all Core 2 Duos with varying Level 2 Cache and processor speed. He has no idea if they all support vPro or not (he would have liked to have had this link prior to starting this whole effort.) Regardless, he picks the P8400 option because it is the cheapest. He gets to the OS options. Wow, they are actually going to charge him extra for XP. He decides to go with the default option of Vista. He skips the Productivity options. He skips down to the WiFi Wireless Card options. He selects the WiFi Link 5300 802.11 a/g/n card. Joe picks all the other options he wants and finishes the customization process. He is wondering if he is really getting an AMT 4.0 system. He decided to look at one more web page before deciding that he has actually selected his options correctly: The Intel Notebook Chipsets web page. He clicks on the PM45 Express Chipset link and sees that AMT 4.0 is listed as a feature. He is feeling much better about his potential purchase, should he decide to invest in a Dell Notebook. He would be spending roughly $1200 for a Dell Latitude E6400. Incidentally, it looks like the Precision Models can be customized to support vPro as well (probably for a little more money.)

What a day! Joe is confident now that he has found quite a few vPro options on the Dell site. And now he has quite a few more websites to carry around in his toolbox.