- Long Battery Life Thanks To Standard 9-Cell Battery
- Relatively Low Cost
- Limited Software Options
- Heavier Than Most Thin And Light Laptops
- Smaller Than Average Hard Drives
- Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 Dual Core Mobile Processor
- 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
- 100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer DVD Burner
- 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) Display With Two Megapixel Webcam In Bezel
- NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512MB Dedicated Graphics Processor
- v.92 56Kbps Modem, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g Wireless
- Four USB 2.0, FireWire, ExpressCard/54, 4-in-1 Media Card Reader
- 14" x 10.1" x 1.4" @ 7 lbs.
- Vista Home Premium
11/3/07 – ABS computer's Mayhem Blackhawk 2 is an update to their older Blackhawk gaming thin and line notebook lineup. The main change involves an update to the processor and graphics. It now uses the new Intel Core 2 Duo T7000 dual core mobile processors. The least expensive option uses the low end T7100 but options are available for the T7500 and T7700. This has a higher front side bus speed that gives a good boost to overall performance. Only a single gigabyte a PC2-5300 DDR ram is available standard with 2GB options from one of three different memory companies. It would be nice to see 2GB be the default and a 4GB option since it is really designed as a gaming system.
The other big upgrade is to the graphics processor. The Mayhem Blackhawk 2 uses the newer NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT processor with 512MB of dedicated graphics. This provides it with very strong graphics that are capable of Direct X 10 support and plenty of memory for higher 3D graphics textures. The display resolution is fixed at 1280x800 which might be an issue with some gamers looking for a higher resolution display.
Storage has a limited number of options that is kind of disappointing. The 100GB hard drive base does have a high performance 7200rpm spin rate, but its capacity is on the low side for a system of this price range. Users can upgrade to a 120 or 160GB hard drives, but they spin at the slower 5400rpm rate. It does feature a standard dual layer DVD burner for recording or playing back CDs and DVDs.
The end result of the ABS Mayhem Blackhawk 2 is a system that is very capable as a thin and light that also can be used as a relatively inexpensive mobile gaming platform. The drawback is that it lags behind the more dedicated gaming notebooks.
