Fastest laptop for Windows Vista
Jeff Wexler
PC World's latest review of laptops has discovered the fastest laptop to
run Microsoft's latest incarnation of Windows - Vista. The ironic
antithesis of it all, the laptop happens to be a 17" 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
MacBook Pro.
The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year is a Mac. Try
that again: The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this
year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not
even an Alienware. The $2419 (plus the price of a copy of Windows Vista,
of course) MacBook Pro's PC WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88 beats
Gateway's E-265M by a single point, but the MacBook's score is far more
impressive simply because Apple couldn't care less whether you run
Windows.
Regards, Jeff Wexler
Charles Tomaras
"Jeff Wexler" <j...@jwsound.net> wrote in message
news:jw-69284D.08...@news.verizon.net...
> but the MacBook's score is far more
> impressive simply because Apple couldn't care less whether you run
> Windows.
>
> Regards, Jeff Wexler
Well, actually Apple is a hardware company and they care quite a bit about
people being able to run Windows on their hardware....so much so that they
include a program called Boot Camp which allows for it. If they didn't care
they would have altered their hardware/firmware so it wouldn't run. The only
thing Apple cares about is keeping their OS off of other machines because
that would cut into hardware sales. The only thing OPEN about Apple is their
front door which lets people into the locked cage. In any instance,
benchmarks will continually be broken or leapfrogged and I'm sure another
test in a few months will show someone else on the speed throne.
Anyway...it's good news for you Jeff...now you can run Windows and join the
mainstream of society! All that "thinking different" is hard on your brain.
soundhaspriority
>
> PC World's latest review of laptops has discovered the fastest laptop to
> run Microsoft's latest incarnation of Windows - Vista. The ironic
> antithesis of it all, the laptop happens to be a 17" 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
> MacBook Pro.
>
Jeff, I've seen a shot of the inside of your van, and been in awe of the
sophistication, but do you ever have the need for a laptop based recording
system for the cart, where you're actually on the set? Modern laptops, in
the quest for lighter weight and compactness, rely more on fan velocity than
heatsink area to cool the CPU. I have not extensively sampled modern laptops
for noise, but the following may be useful nevertheless.
Folks who want a laptop based solution that can be in close proximity to the
artist need the equivalent of a "silent PC" in laptop form factor. My
personal experience has found one solution that works. I'm curious if there
are others.
The 1st generation Centrino platform has lower thermal power (max 22 watts)
than succeeding dual core designs. In 2003, 6.5 lbs was still considered
"thin and light". I purchased a Compal CL-50, a whitebook made by one of
the two largest OEM makers in the world -- Compal, and populated it with a
1.3 gHz CPU. Because of the massive heatsink design and the modest cooling
requirement, the fan is normally inaudible, making less noise than the
extremely quiet Samsung hard drive.
By contrast,, my ultralight Asus S5n, which uses a 1.0 gHz ulv CPU, makes
significant fan noise, cycling rapidly to make up for the small physical
size of the heatsink. Even though the thermal power of this CPU is only 7
watts, it is unsuitable for "close in" placement.
The other day, I swapped the 1.3 gHz CPU in the Compal for a 2.1 gHz unit,
which is actually rated one watt less, 21 watts vs 22, than the original.
Now the fan does run for brief intervals, during computational bursts, such
as loading web pages, but I don't think this will occur while streaming
audio to disk. Even though this machine is over four years old, it still
has advantages for audio recording. Similar machines are available on eBay.
If anyone else has a laptop they can put within four feet of the performer,
please share.
Bob Morein
(310) 237-6511