[CALUG] misc tech Q's

[Bryan J Smith]

The best source for desktop performance is available on the various "PC 
enthusiast" type sites.  Every now and then we get lucky and they do a make 
under Linux, which tests GCC forking (not so much threading) during builds.

In a self-assemble, the price-performance under $100 is typically been AMD 
triple core.
The power-performance over $100 has typically been Intel, and for anything 
high-end portable.

The last five (5) systems I purchased or assembled (all notebooks, except the 
Mini-ITX self-assemble) include ...

- 2006:  HP Pavilion dv9000z (65nm Turion X2 1.73GHz, 80nm nVidia Go 7600GS 
GDDR2 256MiB)

- 2008:  Gateway P-7811FX 17" (45nm Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz, 55nm nVidia 9800M GTS 
GDDR3 512MiB)

- 2009:  Gateway L-3101u 11.6" (65nm Turion 64 1.2GHz, 55nm AMD-ATI 700 series 
w/HD2100 integrated)

- 2010:  Assembled Mini-ITX SFF (45nm H55 platform board, 45nm i3-930 73W, 40nm 
nVidia 240GT GDDR5 512MiB)

- 2010:  Asus G73jw 17.3" (45nm i7-740QM 1.73GHz quad/2.93GHz dual, 40nm nVidia 
460M GDDR5 1.5GiB)

The system I actually lug around the most is a Gateway L-3101u, 11.6" netbook, 
which cost me a whole $199.  It smacks silly every Atom solution I've ever 
used.  It still gets about 5-6 hours of battery at the same time.  It only cost 
me $199 because Gateway was unloading them because Intel convinced them to put 
the ULV Celeron in them (for twice the price per unit).  The newer ULV Celeron 
(typically 1.4GHz) edges out the Turion 1.2GHz, but the even old 740G (690G/HD 
2100 design) smacks any Intel GPU paired with the ULV Celeron silly.  It also 
has 3D that works out-of-the-box on any modern Linux distro (since about 2-3 
years ago).

The Asus G73jw is actually a beast by volume, but it's actually lighter than my 
prior Gateway P-7811FX.  It's actually well designed, cooling-wise, but I only 
get 80 minutes of gaming at full power.  Some of these 17.3" units are now 
coming with three (3) 2.5" HD bays, and I've seen some "thick" 15.6-16" units 
with two (2) 2.5" HD bays.

The self-assemble was almost a Micro-ATX AMD triple core, but the Intel H55 
units came out and NewEgg had a killer deal on the board, i3 processor and DDR3 
memory (DDR3 is even cheaper now, could do 8GiB for $50 less than I paid for 
4GiB).  It's in a small 8 x 10 x 12" Mini-ITX box.  I also got the nVidia 240GT 
w/GDDR5 (instead of the cheaper DDR3) for $29 after MIR ($59 before, and yes, I 
got the rebate).  That little card sucks up on 69W, and doesn't need an extra 
connector.  It performance almost as good as an older 9800GT.



----- Original Message ----
From: Ken Jackson

Intel put their zoo of processors in the ark:
     http://ark.intel.com/

On 02/22/2011 10:42 AM, Walt Smith wrote:
...
> Is there a
> comparison between same silicon cores and separate chips ?