A few months ago, I bought a 3 year old laptop. For over 650$, it sounds insane thinking of how the cost of machines have been dropping constantly. The fads of netbooks, a new interest in the tablet, as brought around by the infamous iPad, have contributed to the change in prices, but newer, faster, more efficient processors and video cards are all part of the picture.
Nevertheless, I am writing this on a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p. It is an elegant black boxy machine which pack most features found on current computers with the exception of HDMI and eSATA, but those option will take time before they replace a VGA or USB connector. Come to think of it, I have never seen anybody do a multimedia presentation and connect the projector to the HDMI. eSATA drives do offer faster transfer, but unless working with HD video, huge amounts of data being processed rapidly, there is no benefit over USB 2.0.
As for the video performance, Bluray 1080p is fine using DXVA. I can watch MKV with AVC video and FLAC audio with just under 15% CPU usage( it jumps around a little). (7% when watching video with no subs!)
(Make sure install the K-lite Codec Pack with Media Player Classic Home Theatre)
I have tried some modern games, playing maxed out at 1920 x 1200 is not an option, but using defaults, adding a little anti-aliasing and ansitropic filtering, does not affect http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifperformance much and over 30fps is not a problem. It seems that shadows are little difficult to process for the Quadro in games like Forsaken World.
As for the option of a newer machine with i5 or i7, I can barely think it would be worth it. My screen resolution is really pleasant, the computer is very silent, which is essential when writing, reading or in any creative process like CAD. Oh, yes the keyboard is really, really nice. Actually still better than most that I have came across.
Should I work for a company, or get another computer because this one gets damaged or stolen, It will definitely be another Lenovo ThinkPad.
(I have seen some Dells which have the same aesthetic, that is sleek black with a track point, and they may very well be suitable - noise, screen resolution and keyboard must be considered).
No comments:
Post a Comment