How do you think about this specs of R1F

I want to get your opinion for Asus tablet R1F with the following spces, which one will you buy? Suppose they are all Asus factory default specs, with 2 year global warranty, not modified by dealers. Price difference will be very reasonable. Please poll or post your opinion.

Asus R1F versionA: Core 2 Duo T5500, 1024M X 1, 80G 5400rpm, DVDRW, Wireless, Windows Vista business, 2 year Global warranty...

Asus R1F version B: Core 2 Duo T7200, 1024M X 2, 160G 5400rpm, DVDRW, Wireless, Windows Vista business, 2 year Global warranty...

Asus R1F version C: Core 2 Duo T7200, 1024M X 2, 100G 7200rpm, DVDRW, Wireless, Windows Vista business, 2 year Global warranty...

Version is the current Asus R1F 018E, MSRP US$1700, Let's suppose version B and C are US$1950 - 2000.

 

B

Because the 160 gb 5400 rpm drives are better than the 100 gb 7200 rpm hds.

 

More space and a longer battery life would probably be more appealing to most people too.

 

Does the 7200 run hot?

 

I would say that because it is a tablet, most of the usual concerns are less. The hard drive might be bigger, but I wouldn't want to pay $200 for a better processor that if don't need, and I can always upgrade the hard drive on my own. Plus, If I understand right, the first option is the only one with easily upgradeable RAM (it would be the cheapest).

 

I'd like to see at least a Go 7300 or Go 7400 on the R1, but that's not in the poll since they're all Asus factory GMA950 spec'd

I voted for C. I don't need storage space, I need speed.

 

If you want speed, you should have voted for option B. You have to consider two things when you are thinking about how fast a hard drive is. How fast and how dense. Lets take a simple example:

I can run at 10 m/s, but I have to run 100 meters to win the race.
You can run at 5 m/s, but you only have to run 40 meters to win the race.

Who wins?

Clearly, you win. You will finish in 8 seconds, while it will take me 10 seconds. The hard drives are the same. The RPM speed is just a measure of how many times the disk spins around, but because the 5400RPM is 1.6 times as dense, it performs faster. If it works as a direct translation, you would need a 100GB, 8640 RPM drive to be equal. The increased density means that you don't have to travel as far to get to the data, which effectively means you can slow the disk down with no change in performance.

 

@Milestone -

Do post this question in the TPCR forums as well.

I personally opted for the T7200 + 160GB hard drive. T7200 is a 'minimum' for me, since I don't really see the difference between the T5500 and the T2XXX series C1D procs.

 

wow thanks calebschmerge for the informative post. i (as a n00b, of course) have never thought about the density factor. have just always assumed the higher the RPM the faster. now i feel much better having the 160gb@5400rpm in my G1 and wasn't provided with an option to 'upgrade' to 100gb@7200rpm despite constant nagging

anyways, i think i'll choose the invisible option D IF i were to buy a tablet, speed and graphics wouldn't be the main concern - as some have already pointed out, it would be battery life, and *perhaps* space. hence a good tablet would be to have T5500, 1gb ram (i guess 2gb wouldn't hurt here), 160gb HDD @ 5400rpm, and make sure that it comes with wireless a/b/g/ n and an integrated graphics. having an 8cell batt wouldn't hurt neither

 

At $1900, I would get option B. If it was anything over $2000, I would stick with option A. The extra hard drive space and faster CPU aren't worth $400...

 

$1699 - $1999 is $300, not $400, we are looking at 250-300$ to cover T5500-T7200 and 1G more memory and bigger HD, which is a very good deal I think.

 

The hard drive equation is not that simple.

because in some things a 7200 rpm hd is always faster.


However I surely dont feel like writing an essay on it.
In general in this comparison the 160 gb 5400 rpm hd is not only pretty much as fast or close, its also 60 gb larger

 

Oh, sorry. I remembered seeing the R1F selling for $1600 at Best Buy Business and thought that the price had been lowered to that.

I didn't see that it was 2GB memory, I thought that it had gone to 1024MB in 2 DIMMs (512MB x 2). Then it is definitely worth it.

 

I know it isn't quite that simple, due to things like random access. The point was to show that 7200 RPM isn't god.