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    Need Help Testing Subnotebook

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Purehazard, Aug 6, 2008.

  1. Purehazard

    Purehazard Notebook Evangelist

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    A friend of mine dropped of an engineering sample of a new subnotebook built by an little know Chinese company. I've never really done any reviews or testing so I need a bit of help know what to look for and what methodology I should use.

    It's an OEM item so there's no OS but the last person to test it left a fresh install of Windows XP SP2. What battery of tests should I be doing besides the obvious PCMark and maybe 3DMark (not too exciting since it's a VIA Chrome Orb IGP)?

    Here's the PC Wizard 2008 Information (Bold parts were put in by myself).

    <<< System Summary >>>
    Mainboard : To be filled by O.E.M. To be filled by O.E.M.
    Chipset : VIA CX700/VX700
    Processor : VIA Processor @ 1596 MHz (VIA C7m 1.6GHz)
    Physical Memory : 1024 MB (1 x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM ) (Originally 512MB)
    Video Card : VIA/S3G UniChrome Pro II IGP
    Hard Disk : WDC (80 GB)
    Monitor Type : 20 inches (Should be a 10.2" WXGA 1024 x 600 LCD w/ LED backlight)
    Network Card : VT82C570 MV IDE Controller VIA Technologies Inc
    Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RT8139 (A/B/C/810x/813x/C+) Fast Ethernet Adapter

    Also, HWMonitor doesn't seem to see the temperature of the CPU. What's the temperature and fan monitor that will work with VIA chips?
     
    Purehazard, Aug 6, 2008
    #1
  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    See a review such as this for examples of the standard tests.

    You could also try testing the hardware using SiSoftware Sandra. particularly the basic CPU, HDD and memory bandwidth tests.

    The battery life will be of interest but testing of this tends to be fairly arbitrary. For example, what is an adequate display brightness.

    Let us know what you find.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Aug 6, 2008
    #2
  3. ivar

    ivar Notebook Deity

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    Imho, it would be interesting to see if undervolting progs rmclock or notebook hardware control would work with VIA processors (they also show temperatures, btw).
     
    ivar, Aug 6, 2008
    #3