R70 7300 Despina - Willing to upgrade and do some benchmarks

Hello all,

so, I’ve bought the Samsung R70-Aura-7300 Despina.

It has the following specs:

R70-Aura-T7300 Despina
Kurzbeschreibung
R70

1.199,- EUR*

* inkl. MwSt, zzgl. Versand,
bei Vorlage eines entsprechenden
Nachweises (z.B. Studentenausweis)
Prozessor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Prozessor T7300 2,0 GHz 4 MB Cache 800 MHz FSB
Betriebssystem Original Windows® Vista Home Premium
Speicher 2.048 MB PC2-5300
(2 x 1.024 MB)
Festplatte 200 GB SATA
5.400 UPM
Display 15,4" WXGA Glare TFT
1.280 x 800
Grafik 256 MB Nvidia GeForce Go 8600M GS
Optisches Laufwerk DVD-Super-Multi Double Layer
Kommunikation WLAN 802.11 a/b/g und n (MIMO)
100/1000 Ethernet
Bluetooth 2.0
Besonderheiten
Protect-o-Edge™-Gehäuse
Software OEM Samsung Recovery Solution II
Microsoft® Office 2007 Testversion 60 Tage
Diamantschwarz
Akku-Laufzeit bis zu 3 Stunden
Service & Support 24 Monate Vor-Ort-Abholservice europaweit
Gewicht ca. 2.700 g
Best.-Nr. NP-R70A003/SEG

Just one thing I am not sure, in these specs I’ve posted that I’ve copied from another guy who said he copied from http://www.studentbook.de, it says hardrive 200GB with 5400 RPM. But, I was checking the same website (btw, I bought the laptop on that same website) and there it says 4.200 RPM. So, which one is right? I don’t believe Samsung would put a 200GB harddrive with only 4.200 RPM, but, who knows?

And, I am willing to do some benchmarks with this laptop, but I don’t know exactly how to do a proper one. Can you guys help me?

First, I want to upgrade all drivers: bios, GPU, bluetooth =D, whatever … Can you guys guide me to some sites where I can download the drivers? Is there any other „tweak“ softwares you recommend me installing?

Second, after everything has been updated, then which software should I install and in which way should I run it to get a proper benchmark?
Probably there are instructions on the download website, so I can look there and figure out things for myself.

Thanks for the attention,
best regards,
Bruno.

 

You can refer to Samsung DE support page for the update of your drivers if available... about the tweaking... depends what you want to do... everyone have their own need... so please clarify...

about the benchmark... you can try the wprime n submit your result in this thread... other than that... i will leave to others to add up the benchmark...

 

First try the Samsung update plus software. The two sites to check for newer drivers are the global download site and SamsungPC.com.

PCMark05, 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 are benchmarks in common usage. They are available from Futuremark.

Battery life will be of interest to some people. For these it is probably easiest to state your test conditions, such as DVD playback at half brightness, or with most features turned off and a dim display, as an indication of the maximum life away from a power socket.

John

 

Now it´s also officially listed on the German Samsung site:
R70 Despina

 

That site shows the HDD as 200GB 4200rpm. Slow. Is that correct?

John

 

Unfortunately yes...

Notebook.de and studentbook.de are selling it with 4200 rpm

 

Yeah,

that's what I've asked in the topic, if it is really 4.200 =(

Yeah, the hardrive seens to be the bottleneck of this laptop. Hopefully, I will not suffer *much* from it.

What do you guys reckon? Will it make a big difference?

Another thing, is there any way that I can improve that? Something that could help on that. I am thinking about some stuff I've seen on the web, but since I am not sure I would like an opinion.

Best regards,
Bruno.

 

The first test to improve HDD performance would be to try some turbo temory using a USB stick or SD card if you have something available.

In the medium term a faster HDD is probably the solution. The 200-250GB sector is now starting to get busy and 160GB 5400rpm HDDs are relatively inexpensive.

I would be interested to know which model your 200GB HDD is. Perhaps the 12.5mm thick Fujitsu MHV2200BT.

John

 

You could get a extra 2gb ram stick.. it ll improve the performance due to the vista bug

 

John,
can you explain more about the turbo memory? Like how much I need, how to install etc? I am kind lost with that hehe

Lunateck,
Nah, I don'T think another 2GB would help me. the 2Gbs that I have now is enough. But which bug are you talking about?

BEst regards.
Bruno.

 

Intel describes Turbo Memory here.

You can either have a dedicated module inside the computer or use some plug-in storage, which Vista calls ReadyBoost.

The theory is Vista will pre-load files which it thinks you will need to use into this memory and then they will load faster, if needed, than if they are fetched from the HDD.

So far, the only definite benefit I have noticed is that, on my Q35, the battery lasted longer during DVD playback. Vista was playing the DVD intermittently and then caching the information on the SD card. It is more difficult to be certain about improvements in everyday use.

John

PS: Run HD Tune and/or HDTach on your hard disk when you get it. We will then be better able to judge its performance.