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    SR vs my desktop?

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by gauden44, Dec 11, 2008.

  1. gauden44

    gauden44 Notebook Consultant

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    I bought a laptop because it's easier to take home on weekends than a big desktop, but I'm hoping it will be comparable in performance for what I need it to do, which is having these open simultaneously:

    MATLAB
    Multiple Word/Excel
    Firefox with lots of tabs
    iTunes
    all while at 1920x1200 resolution

    My laptop: SR290 with T5800, Radeon 3470, 4gb Ram
    My desktop: Dell with Q6600, 512mb 8800GTS, 4gb Ram

    I know the laptop won't be able to run games anywhere close the desktop, but for the basic things I listed I just don't want there to be any slowdown. I'm worried that at 1920x1200 the laptop might lag a little.
     
    gauden44, Dec 11, 2008
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  2. TemjinZero

    TemjinZero Notebook Evangelist

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    ...Err... is this laptop going to be connected to an external monitor? Otherwise, forget about the resolution.

    The T5800 I'd say isn't going to process MATLAB nearly as well as your Q6600, but everything else should be fine.
     
    TemjinZero, Dec 11, 2008
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  3. cjcerny

    cjcerny Notebook Consultant

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    I suspect that the laptop will be somewhat slower. The CPU and hard drive of your laptop are just not as fast as your desktop.
     
    cjcerny, Dec 11, 2008
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  4. gauden44

    gauden44 Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks for the replies. MATLAB shouldn't be an issue as I don't do super intense calculations with it. I'm worried that dragging windows around and stuff will be laggy.

    Would a P8400 and 3650 be significantly better? I'd have to get an FW then.
     
    gauden44, Dec 11, 2008
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  5. TemjinZero

    TemjinZero Notebook Evangelist

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    You can CTO an SR to have the P8400 chip which should improve it's power consumption while improving the speed. With regards to GPU, the 3470 is more than enough for light gaming.

    However, the FW IIRC has a large resolution that you'd like. It should be able to display 1920x1080 with its GPU. The SR won't surpass 1280x800 unless you hook it up to an external monitor I think.
     
    TemjinZero, Dec 11, 2008
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  6. gauden44

    gauden44 Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks for the advice. I already ordered the SR290 when there was a huge deal going on, so I can't modify it anymore :(. Also, in regards to the screens, I'll be hooking it up to an external monitor I have. If I were to get the FW I'd probably get the standard 1600x900 anyway, as I think 1920x1080 might be a little small on a 16.4" :).
     
    gauden44, Dec 11, 2008
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  7. TemjinZero

    TemjinZero Notebook Evangelist

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    I have 1600x900 on my Z's 13.1" 16:9 ratio screen, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
     
    TemjinZero, Dec 11, 2008
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  8. Lattice

    Lattice Notebook Evangelist

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    MATLAB loads faster on my desktop (also with the Q6600) and obviously runs faster, but I don't get any lag when running MATLAB on my laptop, even when I have other windows open like Firefox, R, and other applications.
     
    Lattice, Dec 11, 2008
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