The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Why does Macbook Air have a better CPU than the Sony TT

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by meansizzler, Oct 21, 2008.

  1. meansizzler

    meansizzler Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    43
    Messages:
    252
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Don't get if Apple can put a 1.83ghz 1066FSB/6MB CPU in their macbook air why can't the other ultra portable notebook manufacturers.. eg.. Sony/Lenovo/Asus/HP, their laptops are thicker so should be able to provide adequate cooling for such a CPU yet they are stuck with 1.4GHZ/800FSB/3MB max cpu..., do Intel and apple have some kind of deal going on with the cpu?...

    I mean the macbook air even has nvidia graphics, you could just buy that and slap vista on... and would whipe the floor with any other ultra portable...

    I think sony and the other manufacturers need to step up the game, I mean even these netbooks cpu's are catching up the the ultra portables in terms of speed at 1/5th the price...
     
    meansizzler, Oct 21, 2008
    #1
  2. b|lly

    b|lly Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    849
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I believe apple air is 13" inch? And it cannot be compared to TT.

    Compare it to Z serie, which owns it.
     
    b|lly, Oct 21, 2008
    #2
  3. pcharouz

    pcharouz Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    585
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    the main reason for this is that the entire macbooks body acts as a heatsink to cool that cpu, this has many disadvantages as well, not beaing able to change the battery for example
     
    pcharouz, Oct 21, 2008
    #3
  4. Rahul

    Rahul Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    1,741
    Messages:
    6,252
    Likes Received:
    61
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Maybe because the Air is physically larger and while thinner, also lacks an optical drive unlike the TT, both of which allow it to have a more powerful CPU.
    The Lenovo U110 is 11" like the Vaio TT/TZ, and also has a more powerful CPU but lacks an optical drive, which gave Lenovo enough room to fit a LV instead of ULV processor.
     
    Rahul, Oct 21, 2008
    #4
  5. Phil

    Phil Retired

    Reputations:
    4,415
    Messages:
    17,036
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    455
    It's a choice for either max battery life and coolness or more performance and more heat.

    MBA packs more performance. TT more battery life.

    And you may find it interesting that the MBA being sold as 1.8GHz in reality isn't able to run at 1.8Ghz for more than a couple of minutes. It throttles down as so as it gets hot. But most users don't know this because they do not actually monitor the CPU speed.
     
    Phil, Oct 21, 2008
    #5
  6. b|lly

    b|lly Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    849
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The TT is an ultraportable beast, it can do 6, 7 hours with no problem and over 10 with extended battery. This is also because of ULV CPU and if there would be a normal CPU inside I am sure it would lost 1 hour if battery life.
     
    b|lly, Oct 21, 2008
    #6
  7. shoelace_510

    shoelace_510 8700M GT inside... ^-^;

    Reputations:
    276
    Messages:
    1,525
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Yeah if you compared the Air to its actual competitor models I think you would realize the real performance differences... ;)
     
    shoelace_510, Oct 21, 2008
    #7
  8. meansizzler

    meansizzler Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    43
    Messages:
    252
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Don't mind losing an hour on the battery for performance, if only the replaced the optical drive with a large heatsink they could probably get a P8400 in their...
     
    meansizzler, Oct 21, 2008
    #8
  9. Phil

    Phil Retired

    Reputations:
    4,415
    Messages:
    17,036
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    455
    It's more like 2-3 hours I expect. With some tweaking the TZ made it up to 8 hours on the standard battery.

    On the Air it's like 5 hours max.
     
    Phil, Oct 21, 2008
    #9
  10. b|lly

    b|lly Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    849
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    We could calculate it, how much of W does "normal" CPU use and how much ULV?
     
    b|lly, Oct 21, 2008
    #10
  11. Phil

    Phil Retired

    Reputations:
    4,415
    Messages:
    17,036
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    455
    Phil, Oct 21, 2008
    #11
  12. b|lly

    b|lly Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    849
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    So the difference is 40%. Quite a lot.

    Thou...I cam checking my whole laptop power user via everest and it says it can be down to 7W. How can that be since I have SZ with a normal core 2 duo?
     
    b|lly, Oct 21, 2008
    #12
  13. Phil

    Phil Retired

    Reputations:
    4,415
    Messages:
    17,036
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    455
    The difference in power usage is not 40%. The difference in TDP is 40%. The difference in power usage is less afaik.

    Because TDP is not the same as power usage. Similar discussion: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=312446
     
    Phil, Oct 21, 2008
    #13