Business Winstone 2004
Business Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running today's top-selling Windows-based 32-bit applications on Windows 98, Windows 2000 (SP2 or later), Windows Me, or Windows XP. Business Winstone doesn't mimic what these packages do; it runs real applications through a series of scripted activities and uses the time a PC takes to complete those activities to produce its performance scores.
The list of 10 business productivity applications includes five Microsoft Office 2000 applications (Access, Excel, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and Word), Microsoft Project 98, an e-mail application (Lotus Notes R5), a compression program (NicoMak WinZip), an anti-virus program (Norton AntiVirus), and a Web browser (Netscape Communicator).
Multimedia Content Creation
Winstone 2004
Multimedia Content Creation Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running top Windows-based, 32-bit, multimedia content creation applications on Windows 2000 (SP2 or higher), Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows XP. Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003 uses the following applications:
- AdobeÃ,® PhotoshopÃ,® 7.0
- AdobeÃ,® PremiereÃ,® 6.5
- MacromediaÃ,® Director 8.5.1
- MacromediaÃ,® Dreamweaver 4
- MicrosoftÃ,® Windows MediaTM Encoder 7.01.00.3055
- NetscapeÃ,® 6.2.3
- NewTek's LightWaveÃ,® 7.5
- Sonic FoundryÃ,® Sound ForgeÃ,® 6.0
Following the lead of real users, Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 keeps multiple applications open at once and switches among those applications.
Business Winstone 2004 BatteryMark
BatteryMark measures battery life on notebook computers running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. These tests involve leading Windows-based applications, such as Microsoft Office XP, Norton AntiVirus, and Netscape, in a set of scripted activities that drain a notebook's battery in a way that mimics real use.
BWS BatteryMark takes a big step beyond Business Winstone for realistic battery testing by inserting pauses between keystrokes and between tasks. These pauses, or waits, enable BWS BatteryMark to approximate realistic typing speed and workflow. Today's notebooks boast sophisticated power-management features that can take advantage of such pauses to power down and conserve battery life, and this capability often spells longer battery life. Thus BWS BatteryMark, with its waits and pauses of varying lengths, gives you a good idea of how long your notebook battery will hold up under actual use.
Sorry guys, but the reviewed x86 machines seem rather lame to me.
On 10th September 2004 I bought a Clevo M375E notebook that beats nearly every specification of the reviewed units.
This unit has a Fujitsu 100GB HDD, Intel Dothan 2GHz, 2GB of PC2700 SDRAM, Pioneer single layer 2x DVD-RW burner, 54MB WiFi, build-in camera, 3 format card reader, 15.6" wide-screen LCD @ 1680 x 1050, S-Video out, dual display support, FireWire, Gigabit LAN, v.92 modem, IR, 3 x USB2, 1 x Type 1 PCMCIA and serial port.
It is the fastest PC I have ever worked on, easily beating most P4 desktops in everything that is not hard drive or CDROM intensive.
The only thing it lacks is BlueTooth, which was available as an option.
The 2GB of RAM dent the battery life a little, as do the 2GHz Dothan and huge screen resolution, but I still get over three hours of practical work on a single charge with the WiFi turned off.
When I bought it, the RAM was very expensive, but this has come down considerably since.
This unit retail now for less than $4500.
For taxation reasons, I normally replace my notebook once every financial year. If this reviewed collection is exciting the "envy crowd" now, I may hold on to this unit for another year. I can't see that updating only to get dual-layer or BlueTooth is worth my while...