The Battle of Siblings

20Agu09

Configuration scheme of the Thinkcentre.

Configuration scheme of the HP DC7800.

As I have written in several previous posts, I installed Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate in three computers that I use most. The Thinkcentre A57 at the office, the HP Business Desktop DC7800 at my house and the late Thinkpad X61, which I (ab)used whenever I was away.

Since the Thinkpad X61 ceased working, I only had two Windows 7 systems in my possession. The Thinkcentre A57 is equipped with an Intel Quadcore Q6600 running at 2.4GHz as its engine, while the HP DC 7800 is equipped with an Intel Core2Duo E6550 running at 2.33Ghz. Both are armed with 4GB RAMs and both have 250GB Sata HDD 7200 RPM 8 MB chache as their main storage devices.

I sense a quite odd thing, though, pertaining to the performance of the two machines. I feel that the HP DC7800 runs faster than the Thinkcentre A57 in Windows 7 environment. I mean, right from the boot-up, the HP machine is always felt faster (and in fact it is faster) than the Thinkcentre.In starting application, the HP fare better, e.g. the HP starts the Firefox in a zip, while the Thinkcentre takes a while for the Firefox to be ready.

Apart from the processor, the configurations of the two machines are basically similar. The Thinkcentre, in fact was superior in a sense that it is equipped with a 4-GB USB stick as its ready-boost device.

Just as a reference, the late Thinkpad X61 was equipped with an Intel Core2Duo T7300 running at 2Ghz with 4GB of RAM, and it runs Windows 7 with all of its gizmos smoothly.

It had me thinking, then, that the Quadcore processors are like cars with big engines. They’re there, but no one is able to make the most out of it.

*****

Filed under: Gadgetry, Thinkcentre, Windows7   |  2 Comments