Related articles

• Booting up Windows Vista boots two times slower than the Mac OS X does. The two systems with the different operating systems are not directly comparable, of course, but the Mac OS X is just faster. Photoshop CS3 The time it takes for Photoshop CS3 to load up is comparable on both machines, even if the Windows version is faster. However, the Mac OS X version loads image files faster. Autonomy We used Microsoft Office and compressed a large file for these tests. The launching and initialization of Microsoft Word (2008 on Mac, 2007 on Windows) was interesting to compare, since the Windows version launched almost immediately, while the Mac version was very slow. File Decompression For the last test, we tried to decompress one archive (rar) that contained some big files (about 500 MB) and a lot of smaller files (less than 1 MB). With this precise test, we wanted to see any drawbacks the X300’s SSD hard drive might have for writing small files. However, the X300’s SSD hard drive is much faster than the MacBook Air’s drive, as the results show. Stand-By With a processor that consumes relatively little power and an LED screen, the X300 should have good stand-by time. Indeed, the X300 lasted about six hours and 30 minutes on a charge with our test unit’s six-cell battery. And with another battery in place of the optical drive, Lenovo says the X300’s battery life can last up to 10 hours in stand-by mode on a charge. DVD Playback We were able to watch a DVD with the screen resolution set to a minimum for 2 hours and 14 minutes on a charge. This was long enough to watch most of the movie but was still a little short. Also, the screen isn’t well adapted for watching movies. With 3G Our other test consisted of using the X300 with a 3G connection. By deactivating Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and setting the screen to 7 bars (from 15), we were able to work for 4 hours and 25 minutes. By reducing the luminosity and deactivating the 3G connection, the battery life should be able to last up to six hours. Lenovo suggests replacing the optical drive with a three-cell battery to improve stand-by time. However, doing so requires a screwdriver and is a little inconvenient

• Windows Vista has a built-in benchmarking feature, which allows to not only assess system performance, but it returns an experience index for the entire system. It is based on typical workloads and checks component features and performance. The results are individual performance indices for several key components: Processor (calculations per second) RAM (memory operations per second) Graphics (performance for AeroGlass interface) Gaming Graphics (3D graphics performance) System hard drive (data transfer rate) Each component can score between 1 and 6, while scores up to 5.0 are displayed in .5 increments, while 5.1 and up is broken down into .1 increments. According to Microsoft, scores above 6 are possible with future hardware, which makes the Experience Index a pretty powerful tool to compare component performance across the board. We aren't sure if Microsoft's way of calculating the Experience Index is ideal, since there isn't much calculation involved. Instead, Windows Vista takes the lowest of the five individual results and makes it the overall Experience Index for your system. On the one hand it will always make pretty clear shortcomings by showing a disappointing overall score, but it ignores that the components that may be important for you can be more than suitable. I'm currently working on a Lenovo T60 Thinkpad 2007-FUGE, which is based on a Core 2 Duo T5600 processor (1.83 GHz dual core), two 1 GB DDR2-667 DIMMs, an Intel 945M mobile chipset and ATI's Mobility Radeon X1400 with discreet graphics, plus a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 hard drive, which runs at 7,200 RPM. Apart from the graphics subsystem, most people would agree that the setup is pretty powerful, but Vista's performance index is "only" 3.8. If it weren't for the graphics card, the system would score at least 4.5 points. For me, since I do not play games on this machine at all, graphics performance is secondary. The Mobility Radeon X1400 has its dedicated 128 MB of memory and it is Direct X9.0c compliant - that's all I wanted for my mobile workhorse. Anyways, my message is that it is important to have an eye on component indices before making a computer purchase based on the overall Experience Index. This is a screenshot of the Windows Vista Experience Index for a Lenovo Thinkpad T60 2007-FUGE notebook. This device has a Core 2 Duo T5600 processor (1.86 GHz), 2x 1 GB DDR2-667 RAM at CL5-5-5-15 timings, an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 with 128 MB discrete graphics memory and a Seagate Momentus 7200.1, which runs at 7.200 RPM. As you can see, the gaming graphics index is the lowest individual result and it dominates the Vista Experience Index. Since all other scores are considerably higher, this notebook is more suitable for office and multimedia than it is for gaming.

• You don't need special software to see the details from the AMT Web server; you can use any Web browser. If you have a Dell or HP system with AMT, you'll get the AMT client software free with the PC; Lenovo vPro laptops and desktops come with the free LANDesk Starter Kit for Lenovo systems. If you want more control, you can download the AMT Developer Toolkit from Intel's SDK site, which includes Intel AMT Commander, a console that implements all the AMT features. This allows you to configure the BIOS remotely, force another PC to boot from an alternate image, turn it off if it's been left on, or turn it on to get Windows Updates. AMT also gives each vPro PC a persistent Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) which can be read even when the PC is turned off, and doesn't change if you install another OS, format the hard drive or change the memory, graphics card or other hardware. Not only does that ensure that management software is talking to the right PC each time, it's also a secure identifier for that PC. That means that you can install software at the same time as Windows, which would normally have to wait until the PC has been named, so everything can go in the same image for an automated installation - handy if you want to slipstream your own images for a faster reinstallation. When AMT moves into home PCs as part of VIIV, we can expect to see management and security services from PC manufacturers and computer stores that use it. In China, Star SoftCom has an AMT-based service called StarNet that manages business PCs. The company has demonstrated a version of StarNet for home PCs that has policies to manage the firewall and anti-virus software, along with security services like NetNanny; if a user disables the NetNanny service, the AMT policy disconnects the PC from the Internet to prevent browsing, but the PC can still be managed remotely through AMT. If the home PC crashes or can't boot because of a virus or rootkit, StarNet can connect remotely, run a diagnostic operating system, mount the hard drive and look for corrupted drivers, viruses, a corrupted boot sector and other problems, fix the system, and send a signal that reboots the machine. Intel needs to make changes to AMT to make it work well for home users. In a business, the management console is on the same network; at home, your router would block the management software from connecting, so the home PC has to request the connection first. The AMT firmware has the functions to ask for help, but not to make the network connection to send the request, so Intel plans to add that to the firmware in the next version of AMT. Danbury will also simplify some AMT functions, like unlocking a system remotely. If you forget your password on a system with Danbury, the IT helpdesk will be able to send a remote unlock command from the management software, rather than using a recovery key stored on a flash drive to restore your system manually. Like all the hardware security features Intel is building into its platforms, this needs software that expects the hardware to be there, and it needs a system that trusts PCs secured by hardware in the platform. You may not use vPro hardware security for anything yet, but in the future it could do everything from protecting your files to proving your identity. Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Craig Mundie, thinks platform level hardware is ideal for a secure identity system. "TPM allows us to sequester secrets and to have very reliable identities. We will have identities for people, for programs and hardware devices that are not spoofable; we will be able to assemble devices and have people trust them." Intel's Active Management Technology allows compromised PCs to be diagnosed, updated and fixed remotely; so far it's restricted to business systems. Click the image to see a larger version.