I think there are enough 8790 reviews on the forum, so I will only give my quick comments and focus on things not said in the other reviews.
My Thoughts
I am impressed with how quickly Oracle runs on the computer. With 2GB of RAM, I can tell Windows not to create a paging file and run everything from RAM; that'll increase the speed a bit, but not enough to be noticeable. Compared to my previous computer, I am delighted. I don't see any dead pixels, no problems with the wireless card, etc.
Battery Life
The 8 volt battery will last 1:24 or so when the computer is idle. If you play UT2004 (I don't play it, so I ran the demo), that drops to 43 minutes. The 3.4 processor speedsteps down to 2.73GHz while on batteries. I do not know if it goes back to 3.4GHz if/when you need it.
***Edit*** I forgot to mention it took 3 1/2 hours to recharge the battery during my three battery drain/rechage cycles. For 3.5 hrs of charge time, 1.3 hrs of life is not a good ROI.
Operating Temperature
I am familiar with my 8500 running at 45C. Expect the 8790 with Northwood to operate anywhere from 48 ~ 55C, depending upon what you are doing. I am currently running the TV tuner, image editing apps, the WiFi card, and browsers with the computer at a steady 51C. I don't hear the fan right now.
TV Tuner
It works well. I *hate* how pressing the remote's power will turn off the laptop. It's nice the remote will turn the laptop on when connected to AC, but I'd rather change that to either close the current window or turn off the TV. I have captured a few seconds of video using MPEG and AVI/DivX for a quality sample:
http://www.uncg.edu/~cmhall4/sample.mpg
http://www.uncg.edu/~cmhall4/sample.avi
Video Camera
I'd prefer more quality with less light, but it's fine. Recording from the application takes up a huge amount of space because a codec is not applied to compress the file. The example I was going to post was about twenty seconds and 61MB. Instead, I ran it through and converted it to DivX, which really helped. I filmed a pinwheel when I blow compressed air through it so you all could see the camera's fps speed. The room seems light enough, but I guess not enough to make it sufficiently bright.
http://www.uncg.edu/~cmhall4/samplecam_pub.avi
Keyboard
Oh, this'll be the bane of my computing experience! Between the 8500 and 8790, Sager switched the Control and Function keys. That might not be so bad, but Fn-F4 puts the 8790 in suspend. So...
And another thing about the suspend placement: F3 is sound mute, F5 is volume down, and F6 is volume up. If you're in a dark room and still getting used to the keyboard, you might put it into suspend a lot.
Still more: I use Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down a lot when programming. Now, I must combine it with the Function key and an arrow key to use the key. Not good. I will press the Delete and Insert keys if I use the same hand motion to press End and Home on the 8500. Whoo, boy.
Turning off Device 29
I forgot about this when installing WinXP. Instead, it assigned the card readers as drives C-F and the CD drive as G. The HDD got H. That's fine for security reasons.
Mouse
It's still not sensitive enough for me. It's fine, but not excessively hyper. I always have the thing on the fastest motion possible. No one really likes my settings like that, but that's how I work.
Included Router
I was curious, so I ordered it. The wired LAN is in fact 10/100 and not gigabit, so I guess I can't make use of the laptop's full gigabit capabilities. The router's settings are professional grade; they include more capabilities than my Linksys router. Not only can you use WPA and keys, but you can control which MACs to accept and change the IP assignments to the MACs. However, I can't find a transparent mode where I can let my Linksys assign IPs through it while the wireless router concentrates on encryption and access denial. It took a little bit to get used to it.
Default Carrying Case
It has less carrying space than my 8500's. It also seems made for another laptop, as the 8790, while fitting in the bag, leave a good amount of room between its lid and the bag's top. When carrying it, the bag folds a bit. Ah, well.
About the Links
The links go to my web site. If, a few months later, you cannot load the media, go to http://www.phoenixpo.com/computers/forum and I will have posted what happened to the files. There is nothing there as a default document, so you won't get anything now.
I may edit this later or add more information.
My Thoughts
I am impressed with how quickly Oracle runs on the computer. With 2GB of RAM, I can tell Windows not to create a paging file and run everything from RAM; that'll increase the speed a bit, but not enough to be noticeable. Compared to my previous computer, I am delighted. I don't see any dead pixels, no problems with the wireless card, etc.
Battery Life
The 8 volt battery will last 1:24 or so when the computer is idle. If you play UT2004 (I don't play it, so I ran the demo), that drops to 43 minutes. The 3.4 processor speedsteps down to 2.73GHz while on batteries. I do not know if it goes back to 3.4GHz if/when you need it.
***Edit*** I forgot to mention it took 3 1/2 hours to recharge the battery during my three battery drain/rechage cycles. For 3.5 hrs of charge time, 1.3 hrs of life is not a good ROI.
Operating Temperature
I am familiar with my 8500 running at 45C. Expect the 8790 with Northwood to operate anywhere from 48 ~ 55C, depending upon what you are doing. I am currently running the TV tuner, image editing apps, the WiFi card, and browsers with the computer at a steady 51C. I don't hear the fan right now.
TV Tuner
It works well. I *hate* how pressing the remote's power will turn off the laptop. It's nice the remote will turn the laptop on when connected to AC, but I'd rather change that to either close the current window or turn off the TV. I have captured a few seconds of video using MPEG and AVI/DivX for a quality sample:
http://www.uncg.edu/~cmhall4/sample.mpg
http://www.uncg.edu/~cmhall4/sample.avi
Video Camera
I'd prefer more quality with less light, but it's fine. Recording from the application takes up a huge amount of space because a codec is not applied to compress the file. The example I was going to post was about twenty seconds and 61MB. Instead, I ran it through and converted it to DivX, which really helped. I filmed a pinwheel when I blow compressed air through it so you all could see the camera's fps speed. The room seems light enough, but I guess not enough to make it sufficiently bright.
http://www.uncg.edu/~cmhall4/samplecam_pub.avi
Keyboard
Oh, this'll be the bane of my computing experience! Between the 8500 and 8790, Sager switched the Control and Function keys. That might not be so bad, but Fn-F4 puts the 8790 in suspend. So...
And another thing about the suspend placement: F3 is sound mute, F5 is volume down, and F6 is volume up. If you're in a dark room and still getting used to the keyboard, you might put it into suspend a lot.
Still more: I use Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down a lot when programming. Now, I must combine it with the Function key and an arrow key to use the key. Not good. I will press the Delete and Insert keys if I use the same hand motion to press End and Home on the 8500. Whoo, boy.
Turning off Device 29
I forgot about this when installing WinXP. Instead, it assigned the card readers as drives C-F and the CD drive as G. The HDD got H. That's fine for security reasons.
Mouse
It's still not sensitive enough for me. It's fine, but not excessively hyper. I always have the thing on the fastest motion possible. No one really likes my settings like that, but that's how I work.
Included Router
I was curious, so I ordered it. The wired LAN is in fact 10/100 and not gigabit, so I guess I can't make use of the laptop's full gigabit capabilities. The router's settings are professional grade; they include more capabilities than my Linksys router. Not only can you use WPA and keys, but you can control which MACs to accept and change the IP assignments to the MACs. However, I can't find a transparent mode where I can let my Linksys assign IPs through it while the wireless router concentrates on encryption and access denial. It took a little bit to get used to it.
Default Carrying Case
It has less carrying space than my 8500's. It also seems made for another laptop, as the 8790, while fitting in the bag, leave a good amount of room between its lid and the bag's top. When carrying it, the bag folds a bit. Ah, well.
About the Links
The links go to my web site. If, a few months later, you cannot load the media, go to http://www.phoenixpo.com/computers/forum and I will have posted what happened to the files. There is nothing there as a default document, so you won't get anything now.
I may edit this later or add more information.
