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Yep. And you could even leave the laptop open and run dual screen. The resolutions of each screen would be independent of one another.

Thx MSP.

Damn BB. I called them to know if they have any in stock and they said to me that they have 28 laptops at the depot site but they dont know when they will receive it..!! Why you advise it at sale if you dont have any!!

Order it over the BB web site, w/a store pickup. That way you'll have one already allocated to you vs. just walking into a store and maybe finding one in stock. You'll also be notified when they do come in.

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Great review, thanks for the info!!!

Just wanted to add another benchie for people interested:

HD Tune with 2x Hitachi 200gb 7200rpm in raid 0

Transfer Rate
Minimum 61.2 MB/s
Maximum 98.4 MB/s
Average 85.1 MB/s
Access Time: 15.0ms
Burst Transfer: 70.3 MB/s
CPU Usage 8%

I'm surprised the stats are that different from the 60gb models - especially the CPU usage.

HD Tune with 2x Hitachi 60 gb 7200rpm in RAID 0 w/Windows XP Pro.

Transfer Rate
Minimum 9.7 MB/s
Maximum 63.0 MB/s
Average 49.8 MB/s

Access Time: 14.9 ms
Burst Transfer: 47.6 MB/s
CPU Usage 3.3 %

Other than w/the CPU usage, your 200's are a lot faster. The Access Time is the same. I ran the numbers twice, w/the NIC and WiFi shut off, no change.


Here are my numbers running HD Tune in Safe Mode. It's a little bit better, but not much.

Transfer Rate
Minimum 9.4 MB/s
Maximum 69.7 MB/s
Average 54.4 MB/s

Access Time: 14.8 ms
Burst Transfer: 56.3 MB/s
CPU Usage 1.9 %


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Oh this was on stock VISTA Home Premium that came installed and HD Tune 2.54 (latest version)

At this point don't order or buy the Gateway from Best Buy at all!!! They're asking $1699 for it now, which is too much. But if you go to the Gateway website and chat with their sales people, you can get the same model with the 2ghz Core 2 Duo for $1399! The only down side is it won't ship until the 1st week of March, but it's totally worth the wait. 400mhz AND $300 cheaper? Oh yeah.

Just to make sure nothing hokey was going on with my first test, I ran it again.

HD Tune: Intel Raid 0 Volume Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 57.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 94.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 80.6 MB/sec
Access Time : 15.2 ms
Burst Rate : 67.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 7.5%

Still in the same ballpark as the first run.

I tested with Stock 1.66ghz CPU, Hitachi 200gb 7,200 rpm (RAID 0), Win Vista Home Premium and no other programs running. Again HD Tune 2.54

Basically the only thing changed from stock "out of the box" is the hard disk.

About the only negative thing I can say about the Hitachi drives are that they don't seem to have a temperature sensor on them - at least thats what HD Tune says - but they do seem to run fast.

DVSman: Did you have your cache activated?

I found my, I believe it to be the Write Cache, not activated.

I tried activating it, but it doesn't appear to be on, according to that Intel RAID Software.

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GoHack,

Here is the retest with write caching enabled. My previous tests were done with it OFF. Below is with it ON.

HD Tune: Intel Raid 0 Volume Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 60.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 128.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 101.1 MB/sec
Access Time : 15.8 ms
Burst Rate : 813.5 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 9.0%

Boy what differemnce.

How did you get yours activated?

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I have the Intel Matrix Storage Console installed - I clicked on the raid array in the graphic - right clicked and one of the options was Enable / Disable Volume Write-Back Caching.

So I enabled it, shut down all of my other programs (including Vista Side Bar) and retested.

NOTE: All of my status bar apps are still active - antivrius, webcam app, MSN Live IM, etc.

ladies/gentlemen -
this is one of great threads in the forum that commands so many enthusiastic inputs. It has been a while since the dinosauric emachine and 74xx series and m505.

BUT it is slowly (or has been) deviating from the section performance - meaning REVIEWS!

May I recommend (& volunteer) that SpinItch - since he is at the moment the owner of a great personalised machine - starts another thread under the Support peer-to peer section where all inputs as modding, upgrading etc ... can be found?

please? so do refrain from contributing posts other than reviews and benchmark in this thread further.

cheers ...