Data Conversion Machine - Want small box, big power.

Randy Engle (6/1/14 5:19PM)


Randy Engle (6/1/14 5:19 PM)

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9jhjhYBAAAAAA==3D@xc2.us>


Douglas,

Thanks for the in-detail comments.

I've got a high end Dell (Precision) with an i7 Chip and SSD drive.
Yes, the SSD has made a world of difference.
I know when I'm running a very large update of records, (or in this
case,
all records in the DB), my laptop gets a little "warm".. ?;-)

I'm looking at some of these "shoebox" size machines that have big
fans in
them.
It seems I can get a faster chip than what I can get in a laptop,
certainly
faster than what I've got.
Or, I'd like to think...

Randy Engle
XC2 Software LLC

color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>------Original Message-----
From: 4d_tech-bounces@... [mailto:4d_tech-
bounces@... On Behalf Of Douglas von Roeder
Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2014 5:07 PM

Randy:

i7 is a desktop chip (along with i3 and i5).

Xeon's are workstation and server chips - not necessarily higher RPM's
but
more of the different types of cache.

The problem with putting a Xeon in a laptop is heat. For example, Apple
/color>hhas
color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>hhistorically used Xeon's in their
PowerMac line but they use the i7 and i5
/color>ffor
color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>ttheir desktop products. Further,
the i7 in a laptop will tend to be a
/color>ddifferent
color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>ii7 than in a desktop because of
heat -- the cooling needs for more cache
memory will tend to require a larger form factor. You might get a big
chip
with lots of cache in a big, burly Dell but we can't cram something
like
/color>tthat
color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>iin a svelte Sony Vaio, for example.

I haven't read up on this in years but arstechnica.com and
tomshardware.com are old haunts.

Back to your point about a fast, portable machine -- I had to purchase a
laptop for a consulting gig a few months ago. It was on very short
notice
/color>aand
color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>sso I didn't have time for a BTO
machine. I ended up with an i7 chip and a
512 MB SSD.

The SSD has changed how I use a computer.

Even though it's a laptop, it has enough oomph to launch Windows 7 in
about
5 seconds and when I copy large files on the internal disk, I get
250-280
megs/second of throughput. With USB 3, file copy speeds are about 175
megs/second.

For getting data off a network, gigabit ethernet is the opening bid but
/color>yyou
color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>mmight want to consider something
that connects handles an eSATA device.
SATA is the native protocol for SATA hard drives (funny coincidence,
that)
and, IIRC, it will push up to 6 gigabytes/second.

If you don't go with an SSD, be wary of hybrid drives. There was an
/color>aarticle on
color><param>00000,0000,DDEE/param>bbarefeats.com that compared SSD,
hybrid, and standard drives and the
hybrid was slower than the standard drive.

HTH.

/color>

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