Windows 7 time.

Just loaded my fresh 64 bit files onto a bootable USB drive. I'll see how this goes before writing any more of my formal review. Shouldn't take long. Hopefully I can use the D2D Recovery system from within Windows 7 if all doesn't go according to plan. I don't have an external DVD burner, unfortunately.

**Edit: Went smoothly as expected.

Scale increases, overall score decreases. Saddening. And odd. Apparently Scott Carmichael at Gadling got something slightly different.

I have a few tests to run.

LT3103u Benchmarks

These were done after a cold boot, with nothing running in the background.

CrystalMark 2004R3

SuperPi

From what I've seen online, the Athlon in this Gateway wins by a large amount over an Atom 1.6 on the SuperPi score, but gets stomped in the CrystalMark score. Because of the HyperThreading support in CrystalMark I believe.

**Edit - for comparison I also ran a 1M SuperPi on my Acer Travelmate 2420 with a Celeron M 1.6GHz (1MB L2 cache). It scored 57s.

All I know is, the Gateway feels much faster than my Aspire One. HyperThreading doesn't matter if you're still waiting for 20 seconds for something to happen. With the handicap of Vista the Gateway still feels so much more alive and peppy. Even while multitasking.

Now, I'm no professional by any means, so keep that in mind.

Any others? Let me know.

Gateway LT3103u - fresh photo op

Excuse my dusty work area please! :)

I'm starting to love this lap... netbook. Funny story here actually. When I purchased the little thing from Best Buy yesterday (yeah I know..who goes to Best Buy on the fourth of July?), the nice sales girl who helped me warned me several times that this was in fact a "netbook" and not a "full fledged notebook." I then conversed with her over why I was interested in this particular model over say, a HP Mini or EEE PC.

Speaking of Best Buy. Buying the unit and exchanging the unit were a breeze. It took zero time to find someone to help me, and she knew her stuff. Then checking out was painless and fast. The exchange went without a single hitch. The assosciate and a geek squad member even booted the machine and apologized for the screen as we joked about how manufacturers should have higher quality standards. By far the best (see what I did there?) experience I've had at a Best Buy store.

I'm starting to doubt the netbook classification it carries. I have been using it this entire time. Using it in pictures, then opening it up quickly and editing or uploading the pictures. It performs like any other notebook I've used. Honestly, if you gave me absolutely zero specifications on the unit and gave it to me to test, I would have called it a laptop, not a netbook. The size, however, shows it to be a netbook. The specs classify it as a netbook. But it is simply far more usable than any netbook I've tried, including the 10" EEE series and HP Mini's. I need to start writing my full review now. After I get some benchmarks quickly. Until then, enjoy the pictures!

Boot and shutdown.

Timed them after I finished de-bloating the Vista Basic install.

Cold boot: 52 seconds to a desktop with launchable browser and working BT mouse.

Shutdown, nothing running: 12 seconds to fully off.

This is after I removed the bloatware, ouch. The apps I removed include: Google Desktop, Google Toolbar for IE, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office Home and Student trial, Adobe Reader, Norton Internet Security, Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer, and a few other small things.

Things I've installed since then: updated Catalyst Control Center and drivers, Google Chrome, VLC, CPUz, HWMonitor, World of Warcraft, and Amadillo Run. Also threw a USB BT dongle in and I'm using my Apple BT Mighty Mouse. The glossy white mouse doesn't match the gloss/matte black of the Gateway. Guess I'll have to invest in a Logitech VX Nano soon :)

A return to the norm.

I've paused my intense WoW playing for a short time to write some.

I bought a new netbook, again. I'm ditching the Acer Aspire One for my brand new (plastic still on it, but more on that later) Gateway LT3103u. Picked it up from Best Buy today for the low price of $399.99. Actually, I picked it up yesterday. The unit I purchased had a stuck pixel and the right side of the screen looked as if it had pressure damage. The exchange took 10 minutes though. Very pleasant experience. There were only two units when I went in yesterday, and I've had both of them. I almost feel bad about it. Now no one else can buy one. I'm so selfish.

Not all great though. This unit has a dead pixel too. Fortunately, it isn't a stuck red pixel in the middle like the last one. This time it more subtle. It just looks like a small spec of dust. I don't notice it until I look for it now.

A formal review will come later. But just so I remember later I'll throw some numbers out there.

I've been using the, let's say netbook, all day. I'm at 30% battery and Vista says 55 minutes remaining. I believe it for once. The battery doesn't want to die. I was even playing WoW on it earlier. More on that later too. I was uninstalling all of the bloat and updating for a while earlier too. All on battery. I'd estimate around 3:40-4 hours with WiFi on and brightness at medium. I'll have to do a more scientific test some time. But the battery life so far has blown away my Aspire One with it's 3-cell. And performance-wise...

I'll gush about that later too. Hopefully with some benchmarks.

As I type this I have Hulu in another tab playing an episode of American Dad flawlessly. My Celeron M 1.6GHz laptop can't even do that. My Aspire One couldn't play Hulu at all without stuttering. Color me impressed.

24 hours a day.

I haven't slept in several days. I have no idea why. There is a feeling I get, it's hard to explain.

Not wired, and not tired. Somewhere in between. Not well rested or necessarily alert. I do this a lot, actually, so I'm not shocked. I write here to get things off of my mind, and lately I haven't found the time to write about anything in particular. Whenever I sit down and try to throw something onto the keyboard, my mind goes blank. Like a damn Etch-a-Sketch.

That can be very frustrating. No sleep and a mind full of vague ideas and unfinished thoughts. Some people say this requires medical help. But I say games are my medicine. I've finally figured out why I play games so much. Specifically games that don't require TOO much thought. Racing games, RPGs, FPSs. They all cater to the part of me that wishes I could turn my brain off. To end the constant thinking that happens inside my head. I play racing games because they are time consuming, and require little to no thought, just gut reactions. I play RPGs because questing is like an endless grind where I can sort my head out in peace. FPSs are for when my head is full of stressful things. 

I've got it completely mapped out now. My habits are formed as part of some method of procrastination tied into my NEED to stop the internals of my brain from working too much. Games give me something to occupy the part of my brain that encourages thought, while the other part that does the thinking sorts itself out. And I need a lot of that sorting out. It also gives me a way to somehow CREATE obligations to put before the real ones in my life. 

Depressing much? Not really. Simply an interpretation of myself. People say that's good. If you can't laugh at yourself, you know? Think of it as constructive criticism. Time to go level that warlock some more, heh.

It's quad core from here on out.

And let me tell you why.

I'm a multitasker. I NEED four cores, really. At any given point of my computer usage, which is running near 24/7 (seriously), I have more than 3 programs I'm cycling through constantly. And I'm not talking about browser windows here. Although, I usually keep at least two or three, each with several tabs, open. I'm talking about hard hitting programs. Visual Studio 2008 is running nearly all the time, along with WoW, and VLC playing some video file. Add to that my browsers, Digsby, Steam, and other random programs, and you've got a computer that's utilizing its maximum 4gb of DDR2 on a regular basis.

Why do I do this, you ask? Well, like I said, multitasking. I'm always doing something in WoW, so that one is pretty much a given these days. Whether I'm questing or farming or just chatting, it's always running and I'm always logged in. I keep Visual Studio 2008 open at all times in case I get a bit of inspiration for a project I'm working on. Like my computer, my brain never stops working, so having it close by is essential. And VLC is another given. I like movies. And animated shows. Easy enough.

The ability to have all that crap open is not entirely why I feel a quad core is necessary, however. It's the speed at which I can access each individual program. Alt-tabbing needs to be instant and stutter free. Lag kills me. Waiting for something to render in a window is unacceptable, especially if it's in RAM. When I alt-tab to VS2008, it needs to pop up instantly. On my Phenom, it does. On my Athlon X2 box, it doesn't.

Don't get my wrong, my Athlon X2 box (the one I just built and made a custom case for) is plenty quick. It plays games very well, but it isn't a workhorse like this one. I don't leave many programs running on that box, simply because it can't handle that many things. Partially the 2gb of RAM to blame there. I have noticed that recently I've WANTED to stay at school simply so I could keep using my Phenom box that's parked on my desk here instead of the Athlon X2 box at home. Even though my Athlon box has a better graphics card.

Therefore, I have to agree with nearly all internet tech writers for once.

Once you go quad core, you can't go back.