From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 19 03:16:50 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D65951065672 for ; Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:16:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from depocatcher@gmail.com) Received: from mail-iw0-f182.google.com (mail-iw0-f182.google.com [209.85.214.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 973318FC21 for ; Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:16:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: by iwn36 with SMTP id 36so1547079iwn.13 for ; Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:16:49 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:reply-to :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=G5GwOrpzAX9leD7Lm3Xttv+V2fcrdJRjLRnw8S3efu4=; b=P67TFpkXoVF50CU8b8MsqwIzXoVOpGCQOk9BYZloV+7wFiP5OVTV9UYmebivt65e/S NbcheaAPvTKjNYVHmm0xaA55kdJ/QsfWc0N8Lr7WuJucf6AngOaLxRmTOzdXl6KwGinC /ZUOEoN2PwKQozumx944NDP+tC0H17THIAhdU= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:reply-to:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject :references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=ddoosG8UDAhgcT4r9ihhG7curPlRrCetrnP8u33sL4dv64S5dQIxd8kTjS86nneNzg 2SLkmmkyzTtWnW0YyZbJB167AVdSGvBAbn1g4vmTZFn2yzpkVGiKb1FVxu4H3e52UEkH da1GlIwv8cwhiqLqLqVHrGOyKbiFB1Pmvya6s= Received: by 10.231.12.74 with SMTP id w10mr10193198ibw.189.1282187808470; Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:16:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.17.10] (c-98-240-166-249.hsd1.mn.comcast.net [98.240.166.249]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id j2sm878430iba.18.2010.08.18.20.16.47 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:16:47 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4C6CA223.2040801@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:16:51 -0500 From: Depo Catcher User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100802 Thunderbird/3.1.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Gary Kline References: <20100819011024.GA10288@thought.org> In-Reply-To: <20100819011024.GA10288@thought.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List Subject: Re: well, i guess it's time to ask..... X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: depocatcher@gmail.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:16:51 -0000 On 8/18/2010 8:10 PM, Gary Kline wrote: > 've hesitated. on my 3.0gh thinkpad, streams fly > flawlessly. So if i buy one of the notebooks with a Stream what kind of movies? Some video players (like VLC) have hardware acceleration that will help a lot if your video card/driver supports it. Things like Flash based movies might be kind of iffy though since they can't take advantage of the video hardware [?]. Once you start moving up to high def video you might have some problems, but know a lot of Home Theater guys that use Atoms for media centers: http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=103 My gfs Atom 330 plays videos in VLC fine and flash fine, but full screen flash drops frames. This is under WinXP. The new D510 CPU are faster in benchmarks; it has dual cores with hyperthreading. If you wait a few months, the new D525 CPUs should be out in consumer computers - these are 1.8Ghz (instead of 1.6Ghz) and support DDR3 (instead of DDR2). That might help a bit. Both are limited to 4 gigs. So, I would bet that 90% of the time it'll be enough if you have a good video card with good drivers. I'm not an expert on them though, I think they are neat though. Another options would be to go with an i3/i5 or get a used 775 (core 2) system. My Core2Duo 2.2Ghz runs more than fast enough and can probably get them for cheap if you buy them used.