From: Paul Rubin (phr_at_netcom.com)
Date: Wed Jul 01 1998 - 16:57:52 EDT
Thanks. The main thing I care about the screen for is software
development. I like to use two 80-column text windows side by side.
The main limitation on laptops now seems to be screen resolution
rather than size. I've heard that IBM showed a 1280x1024 770 at
Comdex a while back, so that's the thing scaring me from spending a
fortune on a 770 right now. I'm torn between getting a used 13.3" 770
>from a list member, or a new 14.1" 770E from a dealer/liquidator.
Both are pretty good deals, but of course the 770E is a lot more
expensive in absolute terms. I'm not -too- concerned about raw cpu
speed, so the Pentium II isn't that important to me, making the 770E
kind of financially questionable, but hey, it's the latest and
greatest. The price difference is pretty significant, but the 770E is
new, and either way I hope to keep the machine for at least two years,
so the cost gets spread over time. The other consideration is that
after the initial hit of no longer being new, the 770E will keep some
resale value for a while longer. Though thinking about resale value
of a laptop is just slightly less suicidal than thinking about resale
value of a tuna sandwich.
So far, I've gotten comments from two people who have directly compared
a 13.3" to a 14.1" screen. One says there's no practical difference.
The other says there's a huge difference, that the 13.3" still feels
like a laptop screen, though a nice one; while the 14.1" feels like
a desktop screen. I do notice a big difference between a 15" and 17"
desktop monitor.
AFAIK the differences between the 770 and 770E are:
- 770e has a 266 mhz PII instead of a 233 mhz Pentium. For Linux with
gcc, this means about 60% speedup. I don't know how it compares
with the latest egcs, which has more Pentium optimizations. The PII
uses more power, which favors the 770.
- 770e chipset can cache ram above 64 meg. I wonder if this matters
in real life. If I get > 64 meg of ram I'd probably use most of
it as a ramdisk, so I can spin down the HD.
- 770e has 4 meg of video ram (does anyone really care about this?
Does Photoshop really look better in 24 bit color on a TFT than in
16 bit color? I know it looks better on CRT's, but using a laptop
with an external monitor seems to be missing the point of a
laptop.)
- The 13.3" 770 is somewhat smaller and more portable than the 14.1"
machines. I thought I wouldn't care about this, since (1) I don't
take my laptop out of the house that often, and (2) I have a Toshiba
Libretto 50ct for when I do go somewhere; but I find myself taking
it into consideration. I know of at least one ex-770 user on the
list who is delighted to have switched to a 600... <g>
Did I miss any differences or other issues?
Yours in agony,
Paul
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Thu Jan 23 2003 - 09:54:11 EST