Asus UL30A & Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 CULV Notebooks

TEST METHODOLOGY

Notebooks Compared:

Gateway EC1803h:

• Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 processor - 1.40GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 45nm, 5.5W
• DDR2 memory - 2GB+1GB DDR2-667
• Intel GS45 Express chipset - GMA 4500MHD graphics
• Hitachi Travelstar 5K320 notebook hard drive - 250GB, 5400 RPM, 8MB cache
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 32-bit operating system

Asus UL80Vt:

• Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor - 1.30GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 45nm, 10W (overclocked to 1.73GHz)
• DDR3 memory - 2x2GB DDR3-1066
• Intel GS45 Express chipset - integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics
• Nvidia GeForce G210M GPU - 512MB
• Seagate Momentus 5400.6 notebook hard drive - 320GB, 5400 RPM, 8MB cache
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system

Asus UL30A:

• Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor - 1.30GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 45nm, 10W (overclocked to 1.33GHz)
• DDR3 memory - 2x2GB DDR3-1066
• Intel GS45 Express chipset - integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics
• Seagate Momentus 5400.6 notebook hard drive - 320GB, 5400 RPM, 8MB cache
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13:

• Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor - 1.30GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 45nm, 10W
• DDR3 memory - 2x2GB DDR3-1066
• Intel GS45 Express chipset - integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics
• Fujitsu MJA2 BH notebook hard drive - 320GB, 5400 RPM, 8MB cache
• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit operating system

• CPU-Z to monitor CPU frequency and voltage.
• CPUBurn processor stress software.
• Prime95 processor stress software.
• FurMark stability test to stress the integrated GPU.
• Media Player Classic - Home Cinema to play x264/MKV video
• Cyberlink PowerDVD to play H264/VC1 video
• Mozilla Firefox and Adobe Flash Player to play Flash video
• Eset NOD32 as an anti-virus benchmark.
• WinRAR as an archiving benchmark.
• iTunes an audio encoding benchmark.
• TMPGEnc Xpress as a video encoding benchmark.
• PCMark05 as a general system benchmark.
• 3DMark05 as a general benchmark
• 3DMark06 as a general benchmark
• Seasonic Power Angel AC power meter, used to measure the power consumption of the system

H.264/VC-1 Video Test Clips

H.264 and VC-1 are codecs commonly used in high definition movie videos on the web (like Quicktime movie trailers and the like) and also in Blu-ray discs. To play these clips, we use Cyberlink PowerDVD with hardware acceleration turned on, naturally.

1080p | 24fps | ~10mbps

1080p H.264: Rush Hour 3 Trailer 2c is a 1080p clip encoded in H.264 inside an Apple Quicktime container.

1080p | 24fps | ~8mbps

WMV-HD: Coral Reef Adventure Trailer is encoded in VC-1 using the WMV3 codec commonly recognized by the "WMV-HD" moniker.

x264/MKV Video Test Clips

MKV (Matroska) is a very popular online multimedia container used for high definition content, usually using x264 (a free, open source H.264 encoder) for video. The clips were taken from two longer videos — the most demanding one minute portions were used. To play them we use Media Player Classic Home Cinema, configured in the most suitable manner depending on the GPU. For Intel/ATI graphics the player is configured to use DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration), for Nvidia graphics we use CoreAVC to enable CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) support, and for those that support neither, CoreAVC is used with default settings, which renders using CPU power alone.

1080p | 24fps | ~14mbps

x264 1080p: Spaceship is a 1080p x264 clip encoded from the Blu-ray version of an animated short film. It features a hapless robot trying to repair a lamp on a spaceship.

1080p | 24fps | ~22mbps

x264 1080p: Crash is a 1080p x264 clip encoded from the Blu-ray version of an science fiction film. It features the aftermath of a helicopter crash.

Flash Video Test Clip

Many users watch media online in Adobe's Flash format on sites like Hulu and YouTube. Now that the latest 10.1 beta version of Flash supports GPU acceleration, only slower systems like those powered by a single core Atom without a proper IGP struggle with Flash in HD. Our test clip is a HD movie trailer from YouTube played in Firefox.

1280x544 | 25fps | ~2mbps

Flash HD: Iron Man Trailer #1 is the first trailer from the feature film of the same name. It's a YouTube HD video, though technically it is not quite 720p.

Real-world Benchmark Test Details

• Eset NOD32: In-depth virus scan of a folder containing 32 files of varying size, several of which are archives with many files within them..
• WinRAR: Archive creation with a folder containing 68 files of varying size (less than 50MB).
• iTunes: Conversion of an MP3 file to AAC (48KHz, 256kbps).
• TMPGEnc Xpress: Encoding a 1-minute long XVID AVI file to VC-1 (1280x720, 30fps, 20mbps).

Our first test procedure is designed to determine the overall system power consumption at various states (measured using a Seasonic Power Angel). To stress CPUs we use either Prime95 (large FFTs setting) or CPUBurn depending on which produces higher system power consumption. To stress the IGP, we use FurMark, an OpenGL benchmarking and stability testing utility.

Our second test procedure is to run the system through a video test suite featuring a variety of high definition clips. During playback, a CPU usage graph is created by the Windows Task Manger for analysis to determine the average CPU usage. High CPU usage is indicative of poor video decoding ability. If the video (and/or audio) skips or freezes, we conclude the IGP (in conjunction with the processor) is inadequate to decompress the clip properly. Power consumption during playback of high definition video is also recorded.

Lastly, we run a short series of performance benchmarks — a few real-world applications as well as synthetic tests.

All nonessential pre-installed software is removed prior to testing, and certain services and features like Superfetch and System Restore are disabled to prevent them from affecting our results. Aero glass is left enabled if supported. All tests are conducted with WiFi disabled (as well as other wireless connectivity features) unless necessary, and screen brightness is set to a reasonable level unless otherwise noted. We also make note if energy saving features like Cool'n'Quiet and SpeedStep do not function properly.