> Although I'm curious why you have requirements suggesting 
> high power
> (dual core, etc) but still want the benefits of long 
> battery life and
> low cost.  Performance, long battery life, low cost - pick 
> two.
>
> Have you considered a laptop with two battery bays?  Or a 
> separate battery?

A camera (or two or three) is often enough attached 
permanently to my right arm (9000+ images in 2 weeks in 
China*) and a laptop that deals well with the demands of 
image handling on the road is essential. I also photograph 
occasional stage events, birthdays weddings etc "for fun" 
more than for profit.

As noted, experience has shown that TWO cores handle flash 
card reading into PC plus simultaneous image manipulation 
far far far better than one core. Even a very slow dual core 
is far more usable than a fast single core. I haven't 
explored the "why" of this too far, but I also don't want to 
have to craft my solutions around the limitations of a PC 
more than I need to. The two core arrangement definitely 
allows separation of otherwise system hogging tasks.

BUT the act of image display need not be overly processor 
intensive. If a slide show changes images every say 4 
seconds then I am happy for it to take most of that fetching 
the image as long as the change to the next photo is near 
instantaneous. Also, on a photo shoot, carrying a running or 
hibernating laptop "has been known to happen" and the 
ability to run for long periods with access on demand is 
desired. Hibernation helps. The ability to edit, sort etc 
while mobile whether on holiday over N days or eg twixt 
church and reception is also valued.

And then, the ability to work on my "actual work", run 
spreadsheet, compiler , word processor, all the usual boring 
stuff... for extended periods requires often enough more 
endurance than utter power.

As portability is a major plus then light weight is nice. 
VAIO starts at around 1 kg and some even less. Alas that may 
end up with no DVD or non standard sub 2.5" HDDs. The 
IBM/Lenovo X61S 10+ hours operation) is very nice in most 
respects but lacks DVD. I accept that that's a compromise 
that suits some, but not me. Two batteries is fine, as long 
as it's possible in the price range ;-).

An underclocked PC that can jump from sprint to crawl and 
back nearly instantly seems like a good answer. AMD seems to 
be the way to achieve it.



        Russell

* 9000 photos may seem to most to be an insane number of 
photos to take in 2 weeks. I agree. But I wouldn't have 
wanted to have taken fewer. 500 km train ride at up to 200 
kph in parts Qingdao - Beijing. Russell stands at door at 
carriage end for most of trip - fields, buildings, bridges, 
people, vehicles, agriculture, animals, machinery, 
landscapes, ... far more. Quality varies widely, but I'll 
remember more and more of that 500 km ride over time as my 
screen saver hauls back images after 1 minute of 
non-keyboard time.

Beijing - 2 days on a bicycle. temples, parks, street, back 
streets, houses, landscape, food, food, food, bikes, bikes, 
motorbikes, food, bikes, people, power lines, roadworks, 
hydrants, pumps, Olympic hoardings, traffic, churches, 
soldiers, police, people ...  ... . Ask me about Beijing - 
go on, just ask :-).

Hong Kong - light show where the whole city building 
lighting is computer controlled by one source, lit up boats 
of every imaginable type (except no warships)  ply the 
harbour, ...  - how many photos can YOU take in 20 minutes 
;-). Boats, bridges, people, food (we've had this list), 
countrside tour - villages ... .

You get the idea.
Over time the trip is reinforced increasingly.

And then, it was also useful in the factory where I was 
visiting :-).






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