General Applications

WinRAR 3.9

This benchmark compresses our AT workload consisting of a main folder that contains 954MB of files in 15 subfolders. The result is a file approximately 829MB in size.


Application Performance - WinRAR 3.90 x64

Microsoft Excel 2007 SP1

Excel can be a very powerful mathematical tool. In this benchmark, we are running a large Monte Carlo simulation on stock pricing data to estimate the riskiness of an investment portfolio.


Application Performance - WinRAR 3.90

Adobe Lightroom 2.4

Lightroom is a quick and easy to use program for batch conversions on digital photos. We perform a standard conversion of 50 RAW images into the JPEG format.


Application Performance - Lightroom 2.4

Bibble 5.0

We utilize Bibble Labs’ Bibble 5 v2 to convert 50 RAW image files into full size JPEG images with the program’s default settings. This program is fully multithreaded and multi-core aware.


Application Performance - Bibble 5 Pro

Windows Live Movie Maker

We utilize our standard HD video file, add music, and start/ending transition effects.


Application Performance - Windows Live Movie Maker 14
Audio Networking
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  • DominionSeraph - Monday, October 26, 2009 - link

    Is it really that difficult to download WinZip to open .zip files? And WinAmp to play MP3s? MusicMatch Jukebox for ripping and converting? ACDSee to view jpegs? CloneCD to burn?

    More functionality is better.

    Now they just need to get ISO mounting.
  • Genx87 - Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - link

    Hey i was impressed they put .ISO burning as a native function of the OS. God that is nice to not have to install Roxio or Nero to perform that one function.
  • Dug - Monday, October 26, 2009 - link

    Really need to show how much better 7 is in a domain environment. Vista is a nightmare in the workplace, especially with networks. Vista has really slow file transfers, slow authentication, really bad switching from wired to wireless. Constant time outs from explorer or Outlook. Errors trying to update the OS. List goes on and on.
  • Genx87 - Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - link

    Sounds to me like you may have other issues if you are having timeouts in Outlook and Windows explorer and cant update the clients. We have about 30% of our user base using Vista 32. They have for the most part been pretty solid. The biggest issue was the person before me on the initial batch bought machines with 1GB of ram. /shake head

    After doubling and quadrupling that the machines run solid.

    The slow transfers were fixed in SP1 over a year ago.
  • Peroxyde - Monday, October 26, 2009 - link

    At home I only need Windows to work on some MS Office 2007 documents. I can live without the Windows 7 new features. So here is the fastest Windows and the safest you can have: Use Linux + Virtual Machine (Ubuntu 9.04 x64 and Virtualbox 3.08 in my case). The VM have WinXP + SP3, auto updates. After that, I configure XP so that it can no longer access the Internet. Results: a fast and low resource Windows (only XP and the few programs I need, zero anti virus). Unlike its numerous XP fellows this one is unattackable.
  • tomaccogoats - Monday, October 26, 2009 - link

    Anandtech really needs a dedicated person on its team with better knowledge of linux. It's a computer site, and I'd compare the level of linux no-how to that of a high-school student who's been playing around with it a bit. Ubuntu 9.10 has in essence been around for a while now, and I'm surprised no one's even bothered to look at it. Also you can set ubuntu to get A LOT better battery life numbers. Just my $.02
  • Chlorus - Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - link

    Maybe because its garbage? Maybe because the application base of Linux is almost nonexistent? Maybe because it barely supports any of the latest hardware? Maybe because the ABI situation is a clusterfuck? Maybe because those battery-life improving tweaks involve removing some functionality?
  • LoneWolf15 - Monday, October 26, 2009 - link

    I found some 25% off coupons still lurking around the web back in August and got myself a Technet Plus subscription. For $261, I got one license of Win7 Ultimate one of Premium, one of Professional, and more importantly, a MAK (multiple-activation key) for using Enterprise.

    That's not including the licenses for Office 2007 and a ton of other MS products. Well worth the price and at the end of the year's membership, your licenses are still valid --just keep copies of your .ISOs and keys. Subscription renewal prices are also lower than first-time.
  • MrPete123 - Monday, October 26, 2009 - link

    With respect to hibernating... don't the Vista/Win7 64-bit laptops have 4 gigs of RAM they have to store, while XP 32-bit only has ~3 gigs accessible? Seems like that would artificially affect the performance.

    Also, why didn't you run Win7 FF + FlashBlock?
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, October 26, 2009 - link

    Check the Mobility article that data was pulled from. If the answer isn't there, you'll have to ask Jarred.

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