C1000 Owner Looking For Something Faster

[adf]

I'm not really a hardware guy (well, I don't keep current, anyway), but those specs don't sound that great.  256MB of RAM and a low-clocked Geode?  The Geode is supposed to be a zippy chip, but is it *that* fast?

I can work with the 256MB I guess... I'm looking for something that's much faster than the C1000's CPU, though.  Is it?

Otherwise, I like the low price and the positive talk about the thumb board.  I'd be interested in hearing any comments or suggestions on this thing.

That depends a lot on what you are doing--certainly it will be incredibly more powerful on floating point operations, and a noticeble bit faster on nonfp stuff. The memory should make a big difference, as well.
geode 800 benchmarks
For the price though, you could get a way more powerful laptop and keep it in a satchel during your commute. Depends how much weight you feel like toting.

Keep in mind:
Processor power (and ram, and hd)= electricity. As you increse your wattage, your battery gets bigger to support similar use times (and probably your housing and screen increase as well to help "balance" the battery aetshetically--a Z sized box with a car battery would cut no ice)
I infer from this that that cpu speed = weight, in a meaningful way.

So it seems to me that going past the geode (which maybe isn't as fast as you want?I have no idea) starts to get you into laptop sized things with batteries that match the big honkin CPU.

Certainly the price/performance on the pepper pad is appealing compared to othe umpcs, though.

[pculliton]

Da_Blitz -- thanks for the info and the kind offer.  I'll see if I can come up with anything to usefully test-compile.  The Kohjinsha seems like a nice piece of kit.  I'd love to get my hands on one.

adf -- floating point all the way.  I do a lot of natural language processing / AI work... if I can get a decent bump to FP operations, that makes my life a heck of a lot easier, definitely.  Probably doesn't force me to write better code like having no serious FP support would, but what the hell.  I dunno, the way-more-powerful route has its draws, but I like small sizes... I'm looking at a good 100% premium for way-more-powerful in my favored form factors.  (Saw an 11.1" Vaio today, gorgeous with great KB, the 12.1" HP next to it was about $1300 cheaper for better specs.  Dang.)  A UMPC with a decent processor with good FP and graphics performance would do me just fine.

As for power vs. weight, that's a game I've been playing for over a decade, now.  I'll gladly take an extra 0.5 pounds to grab a couple extra hours of battery life or balance out a more powerful processor.  I'd just prefer not to.  

Really, the Pepper Pad 3 is looking quite awesome at the moment.  I've got to try one out.  I suppose I could probably grab one for a bit under market on Ebay.  If the Geode is so powerful, I really don't see an issue with picking one up even at MSRP.

Edit: Great googly moogly!  I can get a new Pepper Pad 3 for $399?

I'll definitely look into the "find one with a broken screen" option.  Good suggestion.

Thanks!

[speculatrix]

(Saw an 11.1" Vaio today, gorgeous with great KB, the 12.1" HP next to it was about $1300 cheaper for better specs.  Dang.)  A UMPC with a decent processor with good FP and graphics performance would do me just fine.

I bought my Sony TX2 as a remaindered item when the new model came out so wan't much more than a Kohji, but obviously much bigger.

The TX's are really very portable. However, you can't operate these babies in an enclosed space, they generate too much heat when the CPU is at all busy. They win out over smaller devices because they have built-in DVDRW, which for me is quite important as when I go visiting family abroad being able to make DVDs of my photos and movies is vital, as well as being able to make backup copies of photos I've taken.

[adf]

If you get your hands on a pepper pad3, tell us about it. I've been kinda curious for awhile

[Cyberdoc1971]

If you get your hands on a pepper pad3, tell us about it. I've been kinda curious for awhile

I'm curious too, I've only read about them and kind of surprised that there aren't too many forums about them.