The new Intel Celeron B810 - Sandy Bodge CPU

OK Sandy Bodge might be a bit harsh and any advancement in performance at the same price is welcome but the Intel Celeron B810 Sandy Bridge CPU has had seriously loads of features chopped out of it.

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Macbook Pro 17 reviewed

I have to offer some criticism, mainly in general but some specifics as well. Please don't send the Apple police or blow up my web server it is just an opinion and I am well aware there are millions of people who will disagree with me.

If you accept that the Macbook is what it is and it isn't what it isn't. Then it is probably the best at what it is but the age old Macbook value for money issue rears its head as usual.

Read the full Macbook Pro 17-inch review.

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New Macbook GPUs

With the release of the new Macbooks in the US and the UK, Which laptop have showcased the three principal GPUs in the latest Macbooks.

They are the integrated Intel HD 3000 which could be the best integrated GPU bar-none, in fact it is better than many dedicated GPUs.

Next up is the rather bland Radeon 6490m but it still turns up in Macbooks in excess of $1000 and last but not least is the top of the Macbook range Radeon 6750m. To get a 17 inch Pro Macbook with one of these in will cost you in excess of $2000.

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The Battle for Sandy Bridge.

With all the fuss about the newest generation of Intel mobile CPUs the top Sandy Bridge laptop CPUs are compared, rated and explained in plain language.

i7 2920xm
i7 2820qm
i7 2720qm
i7 2635qm
i7 2630qm

If you are thinking of buying a laptop in the coming months and you are looking for something a bit above the average as far as power, flexibility and portability are concerned. You would do well to understand about the top range Intel i7 Sandy Bridge CPUs and their differences.

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Samsung rf510-s02 laptop review

The samsung rf510-s02 has :-720qm CPU, Geforce GT 330 GPU, 4 GB of ram a 640 GB hard disk and a 15.6 inch screen. This laptop does not have the latest kit. It also has only a bare bones line up of ports and connections and optical drives.

More on them in a bit. However it has to be said that although there 4 USB ports and 3 are 3.0 specification and one of them can act as a sleeping charger . Add to this the presence of Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR and you can see that although not an abundance of options what is there has been carefully selected.

You can find the full review of the Samsung rf510-s02 laptop by following the link.

And it has to be said that even with the out of date CPU and GPU it packs a gaming, multimedia and processing punch way above its price range. In fact it is the new best budget laptop according to Which-Laptop.com

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New Intel Atom N570 CPU

With all the attention of the laptop world currently focussed on the the new super-powerful 'Sandy Bridge' range of laptop CPUs, perhaps not enough fuss has been made about the latest addition the the world of low-voltage, long battery life offerings.

Intel have recently added the Atom N570 to its product line up and is has some significant enhancements over older Atom CPUs and even some fairly notable improvements over its immediate predecessor the N550.

Here is the full review of the Intel Atom N570 CPU. If you don't have time to read it just know that if you are after a netbook in the next few months you could do a whole lot worse than looking for one with Atom N570 in it.

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All It Takes is a Little Vision

I sell all kinds of houses, trophy homes, second homes, fixer-uppers and more, and all of them are special to me, I never forget them. Once in a while I have a very special listing, whether for its style, setting, charm, or fit/finish/detail work, and it's great to see what the buyer does with it once it's theirs.

Last year I had one of those, it was a small ranch house on a one-of-a-kind piece of property that had been in one family for it's entire lifetime, almost 80 years. The house was located high on a ridge overlooking a large pond, surrounded on three sides by water, within a nice neighborhood but unusually secluded given all those things. And to top it off, it was located around 20 miles from downtown Boston.

The buyers, Bob and Michelle Hause, had been looking for years for the right house to downsize to from their large, classic Colonial Saltbox home in Sudbury, and they just couldn't find one. Then one day they came to my open house and fell in love with this house.  Bob is a contractor in Sudbury, his specialty is building additions and expansions onto existing homes, so this was the perfect opportunity to do his thing.

The home he made it into is absolutely beautiful, it fits the site perfectly and is in keeping with the scale and style of the neighborhood and it's environs.  What he did was rotate the roofline by 90 degrees and build-on a second floor to the existing first floor walls. He then added a farmer's porch to the front to create an inviting entrance that can be used for sitting in the evening and enjoying the views and the neighbors. Inside he kept the original kitchen cabinets and 80 year old porcelain sink, while updating the appliances and reconfiguring the first floor for today's lifestyle.

As you can see, the front walk and lawn area are new, and a lot of the existing plantings have been retained. They will be augmented with more gardens over the years as Michelle has a green thumb and I'm looking forward to watching it take shape over time.

A lot of discussion these days is about how houses have to be Pottery Barn perfect and completely updated to fit today's discriminating buyers, and there is a lot of truth in that. But just once in a while, there is a home that needs work, and yet it's the perfect home for one buyer. All it takes is a little vision.

btw: if you're looking for a great contractor, call Bob Hause (508) 826-5598

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