Performance

	HyperSonic AG2	Dell M1330	HP 6510b	IBM X60s
	T9300 @ 2.5 GHz Intel GMA Integrated Intel GM965	T9300 @ 2.5 GHz GeForce 8400M GS Intel GM965	T7100 @ 1.80 GHz Intel GMA Integrated Intel GM965	L2400 @ 1.66 GHz Intel GMA Integrated Intel 945 Express
PCMark 05 Score	4706	5395	3493	1881
HDD - XP Startup	8.1 MB/s	10.0 MB/s	8.3 MB/s	5.5 MB/s
Physics and 3D	76.6 FPS	213.8 FPS	65.4 FPS	46.7 FPS
3D- Pixel Shader	22.9 FPS	76.2 FPS	25.9 FPS	13.1 FPS
Web Page Rendering	2.9 Pages/s	4.1 Pages/s	2.8 Pages/s	1.0 Pages/s
File Decryption	70.1 MB/s	67.6 MB/s	52.7 MB/s	24.8 MB/s
Graphics Memory	496.8 FPS	725.1 FPS	646.9 FPS	400.1 FPS
HDD - General Usage	5.5 MB/s	6.0 MB/s	5.1 MB/s	3.8 MB/s
Audio Compression	1678 KB/s	2584 KB/s	1874.1 KB/s	1025 KB/s
Video Encoding	584 KB/s	447 KB/s	326.7 KB/s	151 KB/s
Text Edit	143.9 Pages/s	163.8 Pages/s	123.4 Pages/s	54.2 Pages/s
Image Decompression	33.8 MPixel/s	34.6 MPixel/s	24.9 MPixel/s	11.6 MPixel/s
File Compression	6.1 MB/s	5.4 MB/s	4.3 MB/s	2.2 MB/s
File Encryption	30.5 MB/s	33.8 MB/s	23.6 MB/s	11.9 MB/s
HDD Virus Scan	36.3 MB/s	52.2 MB/s	41.3 MB/s	14.8 MB/s
Memory Latency	8.7 MAccesses/s	8.2 MAccess/s	8.0 MAccesses/s	5.5 MAccess/s

Fan Noise

Overall the notebook is sufficiently quiet when in idle, but once you ask for the huge power of the Penryn CPU it will get noisier. This was to be expected though, since even at 45 nm the CPU will generate lots of heat that has to go somewhere.


A small button near the keyboard will let you choose between "Silent" and "Normal" fan mode. When silent mode is enabled the CPU multiplier is reduced and the fan speed is limited.

Battery Life

This is where the Hyper Sonic AG2 disappoints most. The included four cell battery lasts you about an hour, give or take 15 minutes depending on power settings. Even with Windows Vista (Aero) sitting idle at the desktop the battery will be empty after 95 minutes. This is clearly not enough for a portable notebook. But this is the price you pay for very high performance.
An optional 8-cell battery (M720SBAT-8) should help increase battery life but will also increase the footprint of the notebook a bit.

If you plan to use the AG2 as sexy desktop replacement where it will be connected to AC all the time, this won't be a problem for you of course.