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How well do games perform on the Panasonic F8, a test using Counter Strike Source

Posted by Admin on February 2nd, 2010 No Comments

I thought it would be useful to see how well the Panasonic F8 performs as a games playing PC.

In this test I thought I would see how well Counter Strike Source operates on the machine. Counter Strike source is distributed over Steam one of the most popular PC first Person shooters of all time, with millions of fans building on line communities in support of the machine.

Counter Strike Source would push a lot of laptops to the limit especially a laptop aimed at the business market, so I thought it a good test. Counter Strike Source come with a built in stress test to test how well your PC will cope with the game.

Performing the stress test gives a result of an average of 43.63 frames per second, which is actually quite respectable and indicates that the game will perform will. Occasionally the video update on sections of the screen is a little delayed, I believe that this is down to the graphics card rather the processing power.

For a laptop aimed at business users – pretty good going

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Posted in Games, Technology

Panasonic F8 Toughbook Windows experience Index

Posted by Admin on January 31st, 2010 No Comments

Microsoft have provided a utility within Windows Vista to rate the performance of your PC.
It’s called the Windows experience Index.
It rates various aspects of your computer (Graphics, processor speed etc) and creates a score to judge system performace.

Here’s how the Panasonic CF-F8 Toughbook performs on the Windows experience Index.

Processor : 5.2
RAM : 5.7
Graphics: 3.2
Gaming Graphics: 3.6
Primary Hard Disk: 5.4

Overall: 3.2

Other information:

System

	Manufacturer	Panasonic Corporation
	Model	CF-F8EWDZFAE
	Total amount of system memory	3.00 GB RAM
	System type	32-bit operating system
	Number of processor cores	2
	64-bit capable	Yes

Storage

	Total size of hard disk(s)	613 GB
	Disk partition (C:)	98 GB Free (147 GB Total)
	Disk partition (D:)	420 GB Free (466 GB Total)

Graphics

	Display adapter type	Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
	Total available graphics memory	1301 MB
	Dedicated graphics memory	64 MB
	Dedicated system memory	64 MB
	Shared system memory	1173 MB
	Display adapter driver version	7.15.10.1554
	Primary monitor resolution	1280×800
	DirectX version	DirectX 10

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Posted in Technology

Protecting the Panasonic CF-F8 Toughbook

Posted by Admin on January 29th, 2010 No Comments

Having been caught out by virus’s and Malware in the past, I was keen to protect my F8 right from the start.

Here are the steps I took, and the applications I installed to keep the Toughbook safe:

Internet Browser: Firefox Version 3

Given the recent security alterts around Internet Explorer I quickly changed the browser on the F8 to FireFox Version 3. Firefox includes strict anti-phishing and anti-malware measures and has an open source process to include new security updates.

More information on the security facilities in Firefox can be found here.

Firewall: Windows Firewall

What’s a firewall? (from Wiki)
A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system. It is also a device or set of devices configured to permit, deny, encrypt, decrypt, or proxy all computer traffic between different security domains based upon a set of rules and other criteria.

Windows Firewall is the standard firewall that comes free with Windows Vista (and Windows XP).

How to check that Windows Firewall is activated.
Click on the Start Button.

Click on Control Panel
Click on Security
Click on Turn Windows Firewall On or Off
Make sure that the firewall is turned on.
If you need to change the firewall settings then click on Change settings.
Make any changes and click OK

Anti Virus Software: Avast!
Avast! is a free (for home users) anti virus software, downloadable from http://www.avast.com/eng/download.html

Avast! is aimed at preventing several types of computer threats, including those that are not technically computer viruses such as spyware and even rogue anti-spyware, and can also make a virus Recovery DataBase which is used to recover files when they are infected (instead of deleting them). The program is available with text and voice translations for 27 languages.

Script Protection: NoScript
Many websites contain scripts, often these are harmless and need to be run, but sometimes these scripts are malicious and install malware on your computer. NoScript gives the choice back to you of if you want a site to be able to run scripts or not. No script will be able to run unless you give it permission to do so, this might sound like a pain but you can set NoScript to always allow scripts from your favourite page…so you can forget about it after you have set it once for your page.

I hope that these steps will be enough to protect my F8 but I’m always looking for further methods of protection.

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Posted in Technology

Panasonic CF-F8 Toughbook Benchmark Tests

Posted by Admin on January 28th, 2010 No Comments

Here are the results for the F8 from PCMark and 3DMark Benchmark applications.

Keep in mind that the comparisons shown are against the fastest PC in PCMark’s database, the results shown are impressive, especially for a Laptop aimed at corporate users.

PC Mark:

4714 PCMarks

3DMark:

1365 3DMarks

7679 CPUMarks

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Posted in Technology

Panasonic CF-F8 Toughbook Specifications

Posted by Admin on January 27th, 2010 No Comments

Here are the full Specifications for the CF-F8:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo CPU P9300 @ 2.26GHz
Processor clock: 2261 MHz
Motherboard model: CFF8W-1
RAM: 3GB
Graphics card: 128MB Intel GMA X4500MHD
Hard Drive: 147Gb
Display: 14.1 inch, 16:10, 1280×800 pixels

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Posted in Technology

Panasonic F8 – How to Boot from CD\DVD

Posted by Admin on January 26th, 2010 No Comments

This morning I had my first issue with the Panasonic F8 Toughbook.

Problem: The Toughbook came with Windows XP installed and as I prefer Windows XP I thought I would run the Windows Vista recovery disk.
I changed the boot order to boot from DVD first but the F8 still booted from the hard drive, even with the restore disk in the drive.

This is because as default the DVD is set to be manually turned on when required to save battery life.

The solution isn’t obvious although to be fair it is stated very clearly in the manual – it’s just that most of us don’t read manuals .

Solution: As well as changing the boot order you need to make sure that the DVD drive is set to power up on switch on.
To check this:
Press F2 on power on to enter the BIOS settings.
In the Main Tab make sure that Optical Drive Power option is set to on.

This will activate the DVD drive as soon as the Toughbook is turned on, and the DVD will now be allowed to boot ahead of the Hard Disk Drive.

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Posted in Technology

Panasonic F8 Unboxing

Posted by Admin on January 25th, 2010 No Comments

Pictured below is a detailed unboxing of the Panasonic CF-F8 Toughbook.

The Box and inside

The Box itself is simple and plain with no colour images, remaining functional rather than aesthetic, stating not much more then the Brand, Model & serial numbers.
The box is aimed at Corporate users, I would suspect that a consumer model packaging would be more better presented and of a better build quality.

Picture 1 above shows the Front of the box

Picture 2 shows the top of the box with useful carrying handle

Picture 3 above shows the front and side of the box.

Picture 4 above shows the well packaged and snug contents of the box

Picture 5 above shows the Laptop and accessory’s box once removed from the main packaging.

The Contents.
The following pictures show what comes in the Box

Picture 6 above shows the Panasonic CF-F8 Toughbook by itself

Picture 7 above shows the F8 with the case open.

Picture 8 above shows the Toughbook, Cables, the battery and the 3 included cd’s.

Picture 9 above shows the included manuals and 3 disks. The disks are the Windows Xp recovery disk, the Windows Vista recovery Disk & the 3G Modem setup disk.

Picture 10 above shows the F8 with the unpackaged power supply

Fitting the Battery

Picture 11 above shows the underside of the F8 without a battery fitted.

Picture 12 above shows a close up of the battery

Picture 13 above shows the F8 next to the battery – ready for fitting.

Picture 14 shows the F8 with fitted battery.

The Panasonic CF-F8′s Case and ports.

Picture 15 above shows the F8 ready to go.

Picture 16 above shows the F8 with it’s carrying handle extended.

Picture 17 above showing the front left of the case with (from left to right) the Power switch, the Wireless on\off switch, the 2 LEDs are to show when ECO mode is active and the battery indicator.

Picture 18 above shows the front right of the case, with the DVD power\eject switch.

Picture 19 above shows the right hand side of the F8 , with (from left to right) 3 USB ports, the VGA port, the Ethernet port and MODEM port.

Picture 20 above shows the rear of the F8.

Picture 21 above shows the Left hand side of the F8, showing (from left to right) the Power socket, the port replicator port, the heat expulsion grate, 2 audio ports, SD memory card reader, and PCMCIA socket.

The F8 has plenty of expansion potential.

Picture 22 above shows the front of the top of the opened F8.
Picture 23 shows the left hand side of the top of the powered up F8, showing the lit Power Switch\LED and the battery indicator.