Wat I lerned reeding MaximumPC recently: Sandy Bridge and USB 3.0 andWindows 7 Phone

I was reading back issues of MaximumPC (which are available free on
their website, maximumpc.com) and I learned that this year the new
release of the "Sandy Bridge" architecture, which among other things
rearranges the components of a microprocessor IC so they talk to one
another faster, and integrates graphics onto the chip, is at least 10%
and more like 50% faster for the same cores than the prior
architecture. So an i7 on Sandy Bridge is about 50% faster than an i7
on a non-Sandy Bridge architecture. Supposedly it is a "tock" (major
improvement) in the Intel "tick-tock" cycle, though to me 50% better
rather than 100% better is only a "tick" (minor improvement), but I
guess with Moore's Law compressing, 50% is the new 100% for ICs.

Also in a shootout between eSata and USB 3.0, though eSata is more
'compatible', a USB 3.0 Mobo with USB 3.0 properly enabled should give
you slightly better performance.

Finally, in the January issue, Windows 7 for the mobile phone was
actually (much to my surprise) rated better than Android. Among other
things, it has a cleaner interface, though the number of apps is
limited.

Reed for yourself online.

RL