Toshiba Tecra A11-S3540 Review

We continued our testing with SiSoftware's SANDRA 2009, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant.  We ran four of the built-in subsystem tests (CPU Arithmetic, CPU Multimedia, Memory Bandwidth, Physical Disks).

 

Testing with SiSoft SANDRA 2009
Synthetic Benchmarks

 


CPU Arithmetic Test; Click to enlarge


CPU Multimedia Test; Click to enlarge


Memory Bandwidth Test; Click to enlarge


Physical Disc Test; Click to enlarge

 

The Tecra A11 performed about as well as we would expect in the Sandra benchmarks. Although the system wasn't the strongest performer here in terms of raw scores, it performed well especially for a business machine. These scores show there is some power underneath the hood of the A11, and in real-world use, the A11 held up to these expectations.


To test multimedia capabilities, we attempt to play back a 720p WMVHD clip and a 1080p clip. We've also included two screenshots of the 1080p clip from prior test rigs to give you a better idea of CPU utilization from rival systems.

 


720p WMVHD; Click to enlarge


1080p; Click to enlarge


1080p on Lenovo ThinkPad T410; Click to enlarge

1080p on Samsung 15.6" R580; Click to enlarge

 

As we might expect based on the scores we've seen thus far, the Tecra A11 had no problem with multimedia playback. Loading and playing 720p and 1080p content was easy and the machine did not feel taxed.

 


Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer grew up around technology. From an early age, she was curious about all things related to computers. As a child, Jennifer remembers spending nights with her dad programming in BASIC and taking apart hard drives to see what was inside. In high school, she wrote her senior term paper on her experiences with building custom computers.

Jennifer graduated from the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. After college, she began writing full-time for various PC and technology magazines. Later, she transitioned to the Web. In these roles, Jennifer has covered a variety of topics including laptops, desktops, smartphones, cameras, tablets, and various consumer electronics devices. When she's not playing with or writing about the latest gadget, Jennifer loves to spend time with her family, capture memories with her camera, and scrapbook.

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