Atom processor selection?

clonmultclonmult Posts: 3,366
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Old laptop (core2duo, Nvidia graphics, 3gig ram, 250gig drive) has just gone and died on me (NVidia 8400M chipset is fundamentally likely to toast itself), so figure that a probable replacement would an Atom based netbook.

Main use is web, standard def video, iTunes (for podcasts and synching to the iPod). HD size isn't important, as I've got an external 320gig drive, and can cannibalise the 250gig drive from the old laptop.

Looking around and have seen that there are way too many processor choices ....
- N270 @ 1.6 gig
- N280 @ 1.66 gig
- N450 @ 1.66 gig
- Z520 @ 1.33 gig
- Z530 @ 1.6 gig

Now in theory from what I've read, the Z520/530 should be able to do HD video decoding, but the reality appears to be that they can't cope.

Anyone got real world experience of netbooks and their performance?

Ta :D

Comments

  • thorvertonianthorvertonian Posts: 1,304
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    My missus has a N270, but with the ION chipset, it handles 720P video, but can't quite cope with 1080P
  • clonmultclonmult Posts: 3,366
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    My missus has a N270, but with the ION chipset, it handles 720P video, but can't quite cope with 1080P

    The ION chipset tends to be in the nettop devices, doesn't it? Haven't seen many of the (cheaper) netbooks with them in.

    The only 720p videos I've got are those taken by my Panasonic FT1; those will probably be viewed by piping them through DVD Flick and burning to DVD. I realise that DVD authoring will be a rather slow process on any of these Atom processors though (the T5550 laptop would only go through them at 10-20fps).
  • OrbitalzoneOrbitalzone Posts: 12,627
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    My Dell mini 9 has an N270 Atom, 1Gb ram and 16 GB SSD and pretty much struggles with anything... it does what it's supposed to do like internet, email and such like but it's not speedy and my old Pentium 3 / 1Ghz was faster probably due to having a decent sized hard drive unlike my Mini9's 16Gb solid state which I believe were particularly slow examples of SSD's. Both run XP and have 1gb ram.

    I think any Atom may feel very slow compared to your old Core2 laptop..... fine as long as you realise netbooks have limits.
  • soteksotek Posts: 3,246
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    I think any Atom may feel very slow compared to your old Core2 laptop..... fine as long as you realise netbooks have limits.

    Agreed. Although an Atom could cope with most of what you want to do, compared to your Core2 it is going to feel like driving a tractor compared to a Ferrari. Unless you desperately need the portability I would avoid at all costs. Don't get me wrong I love my Netbook but it would drive me nuts if I had to use it 24/7.
  • clonmultclonmult Posts: 3,366
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    sotek wrote: »
    Agreed. Although an Atom could cope with most of what you want to do, compared to your Core2 it is going to feel like driving a tractor compared to a Ferrari. Unless you desperately need the portability I would avoid at all costs. Don't get me wrong I love my Netbook but it would drive me nuts if I had to use it 24/7.

    Portability is key - its essential for holidays - SLR/camera backup, some entertainment for the kids, etc.

    I've seen the benchmarks, and none of the currently affordable netbooks are giving even a third of the performance of the old Core2.

    Thankfully I've got a works supplied laptop that can do some of the beefier work if needed :D
  • thorvertonianthorvertonian Posts: 1,304
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    I have just obtained a Asus Eee 1201N at work, a dual core Atom 330 (1.6Ghz) and ION chipset.

    It flies, decoding (Watching) 1080P video without issue, running photoshop CS3 fine, with acceptable filter times!

    This netbook is quick and portable!!!
  • alanwarwicalanwarwic Posts: 28,396
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    Atom still needs ION for HD.
    ION 1 is usually better than ION 2 although both need all the latest drivers to work properly.
    And I guess Windows 7 is its best all round bet.
  • clonmultclonmult Posts: 3,366
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    alanwarwic wrote: »
    Atom still needs ION for HD.
    ION 1 is usually better than ION 2 although both need all the latest drivers to work properly.
    And I guess Windows 7 is its best all round bet.

    Been reading up a bit, and plenty of people over on some Dell forums are saying that the Z530/1.6gig (with GMA500) can handle 1080p video - as long as you use the right drivers/software (specifically the Core Codec).

    Wouldn't say that Windows 7 is the best all round bet - it may be good for some, but I'd be just as happy running a Linux variant - Ubuntu, Mint, etc.
  • alanwarwicalanwarwic Posts: 28,396
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    Maybe they were being tongue in cheek.
    The GMA500 is certainly best avoided for almost everything.
    Although it is meant to help with 720p it has been semi-abandoned by Intel.
    Maybe they meant they were using a HD accelerator?
    Without ION you need to ensure a Broadcom Crystal HD is fitted, (Some Netbooks have a PCI-E slot for this I think).

    Windows almost always has the best drivers and Windows 7 is the most likely to get future updates.
  • archiverarchiver Posts: 13,011
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    My Dell mini 9 has an N270 Atom, 1Gb ram and 16 GB SSD and pretty much struggles with anything... it does what it's supposed to do like internet, email and such like but it's not speedy and my old Pentium 3 / 1Ghz was faster probably due to having a decent sized hard drive unlike my Mini9's 16Gb solid state which I believe were particularly slow examples of SSD's. Both run XP and have 1gb ram.

    I think any Atom may feel very slow compared to your old Core2 laptop..... fine as long as you realise netbooks have limits.
    Xp isn't SSD 'friendly'. You may be able to improve the performance of that 16GB SSD by re aligning your partitions (which requires a reinstall or OS imaging). There's some old discussion about it on eeeuser here:

    http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=58207

    Also; there's no 'Trim' automation in XP so you should probably run something like wiper.exe to manually free up the free space occasionally.
  • OrbitalzoneOrbitalzone Posts: 12,627
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    archiver wrote: »
    Xp isn't SSD 'friendly'. You may be able to improve the performance of that 16GB SSD by re aligning your partitions (which requires a reinstall or OS imaging). There's some old discussion about it on eeeuser here:

    http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=58207

    Also; there's no 'Trim' automation in XP so you should probably run something like wiper.exe to manually free up the free space occasionally.

    Thanks, I didn't give it much thought and had read the small SSD's that Dell used were pretty slow to perform but will check out what you said.
  • clonmultclonmult Posts: 3,366
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    alanwarwic wrote: »
    Maybe they were being tongue in cheek.
    The GMA500 is certainly best avoided for almost everything.
    Although it is meant to help with 720p it has been semi-abandoned by Intel.
    Maybe they meant they were using a HD accelerator?
    Without ION you need to ensure a Broadcom Crystal HD is fitted, (Some Netbooks have a PCI-E slot for this I think).

    Windows almost always has the best drivers and Windows 7 is the most likely to get future updates.

    Not even slightly tongue in cheek - absolutely genuine. Why should GMA500 be avoided, its got on-device H264 decoding, which is completely lacking in the GMA950.

    And definitely not using a HD accelerator. Latest drivers from Intel and CorePlayer. Some were talking about the broadcom HD with varying results.

    Agreed that longer term 7 will have the better driver support, but XP will be well supported for quite a while - not that any of the current Atom based laptops will have much more in the way of driver optimisation available - more likely just the occasional bug fix.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 986
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    All the N processors are pretty much of a muchness in terms of performance - there's no real-world difference, and only minor differences on synthetic benchmarks. The newer Pine Trail N450 is supposed to have lower power requirements (ie longer battery life) than the N270/280, thanks to the integration of the graphics core.
    ION graphics are good but hideously expensive, the Intel graphics are enough for flash games and standard-def video.

    Windows 7 is a must for netbooks, performs better than XP and much better battery life thanks to smarter power optimization. My Netbook battery life jumped from 3.5 hours to 6 hours+ going from a fresh XP install to a fresh 7 install.
  • clonmultclonmult Posts: 3,366
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    All the N processors are pretty much of a muchness in terms of performance - there's no real-world difference, and only minor differences on synthetic benchmarks. The newer Pine Trail N450 is supposed to have lower power requirements (ie longer battery life) than the N270/280, thanks to the integration of the graphics core.
    ION graphics are good but hideously expensive, the Intel graphics are enough for flash games and standard-def video.

    Windows 7 is a must for netbooks, performs better than XP and much better battery life thanks to smarter power optimization. My Netbook battery life jumped from 3.5 hours to 6 hours+ going from a fresh XP install to a fresh 7 install.

    The catch is that netbooks ship with Windows 7 Starter Edition - which doesn't correctly support dual displays (just display mirroring). Which would basically make it useless to me.

    Overall benchmark differences between the Z530, N270 and N280 are minimal, and in a lot of cases you can overclock them (from say 1.6 to 2gig) without any untoward effects.
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