Just after finally
making them official and just ahead of what will surely be a blowout of devices at CES, Intel has let loose the dogs of benchmarking upon its highly anticipated Pine Trail Atom platforms: the
N450 for netbooks and the
D510 for nettops. On the portable side it's
HotHardware and
AnandTech doing the testing, pitting the new Asus Eee PC 1005 PE (which we just
reviewed ourselves) against some of its earlier Atom brethren, finding it out-paces the single-core N270 in terms of sheer CPU performance but is generally trumped by the dual-core 330, while its integrated GPU loses out handily to any machine with an Ion processor. But, in terms of battery life, it bested them all. The story is similar over at
PCMag, which tested the D510 in a prototype nettop and found that its performance was no better than earlier 330-spec'd machines, but that its power consumption of just 19W under full load undercuts the thriftiest nettops -- it's quieter, too, thanks to a complete lack of fans. So, perhaps not the speed boost you might have been looking for, but fine battery life abounds, eh?
posted December 22nd 2009 9:16AM
no wonder it doesn't need fans, the processor is outside the case!
gief ion 2
That's too bad, since people were pretty ok with netbook battery life in the first place; it was performance where improvements were most needed.
@John H
I'm glad they chose battery life over performance, Atom is powerful enough, not sure what you guys are running. Netbooks don't have HDMI out so why would you need such a good performing processor?
I've used a netbook with Atom for almost two years now as my main computer and it works great, I can even use advanced desktop effects in Ubuntu.
intel must be doing this on purpose so it doesn't eat some of higher end market for the avg joe consumer.
I have been waiting for the new chip set. Now i am just going to be disappointed because without the Ion chip it is still garbage. Call me when we can meet somewhere closer in the middle between battery life and a little more performance.
@Fiereck I bought an Acer Aspire 1410 and it is a perfect balance of power/battery life. It has the dual core Celeron SU2300 chip and handles HD just fine with HDMI out. Screw this Atom business.
Well, it does what I want. I've been waiting for the D510 for a new home server, and the minimal power requirements were exactly what I was looking for.
I think this chip might actually be good if they manage to replace the bridge with the ION 2 chip.
So we can use the ION2 power to run some 3D applications and HD videos when we have the lappy plugged to the wall and the GMA 3150 if we are using the battery.
Also, NOT having HDMI or USB 3 (which I presume\hope are gonna be included in ION2) by default might make these N450 computers outdated really quick IMO.
Dell will be selling their new mini 10 with the new chipset and a broadcom media accelerator therefor keeping the great battery life and allowing acceleration of hd video.
I think its the perfect comprimise.
So the performance per watt mantra has hit the netbook and nettop market? These new chips basically perform as well as the older ones but at a lower power consumption. Come on Intel we like our cake and eating it too. Where is the higher performance and lower power consumption?
well, i would assume that the gpu wouldn't be up to par with competitor's. after all, we're talking about a PROCESSOR here people!! unless i'm missing something...
@graywolf
Well, maybe you're missing the fact that the video circuitry is now part of the processor die?
@Anybody that says this needs more performance,
Intel wants you to purchase culv chips or AMD Neo chips.
@a12ctic
And yet they still refuse to pair CULV chips with any sort of dedicated graphics in nearly every case. Intel are really just being girls on this whole graphics situation.
@Streetfights
Its a shame, I'd go for AMD's Neo platform if I was shopping for a ultra portable anyway. The 3200 can do some pretty decent low end video gaming.
So, are the temperatures of these netbooks going to be lower?
Why no one else worries about temperature !?
@edsc86 You see passive aluminum coolers on 90 Watts + graphics cards and they last the 4+ years expected, so why would anyone bother with 10W? :)
"... but fine battery life abounds, eh?"
Exactly. "Eh" is precisely how I felt after reading those reviews. The only Atom platform I would buy would be one with Ion. Maybe the Via/Ion 2 combo can get their act in gear and make some sweet little netbooks/nettops.
@Old fogie late bloomer
Got to agree. If only VIA had a way to jump to 40 or 45nm...
Thanks for the information. I thought about waiting to replace my netbook until the Pine Trail chips were released, but that will no longer be necessary. How many currently available netbooks have the Ion GPU built into them?
Rant: Engadget GET A NEW PICTURE FOR ATOM ARTICLES. I don't know why that picture pisses me off, but it does.
Thats all.