Anybody knows something about Netbook/Subnotebook CPUs? Need help

idk

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Hey guys. I wanna buy a Net/Subnotebook for quiet some time now. But I can't make a decision. First maybe because I'm not too sure what I actually want and second because I lack some technological knowledge and I can not find really more infos on that although I tried.

Well.. my girlfriend has an Asus eee PC 1008 with an Atom N450 CPU. I must say, I really like it:

+excellent (chiclet) keyboard. I can type on it perfectly intuitive. Even on big 15" laptops I can't usually
+real 8-11 hours battery life depending on what you do and that is really awesome
+perfect portability. It fits even in the smallest gap in by backpack when I go to university

But:

- It can't play 720p mkv Video files (the N450 is just too slow)
- I'm using a DJ Software called Traktor and a Midi Controller and in combination with the controller it lags when I scratch


So well there is a new EEE PC out with a Intel Atom N550. I tried it out and 720p videos work now but... well I might come back to that when somebody actually answers on that thread.

I've also been looking for other products. My actual question here is.. I'm also thinking about this:

Lenovo IdeaPad U160 M436LGE -->klick<--

But I hardly find anything on that CPU Intel Pentium U5400.

How is that compared to an ATOM N550. I found a comparision here:

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/590/Intel_Atom_N550_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_Mobile_U5400.html

The N550 has 1500MHZ compared too 1200MHZ of the U5400. Yah well I know that you can not compare different kinds of CPU just by that...

To make my confusion even bigger.. here is that same Lenovo Model with a i5 CPU which has only 1,06GHZ. The i5 is supposed to be better than the Atom or U5400, but what can I think about this low cpu frequency?

Well can anybody tell me how big the performance difference will be? Better worse? Help please :p Thank you in advance!
 
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Is money an object? Otherwise I'd recommend a ?999 MacBook Air.

From the ones you listed the U5400 would be the fastest in normal use, it has 3072mb of L3 cache while the Atom only has 1024mb L2 cache.
The Atom however, has 4 threads as opposed to the 2 threads in the Pentium (which would give it an advantage when multitasking).

The U5400 also has better onboard graphics and allows for more RAM to be specced when needed.

Frequency isn't the most important factor in CPU speed, a 2GHZ CPU can be faster then a 3GHZ CPU if it is more efficient.
 
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You might also want to take a look at the Zacate, it's an AMD E-350 with HD 6310 graphics on die. Will be able to play 720p videos no problem, 1080p will be too much. The max battery life is about 6 to 7 hours and that's a bit optimistic since the APU is an 18w part. However it'll will certainly be faster than the Atom n550.

The latest review of the Brazos platform.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/the-brazos-review-amds-e350-supplants-ion-for-miniitx/1

hp pavilion dm1 using Brazos review
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/hp-pavilion-dm1.aspx
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/17/hp-pavilion-dm1z-with-amd-fusion-review/

Here's the Pentium u5400
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=49156&code=pentium+u5400
Compared to Atom n550
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=50154&code=n550

u5400 is based off of Arrandale (core i3/i5 for the mobile space) even with a slower clock speed it's faster than n550. Battery life won't be as great as the n550 since it's an 18w part compared to the n550's 8.5w.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/midlow_range_cpus.html

Lastly if you're willing to wait, Sandy Bridge based cpus with HD 3000 graphics is a couple of months away. These cpus are targeted for lower mid range and may not have the extreme 8-11 hour battery life you're seeking. Performance wise, it can playback two 1080p streams.
http://ark.intel.com/search.aspx?q=core i3
 
Thank you for your answers!

Is money an object? Otherwise I'd recommend a ?999 MacBook Air.

Yah it is! :cry:When i started thinking about buying one i thought of a budget of 250? (which is how much my girlfriends eee pc costs). When I found out it can not do what I want I started informing myself and ended up at a pricerange of proably ~400?

Well.. the EEE PC with the N550 comes in 2 types. One is with an additional Nvidia ION2 graphics adapter which is activated when there is 'heavy' graphic stuff to process and disabled when you're just browsing (using the integrated chip in the CPU). It also has HDMI which sounded perfect for me to use it as a little media computer.

Well I continued reading about it and found out that somehow the display is considerably darker when using the GMA3150 graphic adapter compared to the ION2. Well of course that is fixable by a bios update or something. But who knows if Asus will ever do that. They restricted the desktop brightness in the first place to make up for the battery power used in the ion2 mode... grml grml grml :cry: The embadded graphic adapter of the CPU supports only a resolution of 1440x800 or so, I tried it out but forgot the exact value. So I can not comfortably connect my monitor to the netbook some times.

I also found an info about ASUS offering the ION2 model with an improved display which has an resolution of 1336x768

Well when I heard this I increased my price range again to about ~500? which will my maximum.

So I figured, in that range I might get something more versatile than just a netbook and thats when I found this Lenovo Subnotebook that i posted in my first post in this thread and had no clue how I can look at that performancewise.

Lastly if you're willing to wait, Sandy Bridge based cpus with HD 3000 graphics is a couple of months away. These cpus are targeted for lower mid range and may not have the extreme 8-11 hour battery life you're seeking. Performance wise, it can playback two 1080p streams.
http://ark.intel.com/search.aspx?q=core i3

There is an EEE PC:

Asus EeePC 1215T 30,7 cm (12,1 Zoll) Netbook (AMD Athlon II Neo K125, 1,7GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, ATI Radeon HD4250

I tried playing a 720p Topgear Episode on it (in a shop from my USB stick with VLC) and it didn't work. It was a slideshow somehow what really surprised me.. mh. Should have worked.

So yes, I'm somehow willing to wait if there is really something coming. But I'm hating myself a bit for that because at some point I have to come to a desiscion. But I just think I should buy something, that somehow has the biggest package that I won't regret.

The Lenovo I posted with its 4gig of ram and HDMI and eSATA etc looks really good to me, except I didn't know where to but the CPU compared to the N550. And I'm not sure yet how different the performance will actually be (considering multithreading) mhh

I'm just checking out what you suggested to me. (HP Pavilion). Looks really good. I try to find more about it!

Thank you a lot guys!
 
The HP Pavilion dm1z sounds really awesome. Too bad it isn't available yet :cry: I'll keep that in mind and check during the next couple of weeks if it's available in Germany.
 
I would almost certainly go for the CULV machines (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage). They will be better than Atoms almost any day of the week, because Atom's are still simple In-Order cores in operation. CULV's are just lower clocked, lower voltage versions of cheaper notebook CPUs but they are out of order operation, usually have more cache and will last just as long on battery. There's Acer Timeline and Asus models with nearly 10 hours battery life using 1.3Ghz CULV processors (note sure if they are based on the Core or Core 2, but they are dual core chips as well).

http://www.acer.co.uk/timeline/spec/spec.html

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/model/LX.R2Z02.011 ?499 but you can find similar machines for less. I mean that one there is a 2.0Ghz dual core and they packed it with a 93W/hr battery!

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=UL30A-QX131V and a review of the machine ... http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/06/21/Asus-UL30A/p1

Asus machine .... 1.3Ghz Core2Duo, Embedded Intell 4500HD graphics should be able to handle HD video (will have to check), 4GiB ram, Win 7 X64, 84W/hr battery and claimed 10hrs on battery. Well I say claimed, TrustedReviews actually nearly got 11 out of it!
 
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I would almost certainly go for the CULV machines (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage). They will be better than Atoms almost any day of the week, because Atom's are still simple In-Order cores in operation. CULV's are just lower clocked, lower voltage versions of cheaper notebook CPUs but they are out of order operation, usually have more cache and will last just as long on battery. There's Acer Timeline and Asus models with nearly 10 hours battery life using 1.3Ghz CULV processors (note sure if they are based on the Core or Core 2, but they are dual core chips as well).

http://www.acer.co.uk/timeline/spec/spec.html

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/model/LX.R2Z02.011 ?499 but you can find similar machines for less. I mean that one there is a 2.0Ghz dual core and they packed it with a 93W/hr battery!

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=UL30A-QX131V and a review of the machine ... http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/06/21/Asus-UL30A/p1

Asus machine .... 1.3Ghz Core2Duo, Embedded Intell 4500HD graphics should be able to handle HD video (will have to check), 4GiB ram, Win 7 X64, 84W/hr battery and claimed 10hrs on battery. Well I say claimed, TrustedReviews actually nearly got 11 out of it!

Mhh.. I don't think i want such a "big" machine. Almost 14".. mhh Portablity isnt a criteria I want to make big compromises
 
^ Acer's timeline series features a 11.6 incher

here

http://www.trustedreviews.com/lapto...Timeline-1810TZ---11-6in-Intel-CULV-Laptop/p1

nearly 9 hours on the battery with this one. 1.3 GHz dual core pentium chip

Internally the 1810TZ doesn't pull any punches, either. Its spec is broadly similar to that of the X120, opting for the same dual-core Intel Pentium SU4100 (1.3GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) processor, 3GB of RAM and 250GB hard drive. It also sticks with the standard integrated Intel graphics which, though not much cop for gaming, does a fine job with HD video now that GPU acceleration is natively supported in Windows 7. HD Flash video playback is fine, too, though as yet not accelerated by the GPU.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/lapto...Timeline-1810TZ---11-6in-Intel-CULV-Laptop/p4 here its compared to a dual core net book of roughly the same price. Theres no comparison.
 
Are you sure the codec for the video was installed?? Most shops lock their computers from any software installation.

I'd go with an Asus over an HP, but that's just from what I've seen about HP's build quality/longevity.

-Robert
 
Yah I used VLC Portable... which i brought on my usb drive.
 
Somehow I an hardly find anything you guys suggested here in Germany.... grml
 
Netbooks suck. Look at HP DM1 it's what Engadget called a "notbook" its basically a somewhat normal CPU but they are still in the $500 range.
 
I can vouch for a CULV- I'm currently typing this message on my Toshiba CULV with a 11.6" screen. It can handle 720p video with only some stutter if you are being stupid (i.e. trying to do 5 other things at the same time, as I am prone to do!). It also gets over 8 hours of battery life. My only complaint is it's keyboard- I don't like it personally, but other family members and friends love it, so it's a personal choice thing. If you can have a look at one and see if you like it, I'd strongly reccommend a CULV.
 
Do you have a glossy display? So hard to find something without one. And I've a big garden where I'd like to sit in summer with the device I'm going to buy.

Well performance wise I still have no real "feeling" what I actually need. I haven't played a game for almost a decade now and I'm not gonna do that.
 
Yup, glossy sadly. I'm not a fan of it either but given I use it primarily in windowless lecture theatres, I wasn't too worried.
 
I really don't get it. Almost everybody would somehow prefer nonglossy... but there is hardly anything on the market :/ Grrrr...
 
Well.. I think I'll wait for this thing

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/lenovo-thinkpad-x120e-snatches-up-amds-zacate-aims-to-right-al/

A friend has a Thinkpad Edge 11 and when the built quality of the x120e is similar, I really like it. Plus the x120e will have an anti glare display. I want to sit in my big garden in summer and browse the web and with a glare display thats just not possible, I tried that before.

Well yah, the performance of the Amd E-350 is worse (considerably) than the i3 my friend has in his Thinkpad Edge 11, but I ran some test and it seems that the E-350 is still faster than the 7 year old Pentium 4 Desktop PC I've been using until recently. On this P4 everything I'm gonna do on the mobile computer also worked.

So well... USA release for the x120e should be mid february... I just hope it doesn't take them until October to bring it here grrrrrrrrrrrr
 
The keyboard layout is different. That sucks. And I'll have to add 20% tax on it :/ and shipping is also rather expensive.. usually.
 
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Do you have a glossy display? So hard to find something without one. And I've a big garden where I'd like to sit in summer with the device I'm going to buy.

Well performance wise I still have no real "feeling" what I actually need. I haven't played a game for almost a decade now and I'm not gonna do that.
You can get anti glare/privacy screens for laptops, its basically like a non stick screen protector.
 
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