Best netbook out there?

[Covenant]

Thought this looked interesting:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24918

Atom Dual Core @1.8Ghz and latest ion gfx should provide an noticeable performance improvement vs. Eeepc 1201n. Also has hdmi and 7 hours battery life - so slightly more practical then the Acer Ferrari, and all without the garish red lid!

Although perhaps netbooks are so 2009 now that everyone is jumping on the tablet form factor...

[scaryjim]

A 1.8GHz Atom is still an Atom though - it's an in-order processor and hence inherently slow. Just because you've attached it to an nvidia GPU and a 12" screen doesn't suddenly make it better...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The best netbooks are the Acer Ferrari One which has an Athlon X2 and the Acer Timeline 1810TZ which has a Pentium dual core. The Timeline has very good battery life.

[Covenant]

A 1.8GHz Atom is still an Atom though - it's an in-order processor and hence inherently slow. Just because you've attached it to an nvidia GPU and a 12" screen doesn't suddenly make it better...

Yeah, guess so, just thought being dual core might help it out.

The best netbooks are the Acer Ferrari One which has an Athlon X2 and the Acer Timeline 1810TZ which has a Pentium dual core. The Timeline has very good battery life.

Yup. I've got the Acer Ferrari One - but not for much longer! Handing over to a new owner tomorrow. Was fun to have, but no longer have a use for it now I've bought a 13inch MBP.

[usxhe190]

Yeah, guess so, just thought being dual core might help it out.

Doesn't. It's still an Atom.

[lazer]

I have a 12" Lenovo S12 and i love it! Depends what you will be using the netbook for? Mine is more than good enough for my needs! Plus, i only paid £130 for mine and it is only 10months old!!

[DanceswithUnix]

Yeah, guess so, just thought being dual core might help it out.


Yup. I've got the Acer Ferrari One - but not for much longer! Handing over to a new owner tomorrow. Was fun to have, but no longer have a use for it now I've bought a 13inch MBP.

Was considering getting the Ferrari, partly as it should be quite capable of playing World of Warcraft for short stints.

How good/bad is the battery life really when doing general surfing etc? I would only expect to use it on mains for any gaming so I don't think that would be an issue.

[Covenant]

Was considering getting the Ferrari, partly as it should be quite capable of playing World of Warcraft for short stints.

I'm pretty sure WoW will run at a decent fps at full detail / resolution - especially as I was able to run TF2 fine. Would recommend you take the GPU clock back up to 500Mhz though (it's factory clocked down - save battery life I think).

How good/bad is the battery life really when doing general surfing etc? I would only expect to use it on mains for any gaming so I don't think that would be an issue.

I was generally getting 3-4 hours (with Skype turned off). Battery life is stated as 5hrs+ i think, but my time remaining prediction only went up that much when the machine was more or less idle.

If you have a use for it, it's a beautiful machine:
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,...03769-1,00.htm

[Covenant]

The best netbooks are the Acer Ferrari One which has an Athlon X2 and the Acer Timeline 1810TZ which has a Pentium dual core. The Timeline has very good battery life.

Interesting read from Anandtech, he usually has pretty good indepth analysis:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3761/acer-ferrari-one

Page 4 of particular interest - as it shows a number of platforms benchmarked against each other on Futuremark 3Dmark06 - first time I've seen that table include both EeePc 1201n and Acer Ferrari together.

Shows that the Dualcore Atom330 1.6Ghz w/ ION1 platform out performs than AMDx2 L310 1.2Ghz congo platform. Would therefore suggest the Dualcore Atom D525 1.8Ghz w/ION2 would be faster still... although still a long way off the CULVs + dedicated gfx combos.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Interesting read from Anandtech, he usually has pretty good indepth analysis:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3761/acer-ferrari-one

Page 4 of particular interest - as it shows a number of platforms benchmarked against each other on Futuremark 3Dmark06 - first time I've seen that table include both EeePc 1201n and Acer Ferrari together.

Shows that the Dualcore Atom330 1.6Ghz w/ ION1 platform out performs than AMDx2 L310 1.2Ghz congo platform. Would therefore suggest the Dualcore Atom D525 1.8Ghz w/ION2 would be faster still... although still a long way off the CULVs + dedicated gfx combos.

However the 65NM X2 L310 is based on the K8 architecture whereas the newer 45NM low voltage X2 processors now being released will be faster than the Atom dual core processors.

Also the XGP port means that the Ferrari One can use an external graphics card:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...i-netbook.aspx

[WLC-1989]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but does anyone have recommendations for the sub-£200 price range? Would love it to have HDMI, but at that price, I'd do without.

I also don't mind second-hand/reconditioned.

[Covenant]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but does anyone have recommendations for the sub-£200 price range? Would love it to have HDMI, but at that price, I'd do without.

I also don't mind second-hand/reconditioned.

This one might fit the bill:
Dell-inspiron-mini-1012

Nothing special but hits the £200 mark (just) and has a 6cell battery so should last quite a few hours off each charge.

[DanceswithUnix]

However the 65NM X2 L310 is based on the K8 architecture whereas the newer 45NM low voltage X2 processors now being released will be faster than the Atom dual core processors.

Also the XGP port means that the Ferrari One can use an external graphics card:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...i-netbook.aspx

XGP puts me off TBH. Would rather have hdmi there like in the cheaper Acer models.

[DanceswithUnix]

I'm pretty sure WoW will run at a decent fps at full detail / resolution - especially as I was able to run TF2 fine. Would recommend you take the GPU clock back up to 500Mhz though (it's factory clocked down - save battery life I think).


I was generally getting 3-4 hours (with Skype turned off). Battery life is stated as 5hrs+ i think, but my time remaining prediction only went up that much when the machine was more or less idle.

If you have a use for it, it's a beautiful machine:
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,...03769-1,00.htm

Thanks, I saw the Anand review and was rather disappointed by the graphics scores. My son plays WoW on integrated graphics on an AMD 790 chipset board at 1080p and so far it is fairly playable, but then thinking about it I also up-clocked that motherboard to 500MHz graphics clock and it made a big difference. That board also has 128MB of DDR3 sideport ram which I am guessing the Netbook doesn't have.

[Covenant]

Thanks, I saw the Anand review and was rather disappointed by the graphics scores. My son plays WoW on integrated graphics on an AMD 790 chipset board at 1080p and so far it is fairly playable, but then thinking about it I also up-clocked that motherboard to 500MHz graphics clock and it made a big difference. That board also has 128MB of DDR3 sideport ram which I am guessing the Netbook doesn't have.

Yup -can't remember exactly what the default down clocked speed was (something like 350Mhz) but it's materially slower then the chipset was designed to run at. I had mine at 550Mhz when I gamed on it, but always had it plugged when I did -so no idea the effect on battery life. I've since passed over to a friend, so afraid I can't bench anything further on it - so just relying on memory.

Anyway, at the end of the day - it's a netbook, and should probably be used as one. I think the big failing of the Acer Ferrari was that it's battery life was more comparable to a standard laptop (and less then the faster CULVs around). It didn't bother me too much, but can see it as a problem for people comparing it to other netbooks who didn't need the dual-core cpu and 3d card.

[Covenant]

XGP puts me off TBH. Would rather have hdmi there like in the cheaper Acer models.

Yup, can can order the external HD4670 XGP from a number of sources in Europe now, but I couldn't really justify the extra £200odd. Also, although it sounds like a great idea (it comes with HDMI and a 6 USB ports I think), the fact that it needs to be plugged into the mains kind of defeats the whole portability aspect of having a netbook.

And when you do the maths - £400odd for the Acer Ferrari + £200 for XGP, then you're better off paying the extra and going for the Alienware M11x which has a faster CPU, faster GFX, more battery life, and doesn't need to be plugged in to use the 3d card.