Which netbook? (~£400)

[SCOTTBALL]

I was looking at specs, the Acer Ferrari One looks like it has a decent spec, it costs £400.

i think i want an 11.6" screen, but with some sort of power behind it..
I don't plan to run any mad games on it (i have a desktop) but things like Warcraft 3 and maybe a few others would be nice.

The Acer Ferrari One uses a dual core Athlon 64 X2, and a Radeon 3200HD
I been seeing things about the Nvidia ION as well..

Whats the best bet at the moment?

Thanks!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would also look at the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ too.

This thread may be of use to you:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...level-uni.html

An Athlon X2 or Pentium dual core are a far better choice than an Atom. The Ion has a slightly better IGP than the HD3200 in the Ferrari One but the single core Atom processor in most Ion notebooks is so weak it is a limiting factor. Even the dual core Atom is relatively weak.

I would look at getting the Ferrari One for any gaming or the Timeline 1810TZ if you want a longer battery life.

[SCOTTBALL]

Thanks for the link, i checked out the timeline just now as well. I've narrowed it down to four i think...
it's a choice between processing power and graphic power (as well as price).
The Acer Ferrari One seems most value for money i reckon... But these benchmarks show it below the other two unfortunately..
http://images.trustedreviews.com/ima...12298-pcmv.gif

Acer Ferrari One (£400)
Athlon 64 X2 1.2GHz
RadeonHD 3200

Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ (£427)
Intel Dual Core SU4100 1.3 GHz
GMA 4500MHD

Samsung X120 (£461)
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz
GMA 4500MHD

Samsung N510 (£480)
Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz
Nvidia 9400M G (ION)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the link, i checked out the timeline just now as well. I've narrowed it down to four i think...
it's a choice between processing power and graphic power (as well as price).
The Acer Ferrari One seems most value for money i reckon... But these benchmarks show it below the other two unfortunately..
http://images.trustedreviews.com/ima...12298-pcmv.gif

Acer Ferrari One (£400)
Athlon 64 X2 1.2GHz
RadeonHD 3200

Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ (£427)
Intel Dual Core SU4100 1.3 GHz
GMA 4500MHD

Samsung X120 (£461)
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz
GMA 4500MHD

Samsung N510 (£480)
Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz
Nvidia 9400M G (ION)

There is also this MSI notebook which should be in a similar price range:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=21387


If you want to play games the combination of the AMD Athlon X2 and HD3200 is going to better than an Atom and a 9400 IGP or a low voltage Core2 Duo processor. The slow single Core Atom really hampers the 9400 IGP. If you want the best combination of battery life and processing power the low voltage Core 2 Duo is the way forward but if you want to play some games the Athlon X2 based notebooks with the HD3200 IGP are the way forward.

[SCOTTBALL]

thanks bro, i'll probably go for the ferrari one.

The battery life of the timeline sounds nice, but i think the cheapness of the ferrari one and the potential gaming power edges it slightly.

Althought im starting to think, what sort of games are we talking about here? I'm not looking to play anything like Modern Warfare 2 or Crysis on it, probably just World of Warcraft occasionally, Civilization 4, Braid, maybe very rarely Left4Dead.

Would the Timeline handle those alright?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Intel onboard graphics are not that great and the driver support is terrible.

This website should help if you are interested in the relative graphics performance of graphics cards in notebooks:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Rad...00.9591.0.html

[SCOTTBALL]

ahhh ok thanks for the links!

i been checking them out, the Timeline is really swaying me because of the high battery life, but the GMA4500MHD is making me hesitate..

I know im not really planning to game on it... but i guess the 3200HD isn't that much better.

I think i'll go for the timeline in the end to be honest. Thanks a lot for your help! I'm pretty sure the max gaming i'll be using it for is using the auction house in WoW now and again in the kitchen haha.


To conclude:

Timeline has about +5 hours more battery life
marginally more expensive
marginally better processor
marginally worse graphics card
oooo hold up, looks like it also comes with 3GB RAM instead of 2GB

ok thanks mate, i appreciate the help!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

However I must repeat that Intel has very poor driver support for the IGPs when it comes to gaming. In the past even if the IGP could technically be used to play a game on it there would driver problems which prevented you from doing so or lead to corruption in the game.

My viewpoint is that the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ is better for most things. However if I were intending to do any sort of gaming unless the games were very old I would go for the Acer Ferrari One. TBH, I would prefer longer battery life over gaming performance though

The battery life of the Timeline looks very impressive:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-...k.21322.0.html

I would also make sure that I would install Flash 10.1 too:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3678&p=5

[SCOTTBALL]

ahh i also just looked at some benchmarks:
(seems the ferrari one was tested with double the RAM, im wondering how much of an effect that had on the scores)

3DMark 01
Ferrari One 200 [L310 / 4096 MB]...... 5710
Aspire 1810TZ [SU4100 / 2048 MB].... 3511

Cinebench (Shading)
Ferrari One 200 [L310 / 4096 MB]...... 1355
Aspire 1810TZ [SU4100 / 2048 MB].... 577

really the only thing stopping me from getting the Ferrari One is the Timeline's superior battery life
and the only thing holding me back on getting the Timeline is how much graphic power i will be cut out on. I'm worried the 4500MHD won't hit a minimum expectation for me.

and thanks for the flash information =)

EDIT: but looking back at the picture posted before (http://images.trustedreviews.com/ima...12298-pcmv.gif) the ferrari one performs lower in the "gaming" benchmark. Although i don't know what this benchmark was, could they be closer than i thought?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Synthetic benchmarks are not necessarily a good indication of real world performance though.

These set of articles should prove useful though:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3417

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3430&p=2

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3432

I would look at the benchmarks for the desktop HD3200(780G) and the desktop G45(GMA X4500).

The 9300 is still the most powerful notebook IGP AFAIK but the Atom processor still constrains it.

[cptwhite_uk]

Just to add my 2 cents: Parents have a HP Notebook, 4Gb RAM, Athlon X2 (2.1ghz) CPU, but more critically HD3200 graphics. This laptop *can* play Left4Dead on reduced settings at 35fps. We're talking mainly low options at 1024x*** res, widescreen. Definitely playable at lower settings, but that is the limits.

Things like serious sam, counter strike source, left 4 dead, trackmania, call of duty 1 are all fine

[SCOTTBALL]

Thanks guys for the input, I've decided to go for the 1810TZ, the battery life was a big factor! Thanks again!