Like ION HTPC's being made, it kicks ass video wise. Thanks to CUDA
certain apps can offload work to the GPU. Doesn't replace my Q6600
desktop by but gives me what I need portable short of serious games.
Video is all that matters because even decade old slow PC's are enough
CPU power short of engineering, CAD, heavy number crunching, and games
so what do you do that makes a fast CPU at the expense of video a
worthwhile trade-off?
If you're talking $490+200=~$700, I'd rather spend $900-1000 for an ROG
laptop w/ highend video card because then I could game with it and know
the video power would be good for a few years since it's typically the
part you can't upgrade in a portable. Short of that this IS the best
deal in it's price range & latops $100-200 more as reviews all over are
saying.
Video matters because I watch MKV's of TV shows & DVD's with my netbook.
Otherwise it's just for Internet & doing customer diagnostics/backups
onsite. Occasionally I'l play Red Alert 3 type games with it and it's
even good for that. Screen size is probably my biggest complaint but
it's livable. Nothing I am doing short of maybe taking a bit longer to
run 7-Zip relies on CPU enough to want a faster CPU w/ GMA graphics.
On a side note, this is the 1st time I've plugged a PC into a TV (1st
time I've used HDMI) & said "Wow!" with my desktop at full rez I could
still read the text! That's not unique to any netbook or otherwise, but
then most netbooks don't even have the HDMI. Just wish it had std line
video out so could plug it into my aging WEGA tube set to watch video.
On 8/10/2010 10:49 AM, Thane Sherrington wrote:
At 02:35 PM 10/08/2010, Joshua MacCraw wrote:
Near as I can tell from reading reviews it's more like spend $800ish
vs $490 to get better CPU & maintain the same level of graphics as the
ION in the Asus 1201N. Caveat of the Atom platform is the artificial
2GB RAM limit and not so hot CPU (N330 vs. C2D) despite being 64bit
dual core. Otherwise this has proven to be a very good trade-off.
If you need video performance, I'd agree. I do so little with video on a
laptop that it just doesn't matter to me. I can't really imagine what
I'd need video power for in a netbook, but perhaps I'm missing
something. For me, going to a i3-330UM or even a SU7300 seems like a
better deal than an Atom and those only add $200ish dollars - yes, a big
jump percent-wise, but over the course of it's life, insignificant in
terms of usability.
T
