The Netbook Thread

[moosedude]

These things are a *very* different proposition to a laptop.

They're the size and weight of a small hardback book, and the power supply's much the same as a phone charger. The lack of hard drive and optical drive means you don't have to worry about shaking them about and makes them run a lot cooler (I don't think I'll ever have a laptop with a hard drive again, or an optical drive probably).

It all makes it a lot easier to just chuck one in a bag on your way out the door. You don't have to have an elaborate packing ceremony, or a special protective case for them. I carry mine around in an old jiffy bag!

mine took a really nasty knock when I had too break suddenly in the car. I had a strange moment of confusion for a few seconds about whether I should panic about my data or not. It really is a strong little device.

[VNVObit]

It's a tad more than I want to pay really, £279 and I'd be sold I think. If they'd not annouced it I'd probably have bought a 701 by now mind. Pesky Technology, there's never a good time to buy anything

If you can get it through dixons while travelling out of the country you should be able to avoid the VAT and get it back down to £280 (assuming they don't put a premium on the price)

[Dio]

They do put a premium on the price.

[Dio]

More on the Wind. Again, the funky display is tempting, although I reckon I'd prefer a small SSD of the same cost to a real HD. Maybe go with the HD for the short term and swap an SSD in there when the price comes down?

[ravuya]

I picked up a black 8GB 701. Pretty happy with it, though I can't figure out how to get it to use WPA2 PSK.

[HGFB]

I read that was a pain in the arse with Xandros. Stick something more useful on there and you'll have less problems. I was running Ubuntu for a while and the kde network manager handled it no problem.

[Loada]

I picked up a black 8GB 701. Pretty happy with it, though I can't figure out how to get it to use WPA2 PSK.

don't have spaces in the key phrase - stumped me on my EEePC for ages that did! Hope that helps?

[Cloudane]

posting from my all new blackie. It's cute! Reasonably solid build, surprisingly fast starting up. Still getting used to the keyboard (fat finger syndrome) but should get used to it. Great stuff for the money

[Firefox]

Via Isaiah looking to be just a smidge faster than the Atom...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/18/prel ... tels-atom/

[ravuya]

don't have spaces in the key phrase - stumped me on my EEePC for ages that did! Hope that helps?

I saw that article on the eeeuser wiki. I don't have spaces in my keyphrase. I've created a connection in the network manager, but it never seems to resolve DHCP. I'll have to try again (just switched it onto an adhoc->wired bridge temporarily), but I'm also warming up an Ubuntu install

[Dio]

Via Isaiah looking to be just a smidge faster than the Atom... [/url]

That's not bad at all, actually - considering it has x64 too, which the Atom doesn't have.

[Kemper_Boyd]

Atom has x64 (EM64T), SSE3, SSSE3 and VT support. It'll run what
Merom will run, it is one of the design goals that it should be fully
binary compatible with the first generation Core 2 microprocessors.

Those benchmarks would be a hell of a lot more useful with the power.
Atom has a TDP of 2W at 1.6 GHz, as far as I know Via has not disclosed
TDP for Isaiah yet. It is said to be 20 W at 2.0 GHz, if so I'd be surprised
if Isaiah is under 10 W at 1.6 GHz and stock voltages. It therefore
appears to be far less efficient than Atom and with a much larger die
will cost Via more to make. Isaiah will mainly compete against low end
Merom and Penryn parts. Atom can easily stay out of Via's reach.

I'd still like to see some proper data and benchmarks. Hopefully Via will
come clean soon and somebody will throw SPEC and EEMBC at the chips.

[Dio]

This Intel document states three is no IA64 support in the initial Atoms (Z series).

[Firefox]

Those benchmarks would be a hell of a lot more useful with the power.
Atom has a TDP of 2W at 1.6 GHz, as far as I know Via has not disclosed
TDP for Isaiah yet. It is said to be 20 W at 2.0 GHz, if so I'd be surprised
if Isaiah is under 10 W at 1.6 GHz and stock voltages.

I know it's 3.5W at 1GHz from those benchmarks from last week, I can't see it jumping to 10W for an extra 600MHz.

[Kemper_Boyd]

This Intel document states three is no IA64 support in the initial Atoms (Z series).

Now this is all very odd. I was absolutely certain EM64T support was included.
So after a bit of Googling and searching my PC I've found the following:

1. The Atom Z5xx series do not have Intel 64 (EM64T) support. At least it says
no on the specification page which has turned up very recently.
2. Intel said Silverthorne supports Intel 64 at ISSSC 2008.
3. Everest and CPU-Z have shown EM64T flags as present. Everest was run with
a 230 (Diamondville).

Atom is the brand name. Silverthorne the microarchitecture. Silverthorne
is also the name used for the chip in very small packaging, Diamondville is
user to refer to the chip in the ordinary packaging for cheaper parts aimed
at 'Nettops' and cheap 'Netbooks' and UMPCs but probably not MIDs.

My hunch is that Intel has taken the decision very recently to to disable EM64T
on the Z5xx series, but I'm 99% sure it's included in the chip. VT is also
disabled for some parts.

As an aside IA64 refers to the the Itanium ISA, it looks like Intel cocked-up
on that document you linked. Intel tend to use Intel 64 now rather than EM64T.