The Netbook Thread

[disciple]

Are these things actually any use then, I mean do you guys *actually* use them or has novelty worn off? I do kind of fancy one but I worry it'll be a back of the drawer job like most other gadgets I buy.

[p-saurus]

I use mine on a daily basis but its my only laptop. I sometimes use it at home to surf the internet from bed but I'm constantly using it at work and when I travel. I just don't see myself wanting to lug around a full sized notebook after this.

[ThetaReactor]

The new HP mini looks quite nice: http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/hp-u ... april-7th/

The base model, all linux-ed up, seems like a remarkably good deal.

[moosedude]

Eee Development SDK

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=215613

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/28 ... s_eee_sdk/

[dom]

Are these things actually any use then, I mean do you guys *actually* use them or has novelty worn off? I do kind of fancy one but I worry it'll be a back of the drawer job like most other gadgets I buy.

I take my Eee with me everywhere. I use it at work when I need to connect to a machine in the corner that doesn't work or doesn't have a network connection, I use it at home to get web and IRC access in front of the telly, I use it at my dad's house so I don't have to borrow his PC to get online, and having just bought a serial adapter for it, I'll be using it in a whole lot more places too.

I just wish there was an option for a nanowire battery already, as 40 hours of battery life would mean I wouldn't have to take the [admittedly small] power adapter with me too.

Dom

[piku]

I use it at work when I need to connect to a machine in the corner that doesn't work or doesn't have a network connection

How?

[Firefox]

The new HP mini looks quite nice: http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/hp-u ... april-7th/

The base model, all linux-ed up, seems like a remarkably good deal.

That looks really good! Love the idea of the putting the trackpad buttons at either side of the trackpad rather than in front, too.

It'll be interesting to see if they do a version with Via's new Isaiah processor, which is pin-compatible with the C7 and as frugal with its power consumption but is much faster (and has decent floating point maths performance this time!)

[Dio]

1280x768, that's rather nice. Seems a bit expensive sat next to some of the rest though given how slow the VIA chips are.

[zip accident]

Dio wrote:

1280x768, that's rather nice.

I'm not convinced, I'm finding widescreen to be a bit lacking in height. This screen is 1440x900, and in the "Playing the games" forum I get two topics on screen that aren't stickied, until I scroll down a bit. Not that that's a big deal, but it definitely falls short of impressive.

[Firefox]

Seems a bit expensive sat next to some of the rest though given how slow the VIA chips are.

That's why I'm interested in the Isaiah.
(link to HardOCP article)

[Dio]

I'm not convinced, I'm finding widescreen to be a bit lacking in height. This screen is 1440x900, and in the "Playing the games" forum I get two topics on screen that aren't stickied, until I scroll down a bit. Not that that's a big deal, but it definitely falls short of impressive.

I found that at first a bit, but I realised I just had to think outside the box a bit with my window design and placement. After that, MSVC (for example) turns out to be far better on a widescreen machine for me.

Sure, there's always going to be compromises, but 768 is the level at which I don't think they matter too much any more. The eee's 480 vertical certainly is too cramped for what I want, but the 600 vertical should just work.

[Dio]

The Reg says the Atoms demonstrating in various eee-alikes are 1.6GHz, and that's probably the chip planned for the 8.9" model. Hurry up and get 'em out!

[Firefox]

I'm still not convinced by these Atom/Diamondville things. I'd like to see some benchmarks on how they stack up against the Pentium-M they're replacing.

[Kemper_Boyd]

There are some Cinebench scores around and I dug up some
other scores to compare.

Cinebench 9.5 CPU scores

1.6 GHz Atom Z530 2W TDP
103 No HT
158 HT enabled

1.5 GHz Via C7-M ULV 7.5W TDP
95 single

1.7 GHz Pentium M (Dothan) 21W TDP
230 single

1.33 GHz G4 7447A ~25W TDP
141 single

It seems that in terms of efficiency Silverthorne clobbers any
other x86 that is available. I'd like to see some SPEC power
benchmarks, they would be very interesting.

It's about as fast as Intel said, roughly 900 MHz Pentium M
level. Also look at the G4 score. If we say it is iBook G4 level
that's fantastic for a 2W processor. OS X on Atom? Yes please.

Intel appear to be right about the HT (SMT) benefits being well
worth it as well. Other benchmarks show similar speedup with HT.
SMT makes way more sense with limited OOOE and in-order
chips, or extremely wide super-scalar like the EV8; rather than a
relatively aggressive but fragile P4.

It probably isn't competitive with OMAP3 and the latest Cortex
processors, at the same power level. It sits above them (in large
part due to the chipset), but anyone looking for low power x86
should be pleased.

Roll on Moorestown.

[Firefox]

Yeah, that's about what I thought. Not that I'm complaining, my EeePc is fast enough for web surfing, YouTube, compiling small projects, etc. So the same performance with longer battery life and no fan will be very welcome!

It'll be interesting to see how OMAP/Cortex square off against Intel's Atom offerings. I think the only way a chip with better performance/watt than the OMAP3 could be made any time soon would be if they started making OMAP3s using Intel's silicon process.