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Atom processors

Soldato
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What Atom processor is the most powerful?

I've been trying to get my head around the differences, whats newest whats oldest etc and there aren't really any set lists with this sort of information on.

Currently most all in one PCs, use the N270 processor, how does this compare with say the D510? because i've no idea!

The all in one PCs im looking at are the viewsonic VPC100 and VPC190 which use the two above processors, but im not sure which is better
 
Soldato
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_atom

D510 is one of the latest, it's a dual core with hyperthreading, X64, 1MB L2 and supports DDR400.

Sounds like a perfect HTPC/Lightweight server CPU to me. :p

Interesting:

In the second-half of 2010, Intel will release new versions of Pineview Atom chips that will support DDR3 memory.[47]

In the second half of 2011, Intel will release a new Atom platform for netbook codenamed "Cedar Trail", which will be fabricated on the 32 nm technology. Development of the new chip and platform will begin in late 2010. Intel claims that the chip will boast higher clock speeds and double performance as compared to "Pine Trail", although details are scarce. The code name of the platform is Cedar View and is rumored to have double the graphical power as the GMA 3150 in the current Pineview platform.[48]
 
Soldato
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PCs are being used in a school library and languages rooms, used for basic internet, microsoft office use and some multimedia like using audacity to record themselves speaking french etc - maybe the odd bit of graphics stuff with paint.net or gimp etc as well (but only to the standard of a secondary school student, nothing fancy)

Do you reckon these are perfect for that? the D510 looks like the way to go, everyone will be on windows 7 32bit so 64bit isn't a must but it's nice to know it's there incase i guess,
 
Soldato
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Aye, D510 is the new one for nettops. Here is a nice detailed review.

In terms of netbooks, the N450 and N470 are the new ones based on Pine Trail.

The All-in-ones that use the N270 must be cutting back on costs, these are netbook-class hyperthreaded single cores based on the older Diamonville. The Wikipedia article Muel links to is a good read and should clear up any confusion. I wouldn't suggest putting Win 7 on these things, XP should be OK.
 
Soldato
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Quoting from Wikipedia... "The performance of a single core Atom is about half that of a Pentium M of the same clock rate."

Well, I have a Pentium M 1.7 laptop in a drawer. It's... not blazing, but it does ok with Windows XP and 1 gig of ram, for office, web browsing, and even programming with visual studio 2005... even some lightweight Paint Shop Pro 8. Not sure I'd care to halve the clock speed on it though, even with a 2nd core and HT!

I'd suggest getting approval for a single trial PC before committing to a bunch ^^;

Interesting to hear about Pine and Cedar View, I'd been debating knocking together an Atom/nVidia Ion based HTPC/file server, but I reckon I might wait a little to see what they've cooked up by late summer, hopefully ddr3 will shave a few watts off :)
 
Soldato
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Do you say that to mean all Atom processors or just the N270s?

I have installed Windows 7 (32 bit) on a system with an Atom 330 (Diamondville, Dual core, hyperthreaded) and 1GB RAM. I must say, the performance was pretty poor.

The function of the machine was simply as an Itunes box (wi-fi connection to an ipod touch running itunes remote app) playing downloaded mp3s and ripped CDs (on a HDD) though a sound card. For this fuction - it does work fine.

However, to get it to this point I had it to set it up and treat it like a normal PC. For this use it was notably sluggish, to the point of infuriation. I admit, I am used to a non-sluggish response from my main rig - so the change may be more pronounced to me. However, I have built and used cheap machines running windows 7 and they did not exhibit the same slugishness. Much of this could have been down to the lack of RAM (win 7 loves its RAM and 1GB is barely enought), but I certainly felt that CPU power was lacking even for basic things. If you went for the single core variant (like the N270 in that viewsonic) I imagine this would be even more evident.

Have you considered building some small, low-power desktops instead? If you put together a basic machine with an Athlon II X2, 2GB DDR and a bottom-end AM2+ (integrated graphics) board, + cheapo monitor then the price would be similar. If you are already planning to buy windows 7 (perhaps on an education deal) then OS doesn't factor into this cost. What is your planned budget for these machines? I'd be happy to make up a spec with the most power possible for the money.
 
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Associate
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It is pretty slow (I have an N330) and if you need more grunt at a later date (eg for painting programs) then you may run out of steam very quickly! But talking of Steam - at least you know the kids won't be playing games on them!
How about a low-end/super cheap Pentium-branded C2D instead?
 
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I have two NC10s with N270s, one with W7 and 2gb of ram, the other with OSX. They're not dreadfully slow at all, it's a CPU that 5 years ago would have been faster than most laptops, yet uses 4W of power. They're amazing little things.

I can't see how people think they're slow at all, I use FireFox with about 15 plugins, Dreamweaver, Photoshop and word all at the same time on a regular basis with no trouble at all.

I don't agree with that Pentium M statement at all, because both of mine destroy my old 2.4ghz HT Pentium 4 desktop!
 
Soldato
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Well of course it was maxed installing office, the CPU is the bottleneck. That's no indication really of how fast or slow they are for everyday use.
 
Soldato
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I have installed a few netbooks for people with n270's in, they really need reinsalling with a clean xp and tweaking, then they are much faster... it also needs a light weight AV and all the crap removing from startup...

I have to say they seem plenty fast enough...
 
Soldato
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My old netbook is good enough for Win7/browsing/videos, but it has an SSD so that makes it much more nippy. I haven't installed AV or anything else though, that would kill the thing.
 
Associate
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I've got an netbook with an atom and while it fine for the internet and email it not fast enough for much else. A duel core atom would be a faster but you'd still be better of by a proper cpu. Also the price difference isn't that great between an atom cpu & motheborad costing ~£70 and Celeron (core duo 2) & motheborad costing ~£80.
 
Soldato
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Is there anything that is a significant upgrade over the atom/dual core atom and still close to as energy efficient?

It depends, what kind of system are you looking at? (netbook or desktop).

As for energy efficiency, the atom doesn't use much power - so if you will be doing very low performance things on the system, the Atom is great. However, if you are doing intensive things, there are other processors that are better in terms of performance/watt. This means they do use more energy per second, but will accomplish much more in a given time (or complete a task faster), so the total power used is less.

Examples of such processors are the Intel CULV processors and the AMD Athlon II X2 "u" series.
 
Soldato
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I have two NC10s with N270s, one with W7 and 2gb of ram, the other with OSX. They're not dreadfully slow at all, it's a CPU that 5 years ago would have been faster than most laptops, yet uses 4W of power. They're amazing little things.

I can't see how people think they're slow at all, I use FireFox with about 15 plugins, Dreamweaver, Photoshop and word all at the same time on a regular basis with no trouble at all.

I don't agree with that Pentium M statement at all, because both of mine destroy my old 2.4ghz HT Pentium 4 desktop!

im running a NC10 with 2Gb RAM and Win7 and it runs like a Netbook :) for £200 what do you expect, it does everything that i want from it (films, surfing, office)
 
Associate
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Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

One of the main things I love about my HP Mini 311 (Atom and Ion powered) is that it uses no more than 20w while my previous desktop and monitor were probably using about 250+

I now use it as my sole computer, I plug in a keyboard and into a bigger monitor via HDMI when I want to use it as a desktop.

What I'm wondering is if there is a netbook/nettop that would offer more powerful processing but at still minimal power consumption.

What kind of power consumption increase would there be in a similar netbook running a CULV processor vs the Atom one?

Thanks again

It depends, what kind of system are you looking at? (netbook or desktop).

As for energy efficiency, the atom doesn't use much power - so if you will be doing very low performance things on the system, the Atom is great. However, if you are doing intensive things, there are other processors that are better in terms of performance/watt. This means they do use more energy per second, but will accomplish much more in a given time (or complete a task faster), so the total power used is less.

Examples of such processors are the Intel CULV processors and the AMD Athlon II X2 "u" series.
 
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