AMD C-50 CPU and 6250 GPU performance(Acer 522 review)

Thanks, the ASUS 1215B and 1015B just been released. But the resolution on the 1015B it's just stupid with 1024x600. The 1280x720 is pretty unique on the acer and I can't believe asus didn't do something about it. oh well there lost, but the white on asus 1015 looks pretty sweet.

ASUS Eee PC 1015B Seashell 250GB Starter 10.1" Netbook - White. ASUS 1015B-MU17-WT

 

apparently the c-30 is the SINGLE core version and not a dual core and according to benchmarks is slower then the atom 270.... for example http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-C-30-Notebook-Processor.40964.0.html

 

Hmm. Looks like it gets a lower score on the Windows 7 experience index. I wonder how it handles in 'real-life' situations in comparison to the Atom.

 

I just jumped ship from this netbook. I found a zacate netbook for $60 more than I paid for the 522.

Although there was nothing wrong with the 522 overall, (espiecailly in performance) some of the things I just couldn't get used too such on the hardware side.

On a side note Guild Wars ran really well on the netbook. Except in when you initially map travel, to major towns. All high, AA off, V-sync off, Windowed mode.

 

yes guild wars works nicely, was able to farm TOPK at 30 fps at almost max settings

 

Ok so I just bought this from Staples for $289, should be here tommorrow.

I need a netbook for school and maybe a few games (Diablo 2, League of Legends and maybe some emulators).

I just want to know, how is the hardware reliability?

I always hear people dissing Acer, are they that bad of a company?

I mean, they sponsored the Olympics in Canada last year so they can't be that bad.

I just want to make sure my purchase will be OK.

 

Is this what you bought? Because that's not the same system as what's being discussed here. It uses an Atom processor and would only be adequate for basic web surfing and office work.

 

What netbook? I just ordered a Thinkpad X120e, but if there's something as good or smaller and cheaper...

 

i dont see it at staples either...they have them at staples.ca for $306

dont get the atom ones....i used to own one...there way slower then these ao522's

 

STAPLES | BUREAU EN GROS

This is what I bought, it's $309 and I used a $20 off coupon.

Built to handle everyday tasks – such as Internet browsing, streaming online video, e-mailing, chatting, photo viewing, and document editing.

* 1GHz AMD C-Series C-50 processor; 1MB L2 Cache
* 1GB system memory
* 250GB hard disk drive
* 10.1" HD LED-backlit TFT LCD display
* Windows 7 Starter
* ATI Radeon HD 6250 graphics
* Integrated microphone and Acer Crystal Eye webcam with 1280 x 1024 resolution
* Communication options include 10/100 Ethernet LAN and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
* Multi-in-1 card reader
* Ports include 3 x USB 2.0 and HDMI
* Up to 6 hours battery life
* Dimensions: 1.01”(H) x 10.17”(W) x 7.28”(D)
* Weight: 2.87 lb.
* 1-year limited warranty

 

Ah. Looks like Staples in the US doesn't carry it. Too bad. :|

 

cool..i got mine at bb when they where on sale.....

tip: if your not doing clean install (so rid of all crapware) make sure you uninstall mcafee antivirus (it really slows things down of this netbook!!!) you can uninstall and then download tool from mcafee site to completely rid any traces of it.
How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee consumer products using the McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR.exe)

then for a antivirus/spyware try using microsoft security_essentials..it's free works great and doesn't slow down your system....
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

 

I got the Thinkpad x120e as well. I didnt include taxes from what I said in my earlier post.

 

still waiting on my wow review !

 

I just got my Acer 522 from Amazon, put in 2 gig stick, kept 7 starter, had netbooks before, one eeepc, one acer, both 10 inch screens. Used Photoshop, Gimp2, hulu, external monitors, as web terminals with a lot of image work, music. Got this one, dropped in a two gig stick, pushing the keyboard out from behind, in the hole to the back of the keyboard tray in the battery compartment, COVERING the tin with a cardboard bit, to not punch out a key. Requires same thing with credit card on front, the metal is thin in that hole. Faster, nicer screen, sound bad, etc. Netbook. The good. 720p screen video editing to 720p fluid.

Ok, now the processor and gpu, I have no crapware on it, Microsoft Security essentials, nothing in the system tray, downloaded Super Loiloscope free trial, I am using it on a desktop, dropped some 720p HD files on it, off of an Olympus EPL-1, after installing 11.2 32 bit Catalyst drivers, GPU acel enabled, was able to play two 720p steams at once, overlap, edit, no dumbed down video, 70% cpu use during sound and video playback, during editing, slight pop up in use, when using tools or transitions, editing was smooth, fast, now that is a surprise, but this program is light, uses GPU very well. On a dual core desktop with a GeForce 250, CUDA on, 1 min 30 second clip took 1.25 minutes to an mp4 H.264 file after edits. The same clip on the Brazo's chip took about 5 minutes, cpu usage 100%, GPU acel on, fan pegged on high, drive running, got nice and hot. HOT enough to let me know its maybe not a great idea to do it for a LONG clip. The editing itself was as fluid as on the desktop, windows movie Live was much slower, but it was fine as well. Just slow on the front end and back end, as any proxy editor would have to be, that uses CPU more. Heat issue....not sure. However, very impressed it could do THAT much. What slowed it down, well, that it could do that much is rather stunning, now put a program that is more dependant on CPU use, and has sound plug ins, its going to go slow. Loiloscope is stable. So far. I want to try freeware like WAX. With this gpu, there is no way to say you cannot do it, just try it.

Avoid Wax, unstable. Do not test.

 

Man you type like a Salarian...

Gonna try that super loilo thingy, we got the same camera btw

 

Just realize, the software interface is so hello kitty it will hurt your head, but its fast. If it maxes out the cpu for a long time, and you edit to one drive, not two its maybe slower than if you sent the out file, to a fast very fast SD card. Not tried that yet, netbook too new. Its a maybe. Downloading trials of Corel vx4, which is supposed to be optimized for this AMD chipset as in AMD and Corels blab about their wonderful selves. Then I am going to do the trial for Sony Vegas Platinum Studio. To get the sound ware tested at least once. I expect Sony to be nice but maybe SLOW. Depends on how hard it pushes the chip. How long. You just find out whats worth having on the thing, and live with it.

Corel VideoStudiovx4, loads clip quickly enough, will play 720p clip, editing is slower, than loiloscope, with video acel clicked on both edit and file output, file output is twice as slow as loiloscope, it just seems a bit too heavy to run quickly, on this hardware.

Sony needs more hardware. Ease of use, Superloiloscope works fine. Need some third party sound editing tool, its ok for short HD clips. Quality of output is very good. Done. Choice made.

 

Thanks for everyones's input on this thread. Picked up the last one at the BestBuy at Y/D in Toronto for $275 before the price went up.
My notes on the RAM upgrade:
1. Any other version of Windows 7 sees 4GB, so go with 4 given the slim price difference and the benefit
2.crucial.com will only show you 2gb options and is pricey, just look for 4gb 204pin ddr3 pc3-8500 sodimms
3.Yes there was one video where the woman indicated that 10600 4gb sticks would not work, but the model was different to ours

KEYBOARD REMOVAL!
1. The clips are not symmetrical: there is no big clip, like the one above Delete on the opposite side.
-because of this, you should start by popping the smaller clip above F4, and YES the metal ridge is part of the keyboard, get behind that
2. Push the F4 clip back, and with the battery removed, flex the raised ridge where the body would meet the case down (all thats in this section is thin plastic)
3. GENTLY! with a creditcard, slide under the metal tray,towards the mighty insert/delete clip. Back the creditcard off slightly to the left, so theres not resistance on the tab, and push this guy in too with a screwdriver or whatever you used before.
4. Its at this point you just have to use your best judgement. The enter key clip didn't give with the torsion, so I applied a little more pressure and pulled to the left slightly and it came out with only slightly more force. Be careful.
5. I left the keyboard on and pushed through with a chopstick, bracing the edges of the body.
6. I put the fabric keyboard cover back in and loosely slid the keyboard back into the bottom slots and flipped it over to work on the cover/ram.
7. The cover came off fairly easily and RAM clips required only a little pressure to pop - do both at once and gently. You are f**cked if you break these.

I visited my local Source store (thanks for the tip!) and snagged the last Win7 basic to premium upgrade for $20 the site lists a few store withi it still in stock. Now Win7Premium sees 3.49 usable RAM. Win experience for RAM is 4.8, Graphics 4.2, gaming 5.5, disk 5.4 and cpu is still 2.8.

Now looking for a hard clear plastic (crystal) clip on case/shell. Anyone know of one that would fit?
The left shift button is also annoying, so I'll likely replace the keyboard too. Where is everyone getting theirs and specifically which types are compatible with the 522 version? Is it the 255?

 

any update on when the red one will show up

 

Prechance does anyone have any pictures of the inside of this thing? I want to take a look at the heatsink without taking my 522 apart again.

 

It is tough wanting to go in again, no good way to do it. I was nervous enough about the gumby feel of the keyboard, and fat old hands. On the heat during editing. After running my video tests, sent the same 720p clip out to a rather slow Hitachi USB 2.0 external drive, loiloscope again, and it was 40 seconds slower than using the C drive, which is a 5200 spin speed..A slow external drive, or USB 2.0??? Ran a bit quieter. USB 3.0 would be ideal in a netbook. SSD to 3.0. No crashes yet. I think the unit can handle the heat. The CPU in single threaded applications seems awful slow. I am curious, ready boost with the same video test was faster, with an SD 6, 8 gig in the slot. Render out to USB 2.0 same drive, a lot faster. Times, five mintues C drive, 6 minutes USD external, 4 min 35 second with ready boost enabled out to external drive. Give or take. Maybe I am wrong, but I am leaving that SD card in there for the duration, and running more tests. I do not quite believe it could do that much. Maybe I made a mistake. Going to test it again. Any one notice a cooler running machine with an SSD? I wonder how much speed I would get just in the video encoding process to drive.

 

Yes.... lets do video editing on a netbook!!!!!!! it will be sooo FAST ...

anyways minecraft runs a little laggy when your out in the open (about 26-28 fps) and perfectly fine when your underground or in a house

 

The acer 522 gets extremely hot?

I been reading the board and it seems like that's the case

 

I haven't noticed it getting hot unless I am gaming on the go... when I am browsing the net/taking notes the thing is cool to the touch with the fan barely running

 

I hope so, I'm pulling the trigger when the red version comes out. By any chance you play WoW on this texanman? that's one of the game I really want to play on this on the go. I hope it'll work

 

On Win 7 64-bit, I just installed the synaptics driver 15.1.18.0 from the setup file in the "x64" folder and I still can't get the zoom gesture to work, just the scroll. Has anybody else that installed Win 7 64-bit had troubles with the touchpad gestures? If not, which driver did you install?

 

I do not play wow but the fact that tf2 and CS:S work with the proper settings along with guildwars... i am sure that wow can at atleast 800x600

 

Sweet, if you're not busy do you mind running the demo !

 

Replying to an earlier post. The E-350 can handle civ5 although at low settings. The C-50 will struggle. The exra ram at 8gbs certainly helps although I traded in my dm1z for an asus 5253 (larger 15 inch) for a cheaper price with dvd-rw and an 1 extra gb ram although 3:50 battery life.

 

Just saw the ads for this unit here in my country, the unit hasn't even available yet, one of the agents said perhaps in a month time at the most. I looked for reviews and found this forum. I read all of the posts even though I'm not a gamer like most of you are here.

I would like to ask you guys how this unit, the 522, with C-50 compared against my current old laptop Satellite M30 Centrino 1.5 GHz with 2 GB of memory + dedicated 64 MB nVidia G-Force FX 5200 performance wise. If I do get the 522 I would upgrade the memory to 4 GB most likely or at the very least to 2 GB. Would the 522 with 2GB/4GB exceed my M30 performance wise?

Thanks in advance.

 

I am pretty sure the 6250 would decimate the 5200

for the CPU it should be a close fight but I would think that the 1.0 Ghz dual core would be better than a single core Celeron at 1.5

 

@ Soulzero
I have WoW installed on my 522 although I dont remember what settings I have it set to. (I can check later if you like) I know I have it running at 1280x720 and its fine in Orgimmar with only a 4GB RAM upgrade. (have yet to run any dungeons or raids though on it) IIRC when I only had a 2GB RAM upgrade it was abit choppy.

All together I have the following installed and have run them all at 1280x720 without any noticable issues. The only noticable difference I have seen is the initial load up time for Torchlight.
- Half-Life 2
- Starcraft 2
- World of Warcraft : Cataclysm
- Torchlight

SideWinderDX

 

Thanks! Could you run it at the lowest resolution 800x600 resolution and setting. I want to make sure I can do some dungeons and maybe raids. press ctrl+r for FPS. Do you get at least 60 fps usually? or less. Thanks so much man!

 

My impression (mainly from comparisons of Pentium M to Atom and Atom to E-350) is that in single threaded apps the M30 is more in line with 1.6GHz E-350, so considerably faster than the C-50. For graphics the C-50 should be faster than the GeForce 5200.

IMO if you care about CPU performance an E-350 laptop would be a better choice.

 

I ran it as 800x600 and at the lowest settings with any options disabled. In Orgimmar around peak hrs (~6-7pm ST) I was getting 15-25 fps average. I was not on long enough to do a dungeon or raid but on my warrior I took the portal to Uldum and did the daily quest "Thieving Little Pluckers" and it was around 35-45 fps. Hope this helps. Of note is the the default recommended settings on the 522 in WoW are good/high, depending on which setting.

SideWinderDX

 

Thanks Shadowfate & Et3d...

The M30 is Pentium M (not Celerron).

So I guess the graphics would be better on the C-50. This would means better performance on graphic related programs such as photoshop/elements/any photo-video related programs am I right?

Also about the CPU performance, if I use 4GB on the C-50 would it give it the edge against the 2 GB M30? Because if it goes with the same amount of RAM the M30 would be better because of the better CPU.

Thanks!

 

The only heavy gaming I do on this netbook is torchlight and it doesn't even eat all of my 2gb of ram... Granted i am only running x32 and only really use this thing as a school netbook... the c-50 should shine with a 4gb stick... now depending on the task you are doing whether its designed for single threaded or mutithreaded apps the c-50 should do a tad better in mutithreaded situation

 

Greetings everyone,

Like many here already, I've shopped for a netbook and found this thread, and decided to get one AO522 for myself. Love it so far. Wish I could overclock it to 1.2 or 1.3Ghz (that's what I feel is missing for good portable gaming). Otherwise very impressed with HD video playback. What Media Player Classic HC doesn't eat, VLC does, so I can pretty much play anything I need to.

Graphics and video softwares often heavily rely on memory and CPU first and GPU second. Some (like Loiloscope) have their graphic engine take advantage of hardware acceleration, but I suspect that the traditionnal Photoshop/Illustratior won't like the C-50 (and I think we can forget Premiere Pro or After Effects).

Obviously, you need 4GB of RAM. But if ArtRage [1] is any indication, it's still bit sluggish for real work, but should be more than enough for light Photoshop work. I had a Core2Duo/3GB/IntelGMA950 before, and Photoshop CS3 would work very well on it, so I doubt the GPU on the 522 be of any real help. I know Photoshop (CS3+) is supposed to take advantage of hardware OpenGL acceleration, but I don't know how much it would help alleviate a weak CPU.

[1]: Artrage Home


Logozo

 

It's mainly for 3D graphics, so 3D animation or architecture design will benefit. Photoshop CS4/5 does take advantage of 3D accelerators (see here) which can make some things like zooming work a lot nicer. Photoshop can also take advantage of multiple cores for some operations, which will also be good for the dual core C-50. If you're using Photoshop or other image editing, then having 4GB of RAM should also help performance.

As I always say, your choice of computer depends on what you want to do with it. If you're seriously into image editing, then this probably isn't the best platform to do it on. It may be the best at the price and size, though.

 

Without a doubt the graphics of the C-50 will outperform the fx5200 by a long shot. the fx 5200 is like a geforce 6100 (worse actually). The c-50 graphics are better than radeon HD3200 or HD4200 graphics.

This is your CPU:
Intel Pentium M 1.5 GHz RH80535GC0211M (BXM80535GC1500E)
I believe that that CPU is based on the pentium III architecture because it is their 2003/2004 mobile line.
I benchmarked that CPU once with crystalmark2004 on a friend's notebook. It scores (ALU/FPU) 5214/6441 and my C-50 scores 6699/6013. Threaded performance. My C-50 scores when assigned only one CPU core are: 3395/3054. So you can compare raw CPU performance like that. However, because the C-50 is a dual core, it will be a more responsive system.
There are of course bonuses that come with the new tech, such as UVD3 (video decoding) and support for graphics chip acceleration in flash applications/videos.

 

Does anyone know if you can use a 65w charger for the AO522? The one it comes with is a 40w wall-wart, but I'd like to be able to charge it faster and have the wall-wart as a travel charger...

Specifically I am looking at this type on e-bay:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Acer-Aspire-One-532-532H-751-D260-D255-adapter-Charger-/280628109456?pt=AU_Laptop_Accessories&hash=item4156bd2090

 

Also - Any way to disable the beep when connecting the charger?

 

I have a universal 90w charger and it works just fine to charge the netbook

 

Got my AO522 yesterday and proceeded to install all Windows 7 updates including SP1. Today I was uable to install the Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade to Home Premium. The upgrade key would check out ok, then the upgrade would start then 5 mins later error out and tell me that my key was not applicable to the Windows version I was upgrading.

been on the phone with MS tech support for over 2 hours now. They gave me a different upgrade key to try and same error.
Now they are having restore to before SP1 installation and it is taking forever.
Will update for fix.

Update: Reverting back to the very first restore fixed the Windows Anytime Upgrade issue. Upgraded no problem thereafter.

 

Any charger than has the same or higher wattage and same voltage rating will work.

BTW: 100K views is coming up

 

As long as the voltage is the same as your current charger, there will be no issues (18.5V) or within tolerance (eg, I think 19V is still ok). The laptop will only draw as much current as it needs or can.

How fast does it charge by comparison to the 40W?

 

same speed as the stock charger

 

Thanks a lot guys!!

 

I had the same problem: the update crashed and I realized too that it was probably due to SP1. However when I restarted the computer the installation continued as if there were no errors. Now my upgrade is complete, presumably, and I didn't have to go back to before SP1.

 

I'm planning to buy this baby and upgrade the memory to 4 GB. However windows 7 starter limit the memory to 2 GB only,right?
I search around and found several workaround for this without having to upgrade to Home Premium.
But since i don't have the laptop and windows 7 starter, i'm not sure it will work. So,anyone willing to be a lab rat and try it out?

1. Activate PAE
I read that with PAE,windows 32 bit can use memory more than 4GB ( side effect maybe,i repeat maybe,lost of stability because of incompatible driver or 3rd party software with PAE)
Can we use this way to overcome 2GB limit in windows 7 starter?
I found a patch to activate PAE ( use at your own risk.Like i said, you are a lab rat!)
UNAWAVE - 32-bit Windows 7 with full 4 GB or 8 GB RAM support

2. Use ramdisk to utilize unused memory as pagefile.
I found several ramdisk software that can utilize unused memory and mount it as drive. Then,we can use that drive as pagefile. In theory, windows kernel sees pagefile as memory too, right? (not sure about this...>,<)
And here is several software, free and paid software
RamDisk - Microsoft Certified Software
RAMDisk - Software - Server Memory Products & Services - Dataram
Making Use Of Non-Addressable Wasted RAM On 32 Bit Systems | Megaleecher.Net

I realize that this solution usually used to overcome 4GB limit in windows 32bit. But,perhaps we can use it to overcome windows starter 2 GB limit?
I already found workaround for the rest of windows 7 starter limitation such as changing desktop background and theme. But i really wish to fully use 4GB memory. If it can be done,i don't see any reason spend money for upgrade. I think the most annoying limitation of windows 7 starter is fix desktop background and memory limit.

I can't try the workaround myself because my PC only had 2GB memory and i don't have 7 starter.
Hopefully some of you can try this workaround and let me know the result?


Edit :
It seems dataram doesn't support putting pagefile in virtual memory drive http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036887076, but it said Vsuite Ramdisk (free edition) can http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/vsuite-ramdisk/ramdisk-comparison.html. However the free edition only support XP 32 bit.
Even if dataram doesn't support pagefile, we can use virtual memory drive as temporary folder for browser,photoshop and so on. Perhaps it will boost performance.
And for those of us who use SSD, perhaps it's a good idea to move windows temporary folder to ramdisk so as to reduce wear level?

Edit2:
Article from Tom's Hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778-4.html