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

I'll let you know next week when I swap my mine in.

 

Hey all, I've been following this thread for several days now. I picked up my 522 on Tuesday at Best Buy in Toronto.

After the price drop, i returned and was refunded ~$33, just had to bring the receipt.

Today i upgraded the ram to 2gb (i was gonna go for the 4gb, but changed my mind as it had yet to be confirmed to register 4gb.)

For everyones reference, i installed this:

Mushkin Essentials 2GB DDR3 1066MHz CL7 SODIMM (991643) | Canada Computers

and confirmed in the BIOS that it reads it correctly.

Lovin this little netbook, and hope you all are too!
Thanks for all the info so far, and i'll continue to check back for anymore updates (waiting for that overclocking to happen too )

 

How easy was it to replace the RAM module? Did you accidentally scratch the unit while doing so? I too bought one from Bestbuy last night.

Thank you.

 

It wasn't very difficult, I made no scratches/made no damage at all.

The keyboard was abit difficult to take out, because i was scared to break it.

Watch this video for reference:
http://www.ramfor.com/ram-upgrade/acer-aspire-one-d255-ram-upgrade/

Once those top "clips" have been pushed in, the keyboard pops up abit,then you have to pull up on the board to get past the side ones, as they don't "go in" like the top ones; you'll know what i mean when/if you try it!

Hope that helps! let me know how it goes! (if you try)

 

If you read on the comment in Amazon review, that guy bought this ram (1X4GB Corsair) and it works on his 522
Amazon.com: Corsair 4 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9: Electronics
But windows can only use 3.4GB because of 32bit limit
Currently no driver for X64 yet on 522 so I guess you are stuck with 32bit OS for now.

@Shadowfate
Eagerly awaits your result!

Asus one will include their SuperHybrid Engine (cpu oc software, but frequency is fixed), hopefully SetFSB could be updated with APU.

Someone tested Toshiba NB550D (with C-50 as well) and it can play DMC4 & COD4 @ 800X480 ~60fps, NBA2K11 @ 800X480 40-50fps and NFS:Hot Persuit @15-20fps 800X600

 

So I'm in the market for a netbook, but should I hop on this one or wait for a zacate netbook? All I wanna do is school work and watch my movies and stuff on it.

 

You could buy HP DM1z from HP store right now which is Zacate powered, if size and money is not that much concern then DM1z is better with much better performance

 

just ordered that RAM. will post back when I get it.

x64 drivers are included in the laptop. It's all in the "OEM" folder. back up that folder before you do a fresh install.

 

Thanks for letting us know that 4GB modules will work. I am hoping Mushkins will do the trick since the Canada Computer stores in Canada have a 4GB Corsair but with a different model number and the Muskins are $3-4 cheaper.

Thanks for the tip. Will definitely look into a 4GB upgrade.

 

Ok, I can now *CONFIRM* that 4GB works and is recognized in the Bios (and Windows 7 Starter too but it says only 2.00/4.00GB installed are usable.. damn Starter!). I just upgraded my unit to 4GB of Mushkin PC3-8500 ram. The part number on this particular ram is 991644. Now to upgrade to Windows 7 x64!

 

Awesome news about the 4GB of RAM.

Can someone throw the x64 drivers on megaupload or the like? I didn't grab them from the OEM folder before removing it and I can only find the x86 drivers online.

 

If money is an issue then get this. It will be fine handling office and movies.

1080p movies are a piece of cake for this machine.

If not you might want to check the DM1z.

I bought mine because money was a bit of an issue and I like something light.
(And the fact that I am going to be one of the first with an APU, been waiting to have fusion the first time AMD said they plan on building it)

Currently installing Dynasty

 

Ok Dynasty warriors online at default settings

800x600
4x AA(Yeah default setting that has 4x AA)
Fine Texture
Normal (setting i forgot)

First battle has me around 18-22 FPS. There are FPS drops but it was definitely playable with only a few noticeable Drops.

I havent tried playing again since I plan to play this on my main RIG

Will try to play again later with lowest setting I can get.

Question about Dynasty

Is this BETA Phase or is the game REALLY Free????

 

The game is free to play, hence the item mall

thanks for the feedback! Does the game have 1280X720 setting on 522?

So did it hook on you?

 

yep you can change the setting to 720p. Although the FPS drop is quite big

I'll probably play that when I have time LOL. I'll concentrate on Dead Space 2 First.

 

here's the whole driver folder.
Free File Hosting, Online Storage &amp File Upload with FileServe

 

just picked this netbook up today at bestbuy.

is it me or does it only have one speaker on left hand side?

ive gone threw all speaker options ect but cant get any sound out of right hand side.

ps: with headphones im getting both right and left hand sound...

edit...humm been searching and found a couple reviews (link to one below) saying it only has one speaker ....."As far as battery life goes, it’s rated at just 6 hours. You’ll find only one speaker built-in, too."...can anyone confirm...

http://www.triviaburst.com/blog/2010/12/23/acer-aspire-one-522-features-amd-fusion-chip-leaks-ahead-of-unknown-launch-date/

 

Yeah there is only mono speaker with Acer 522 it seems

 

Yup only one speaker. One of the bad traits of this good machine.

 

ah thanks guys...glad i dont have to take back...got for great price at bb $269

shadow...

i noticed you did a clean install of win 7...

-did you delete hidden partition? (ive made restore dvd's 3 and program/drivers dvd 1)

-did you use win 7 starter # on bottom of netbook and then activate? (with restore dvd's it's pre activated already)

-im guessing a clean install would help? i deleted mcafee (will use ms free one),acer reg,acer games,bing bar,ebay,esobi,win locker,norton online,acer welcome...anything else i can delete?

-if i want to run threw tv should i use hdmi cable...or vga to vga cord?

 

I didnt delete the partition.Using only a few MB does not really bother me.

I dont think that it will start if you use WIn7 starter Key LOL

A clean install would really help. Everything was more responsive after i reformatted

HDMI, VGA to VGA would only output Video while HDMI would output audio as well. You wouldnt want to be stuck with the ultraportables stereo hahahah

 

Hey Shadowfate, thx again for all these answers and comments !

good news for the 4GB !

I do have another question about that little AO522 ...
how does it deal with photo editing ?

and ... has anyone tried to install a linux os on it ?

 

Sorry I have not yet tried this.

Although if Photo "Viewing" is of any indication then it may have some difficulty when dealing with High resolution pictures.

Hmmm I dont think anyone here posted there Linux experience here.

Sorry

 

shadow...yes thxs for all the info

so if i did a clean install any idea how to activate? (would perfer not to have to use loader hack) or did you try arb? activation backup and restore?

ABR (Activation Backup and Restore) | directedge.us

 

I am back because i have an idea which is not that stupid

For the AAO 522, could you do a video test to show the performances ? The FPS are pretty significative but a video is far better to know if it is enough for us

Thank you if you do it, thank if you wont do it, thank you to read it and answer

 

That's fantastic. Thanks a lot!

 

What folders exactly should I save before formatting? Even if it's just for the drivers.

Also, another annoyance I found is that the HDD is taped and glued down with shielding tape/plastic and the only way to get it out, and reuse the enclosure, it to break the shielding, likely voiding the warranty. Found a great price on a Momentus XT drive but I'll probably take it back now...

Also, here's a screenshot I took to show that Windows sees all 4GB I've installed (so does the bios but I won't include a picture of that too).



EDIT: Just refreshed my WEI (forgot to do that after the ram upgrade as seen in the picture) and my ram score went from a 3.9 to a 4.9!

 

I'm sorry but i dont know anything about this

I thought of that but using FRAPS. I am already CPU deprived using other software would make it look like the machine is worse than what I am reporting

Hmmm but you need to upgrade to 64 bit. Only 2GB is usable

 

Ok, thank you ! But, at least, can you just shot it with your camera without the fps, just to see if it is smooth ? ( numbers are so strong they can make us think it is not good ... but it can be good ! )

 

I'll try but it is going to take a while. I dont have any access to a Good camera right now.

 

Ok, it is already super cool to do this ! Really !

 

I stated in a previous post that I was upgrading, hence my question about which folders to save, and after installing the 4GB ram I've decided on an x64 version (got my free CD key from MS last night for the install). 2GB is the limit of Starter, which is lame as other 32bit versions of W7 at least handle ~3.5GB.

 

What a nice little system! And a great price too.

I'd also like to see some youtube reviews of this little guy.

 

Can anyone tell me what the wifi chipset is?

 

Hey,

Has anyone tried something like world of warcraft with one of these?

 

Atheros AR5B95 Wireless Network Adapter

 

humm under my network adapters in device manager

Atheros AR8152/8158 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)
Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter

 

So here are my discoveries about the Acer Aspire 522 1GB version!

Specs:
Processor c-50
Ram: DDR3 1GB
Operating System -> Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgraded from starter)
Power Settings: Balanced

(Removed all the bloat wear and disabling all the crap from starting up when netbook is turned on through msconfig. )

Boot Up Time:
Takes 50 seconds to boot up
(From power button press to when windows makes that welcome sound)

I find the computer to be a bit unresponsive to be honest.

Example: going to youtube
8 seconds from clicking on someones youtube clip to page load up. Not to mention, youtube and vimeo load a bit slow tbh.

What attracted me to this laptop was screen resolution of 1280 x 720 and ofcourse 720p playback.

youtube 720p videos play smoothly, but ive tried transfering over a 720p blueray movie which doesnt play at all.

Now I thought 720p HD play back meant 720p for dvd and blueray, but apparently 720p blueray is not playable.

I think the 1ghz processor is definitely a bottleneck as i owned a samsung with an n450 processor that was relatively good when handling browsing, load times of programs (itunes/ msn / cs4). Downside being that it could not play 720p youtube videos and the 1024 x 600 resolution was not that great. However, the acer 522 is noticably laggy when using CS4 (You can notice this when using the brush tool) and the system in general feels a bit more sluggish in comparison.

I'm not sure if I will be keeping this netbook, the 279 price tag at best buy in toronto was a convincing price. The screen is beautiful, design is beautiful, it's thin and the keyboard layout is perfect but my main problem with this is that performance wise for overall computer use it feels slower than the atom n450. Is this just me or has anyone noticed this?

In addition, I tried to stream the NHL all star game today using a 900k live stream source and the hdmi out. It was watchable on my big screen and if i were to guess the frames it was probably bouncing around 20-24 frames per second (24frames being movie standard) and at some points it was just a bit choppy and I guess at those points the frame dropped to 20. At the same time I had my desktop laptop streaming the same video and on the same wireless connection and it was flawless, so it was definitely the netbook.

It could definitely use an extra omph in processing speed and I think the culprit for the sluggishness is the 1ghz processor. It would be nice to clock this a bit higher, maybe to it's nearest brother the c-30 (1.2ghz) or stretch it even further and see if you could get this to 1.4. I know someone talked about overclocking it, I'm not sure if it's possible at the moment but I would definitely try it.

I would like to see the peformance difference and thats mainly my biggest hope for keeping this netbook, otherwise I think i might just return it and wait for the amd e-350 on a 10.1 size. As far as i know, the e-350 is only on the 11incher, anyone know of a 10incher e-350?

 

abr is program that copies your acer activation...you run "activation_backup" from a usb key,then do a clean install of windows starter (has to be same win version as when you run program) then from same usb key you run "activation restore" and your acer will be activated...

 

@Will
I think the slowness you feel is GREATLY attributed to the 1GB RAM that you have

256 mb is already for the GPU and the other 600MB would be the default for the OS. That leaves you with only a little left for other programs.

As for Blu-ray. I only tested mine playing 1080p music videos in mkv format.

Although it is advertised that APUs can in fact play Bluray Discs.

 

I can't seem to get mine to play 720p mkvs over wifi. I'm gonna copy some stuff locally and see what happens. My wireless G router sucks balls so I'm hoping that's the issue.

 

I don't think it will run well. You could probably get it to run low res low settings but with only 1gig ram stock and a dual core 1.0ghz processor is going to be very capable. WoW is pretty lightweight at it's best but is pretty cpu bound to get away with this. You may be able to run pretty barebones.

 

willie..

32 sec from off to win sound
4 secs from clicking utube vid

so far what ive done...

-redid default full restore (alt f-10)
-i dont connect to internet until i delete crap
mcafee,esobi,winlocker,norton online,bing bar,ebay,,win live,office starter,acer reg-games-welcome-vcm
-delete skype in folders
-i turn off areo ect in performance settings (use just smooth scroll,smooth edge fonts,show thumbnails)
-then in win basic i turn up all fonts to 12
-in win explorer file manager i turn off detail pane,in folder options i turn on hidden items ect
-i then connect to wifi and run updates,then again and again until no longer need any
-i install microsoft security essentials
-then update explorer flash,adobe arobat,web cam
-then i install cc cleaner and run cleaner and reg items

-i then made image using macrium reflect free imaging program

ps: em going to try clean install of win starter and using abr program to reactivate (see above post) and install drivers and web cam program ect from made e recovery driver/program dvd


but as it..i find this little netbook great! mines running np...played a couple utubes vids in 720 threw tv and working perfect........

 

hmm, i guess i will try removing mcafee too then, and upgrading the ram to 2gb.

As for mkv files, i've tried a mkv file, more specifically
Star.Trek.2009.BluRay.720p.mkv 6gb using vlc or windows media player classic. no luck at all.

 

Performance increase from 1GB to 2GB
Orgammar: from 0.4fps to 1xfps (yes 0.4fps with 1GB)
field: from 2xfps in low quality to 30 fps in fair/good quality

Everything is responsive with 2GB of ram, 1GB is a bit sluggish in Windows
C-50 1.0 is faster than any single core atom, it is the RAM that is the problem.

 

when playing the video on media player classic, does it say DXVA at the bottom?

 

@ akop2
naw the info im given is
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720 25.00fps
in properties while playing the movie

 

it should look like this.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

are you using this player?
Media Player Classic - Home Cinema - Video Player

 

hmm strange. I downloaded the exact one you have in your post but it only says "Playing"

I didnt have the Home cinema version i think i had donwloaded a random Media player classic.

the film plays now but i have no sound lol. Thanks for the advice though, im sure it has to do with the " Direct x end-user runtime not up to date" error i got at the starting, ill try to find a fix to that and let you know how it went

 

download and update directx from here.

dl "DirectX End-User Runtime"
Microsoft Download Center: Download Category Search Results