The best Netbook for gaming.

That's what I'd like to know. Hopefully at the Windows 7 release there will be some better choices.

I'm hoping that we get something else with the same specs as Ferrari One but without the gaudy paint job and most likely inflated price because of the stickers and branding. Now that I've seen the specs for the dual-core Asus with the regular Ion, I'm interested in it, too.

Don't be fooled by what Notebookcheck says about the 4500mhd. You still have to jump through hoops to get it to work, and if the game isn't on Intel's short little list, it's probably not going to work. With ATI and NVidia, games work. I had an Acer 1410, and it isn't game friendly for even old games (KotOR 2, for example, ran terrible and crashed every time I went outside on Telos).

 

Yeah I just checked 4500mhd gaming videos on youtube, and even with 2.0 GHz machines many games ran like poo.

so its always either GPU or CPU.. We dont have anything yet that offers the optimal of both worlds.

 

For the time being, it looks like your best options are the HP dv2z or Acer Ferrari One. Although both are a little pricey. Personally I think $500 is the max price point for a "netbook". Although these machines we're discussing are really notebooks for all intents and purposes.

I am realizing with my Acer AS1410 that yes the 4500MHD is struggling to play much if anything, when it would work with the Lenovo I had with 4500MHD as well, granted a much stronger CPU.

 

I can stand by the DV2z being probably the best upsized netbook/supnotebook out there with the dual core. I could play Half Life 2 fairly well on it, as well as TF2. Right now I'm playing Aion at around medium settings with shadows off and it runs fairly smoothly, some slow down in areas with lots of stuff going on, but not too bad.

As far as I can see the only real problems the DV2z has are a sub 2.0ghz processor, and an older generation video card. The first company that gets a 2ghz dual core neo and something like a 4330 in their machine will probably own the title of gaming netbook/subnotebook.

 

Have you seen the Acer 3810TG?

13'' 1366x768
1,4 Dual Core
3 Gigs of Ram
500 GB Harddrive
4330 Ati Radeon( 2500 points in 3d mark 06... http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4330.13973.0.html )

no optical drive, and 6-8 hours of battery life. Besides the bigger footprint than the 11'' and 12'' this one looks as slim and light as them...

the problem?



Acer just made a major recall due to some error in them with overheating... f**king lol! :/


I just can't believe how many are so close, yet fail so hard. It's like many of these notebook manufactureres have NO idea what the consumer wants.

 

The other problem is that it's an Acer.


*ducks*

 

I have the same "attitude" towards Acer. I've always been told and understood that they made low quality products for cheap.

but this one.. its very slick and nice looking.

and the performance is unusually good..

check out how well COD5, Prototype, Resident Evil 5 and SF4 runs.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvTKWwbk67o I am very impressed by this.



And look at the asthetics... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE8tIRxD9Vk


it's a beautiful slim machine. the best looking acer I have ever seen.

and then they have to make it go recall.. goddamit acer.

 

Acer has changed, I am using one now. I used to dislike them and never could see myself buying one of their cheap and ugly looking machines, but they really have changed.

And forget the DV2, the HP DM3 will have Intel/AMD+Discrete graphics versions, and also the DM1 11.6" is supposed to get a dedicated graphics option too.

 

jayaye does your have the 4330?

have you had problem with the whole recall thing?

 

I agree the normal acer models are pretty cheap looking and feeling, but their media and Ferrari line are pretty nice systems. Unfortunatly the Ferrari line is usually just a nice built system with mediocre parts. Like a 9300m gs in a dell xps body. They are also usually on the pricey side, but thats seems to have changed with this new netbook. It seems like a great product at a very reasonable price.

 

I heard DM3 would only have 4500MHD?

 

Link

$549 for Athlon Neo X2/ATI 3200
$649 for Intel SU4100/GMA 4500

 

I think the DV2 will be better than the DM3. The processor and graphics chip you can get in it are a little better(Turion compared to Athlon). And of course the much better screen of the DV2, as well as smaller size make it a better option in my mind.

 

Plus the DV2 has better graphics options.

 

Asus 1201N with Ion and two N230's stuck together (aka the N330), available for pre order in US.

 

Bleh still nothing too awesome, I have been spoiled with my P300, ~3.5lbs, Core 2 Duo, 8600m GS, Win. Hoping to see sub $500 Ion + CULV, or something with i7 and 220M (wish they refreshed the P310)

 

Any other out or coming out soon? I the market for used and maybe a new one.

 

MSI U230 is another Congo-based netbook like the Acer Ferrari One sans the XGP but with a faster Neo and an HDMI port. Due out January in the U.S. same as the Ferrari One.

Lenovo x100e may be another to watch if it offers a dual-core Neo option.

 

I don't understand how people expect a "netbook" to game very well and still be 3 god dang pounds...

 

People expect a netbook to game like they expect a PSP to game. No one expects a PSP to run games like a console but they still want to play the best possible games on their hand-held.

No one expects a netbook to game as well as an SLI/Crossfire equipped laptop but if the netbook's got the best IGP/CPU the form factor can handle then it raises the level of games that can be played on the system.

 

I just want something that can do video playback well and play World of Warcraft from time to time when away from my notebook and desktop.

 

If you want to game on a Netbook, either get the Asus Eee PC 1201N with dual core Atom 330 with Nvidia 9400m or a AMD Neo based one with a ATI HD 3200 or better. (Not the ATI X12xx based ones)
Or wait for the next generation of Atom's with Intel GMA X3150.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! +1! We should sticky this quote everywhere. I hate when people say "netbooks can't game, why would you want to game on them anyhow" or something to that extent.

We just want the best options for that size netbook/notebook. It seems you always get part of the solution but not the full solution, although it's getting close. Looking like it'll need to be an 11.6" or 12.1" notebook to get the best cost/performance and we're already starting to see this with the low voltage dual core CPUs and lower end dedicated GPU's. I'm just waiting for the right one to cost less than $500 and I'm sold. Until then my Acer 1410 will have to do!

 

Well wife said I can get one for Xmas. Now I don't know what to get.

 

Looks like we may preorder the Asus 1201n. Not sure where we should do this. Any good sites?

 

I'm curious how well the 1201n performs. I ended up not liking Asus netbooks because their keyboards sucked. Granted the 12" should be a different story.

 

Should perform as well as your typical ION 330 nettop such as the ASRock or Zotac.

AnandTech.com ION 330 review

BCCHardware review of ASRock ION 330 Nettop

[Attachment Via AnandTech.com]

 

How about that compared with my Acer with Core 2 Solo 1.4 GHz (SU3500) and 4500MHD graphics? Sounds like the ION is a significant step over 4500MHD for 3D gaming, but I'd like to see some good benchies.

 

Well I did preorder one. No shipping eta but we will see. In the meantime I am still looking over stuff. No real reviews of the 1201n yet since not really out. I would hope some places get one soon to post some.

 

New Pinetrail netbooks to be around 12" and feature discrete graphics.

Link
Link 2

 

ION performs on par (usually slightly better) with a 9400M GT.
Which performs on par with an 8400M GS, though the 9400M GT is also slightly better.
Intel X4500 performs about 25% worse than the 8400M GS.

Sorry I don't have X4500 vs ION benches, but you can usually extrapolate about where things are going to rank up like this.

 

That seems odd. How can a 9 400m GT perform on par with an 8 400m GS?

I would think maybe more like an 8600m GS. Either way the 8400m GT is decently capable. Give you a couple more years in technology advancement over the 4500MHD anyways.

 

What do you guys think about the Samsung N510? Looks pretty nice but not dual core. Also has the ION LE which not sure what the difference is.

 

The Ion LE is just a Nvidia 9400m without DirectX 10, so that they could sell it with Windows XP SP3 on it.
But i heard you can "unlock" DirectX 10 on it if you get some modified drivers, but since its too slow to play Dx10 games i would not worry.

So for gaming either get a Atom with Ion graphics or the AMD Neo with ATI HD 3200 or better.
Seen that the single core AMD Neo MV-40 paired with a ATI HD 3200 IGP could play Tom Clancy's HawX, and even L4D. xD

 

Because most low end GPUs perform around the same range, the difference is almost negligible.
I don't believe there was an 8400M GT, but I could be wrong. Either way it's irrelevant, I am just basing my information on benchmarks that I have seen, not extrapolation based on pretty much irrelevant naming schemes.
IIRC, the difference between an 8400M GS and a 9400M GT is something like 5%

 

Acer Pinetrail+Ion 2 netbook coming.

 

We have another contender for best gaming netbook....the Onyko DX Dual-Screen Congo (MV-40 + HD3200) based netbook.



http://netbooked.net/blog/onkyo-one-ups-kohjinsha-with-1366-x-768-dual-display-netbook/

 

I think that would be the best netbook for CAD or something.
Gaming on dual screens = fail.

 

ha, that things crazy... i like it!

 

Onkyo netbook gaming with a 1.6 single core netbook (nerf) processor and an HD3200 at 1366x768 x2?

Seriously?
2732x768 on those specs?
I think we can honestly qualify that as a slideshow viewer not a gaming machine.

 

The 9400m is the combination of the 9100 integrated + 9300m gs dedicated.

 

Point is you cannot game on a netbook the way gaming was intended. This is why i hate netbooks.

 

It depends what one defines as "gaming". A computer game is still a computer game, even if it's from 2002 or older and arguably netbooks can run those pretty decently.

 

1201N vs Mini-311 Benchmarks

 

I can play minesweeper on my phone... thus it is a "gaming" computer yes?


We advise people with laptops with solid processing scoring under a certain level to not bother with gaming.

I think its safe to say gaming on a nerfed netbook processor with a nerfed graphics adapter to be "definitely not recommended" and that a dual-screen netbook doubling the pixels to shuffle is "silly" for a gaming machine.

People put expensive rims on rustbuckets and spoilers on their otherwise unmodified minivans as well...

/shrug

 

CULV, ION, or dual core Atom with ION?

 

Netbook with dual core atom + ION is exactly what I am waiting for. Well, that, and the price tag to be ~500.

 

Until some one designs a netbook specifically for gaming, I think there will always be something important missing whether it be a weak GPU or a crappy Atom paired with a good GPU.

 

By that logic you'd hate your Thinkpad T61 because it can't play games the way they were meant to be played...but that's probably not the case because you likely purchased a notebook with a Quadro Fx GPU for reasons other than playing the latest greatest games at their highest settings.

Just like people that purchase a CULV, Neo, or Atom based machine do so for other reasons....top ones being they're inexpensive, ultraportable, and make for a good secondary computer.

A phone that plays minesweeper is the best phone for gaming when every other phone can only play tic tac toe.

A notebook that can play games at 25 FPS is the best gaming notebook when all other notebooks are playing games at 24 FPS.

A netbook that has the highest CPU+GPU/IGP processing power in it's class is the best gaming netbook.

I advise people to get the most out of their laptops, netbooks, cars, and just about all their other purchases no matter what level the most is.

And I advise you to get it out of your head that people are looking for a netbook that will play the latest greatest games at the highest settings because the odds are the people interested in a netbook with the best gaming power in the class are serious enough about gaming that they already have a console, desktop, or highend notebook for that level of gaming.

 

Go Phinagle GO! GOOOOO PHINAGLE!