The best Netbook for gaming.

Do you know how hot does single core Atom run?

 

At full load, the N270 or N280 uses 2.5W of power. The upcoming N450 will use much less.

 

I actually asked about temps.

 

In my N10J they get about 70C tops with overclock. It's a 125C chip too. Many netbooks don't even use a heatsink, or just a small one, it's that energy efficient.

 

Hmmm... I read people remove fans to make their netbooks totally silent with only 5-7 'C degrees increase. So I assume dual Atom won't run twice as hot as single one. Besides, Atom 330 heatsink is probably bigger then single one, so I wouldn't worry about the temps at all. I'd take 330 over N270/N280 anytime of the day.

 

Problem is, of course with nettop (330) CPU is battery life. N270/280 are 2.5W max with 600mW avg, 330 is 8W max. But put that sucker in a regular 12 or 13" notebook chassis it's definitely better than any other dual core ATI or Intel make concerning power usage.

 

Except the SU9300, SU9400, and SU9600 which all use 10W max.

 

10W is a lot more than 2.5W. Depending on what kind of power it can provide though, may be worth it. Granted. I still think 10" is a little small. If they can put this in a 12" with a 6-cell total battery life should be reasonable.

 

Asus N10Jh is coming in tomorrow...

 

Nice! Share your thoughts! Do some benchmarking too. Vanilla 3DMark06 will do fine.

BTW, I love this thread. Great discussion from lots of knowledgeable people. We all need to drink together and have these discussions. Nothing like a bunch of geeks at a bar.

 

Aug 6, 2009 4:15 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery

 

Its funny, can't bring myself to pull the trigger on the N10J. It'll suit my needs perfectly for everyday stuff whilst at work and out and about. But when I get sent up North for work purposes for a few weeks at a time, I feel like I need something with a DVD drive for movies, and a bit more grunt for playing games. So I look at the Asus F6Ve, but its double the price, and for the vast majority of the time, will be a waste... hehe, can't win!

 

There's only one solution, and that's to have multiple laptops!

 

lose that job.

 

This thread just makes me think of this kid the other day who tried to race me in a prius, lol

 

^ What are you trying to say?

 

The point of a prius (and a netbook) is to use very little fuel (power) and to have very little max power available...using a prius for racing is like using a netbook for gaming...

 

How does the Gateway's LT3103u with the Radeon X1270 graphics fare in gaming?

 

Meemat, thats a bit ufair.

i have a gaming notebook, but i would love play games like Doom 3, Starcraft, Half-Life 1/2, team fortress, and Left 4 dead on the go.

that why me as a consumer likes the idea of a gaming netbook.

I mean think about it. A psp, DS, or iphone could never touch a full fleged netbook for gaming on the go.

 

Depends what kind of games you play on each.
I play pretty much all online FPS games. A gaming netbook has little value to me.
But I love a quick puzzle or platformer game on the go. Which is why my PSP loaded with emulators and old games is awesome. A netbook couldn't touch what I do with my PSP, mainly because of battery life and size/weight.

 

Just like Hep said, I understand that you'd wanna play games, but it's also important to think about battery life; sometimes you'll just have to adjust which games you wanna play (for me, my t400 will be okay playing stuff like warcraft 3, plants versus zombies, and maybe some older rts games) instead of fps games.

That's why something like the DS doesn't really try to offer the same titles (or quality of graphics) as something even like the PSP does; they're simply different (with default firmware, at least). I always feel like the DS is made for lighter, less graphically intense games that (for me) often end up being more fun since they're not trying to squeeze out more performance than their size/power limitations will allow and instead are simply different kinds of games.

Either way, it was just a joke

 

You don't need M3 to go to the grocery store, do you?

 

Thats a good question, what M car do you havE?

 

I don't have an M, but I do have an E46 custom Hamann widebody with Forgeline SO3P wheels.

 

Haw, I wish I had an M3, but to be honest it wouldn't be my daily driver for sure. I don't think I'd be able to use all that power, unless there was a lettuce emergency.

The reality is that with the expense of cars, I'd probably only end up with one (perhaps overpowered) car, but this isn't a fair comparison at all. I understand that maybe someone could want to have something portable that can play games too, but at the prices netbooks go for, why can't you have both?

 

Asus has a 12" Ion netbook coming:

 

I'm waiting for the day when I can remotely control my desktop with a netbook and have it stream media and games, just like if my 50lb desktop was with me.

 

thats nice and all but technically thats a laptop

I buy a netbook for xtreme portibility, not for anything extremely processor or graphics intensive, maybe some diablo 2 or hulu here and there but I goit my g50vt a1 for gaming, a gaming netbook is pushing it

 

After experiencing the N270 for quite a bit with my N10J, I have to say that it is quite capable for most tasks. But in general, I was disappointed with the poor Flash performance, namely Hulu and YouTube. I'd much rather see a single core Pentium-M than the Atom. If they ever managed to offer a decent instruction set in an Atom chip to process Flash efficiently, plus with an overall faster clock speed of 2.0GHz or higher, then that would be an awesome netbook.

That being said, the $499 price point is awfully appetizing for a 12". I might consider this for my wife since she doesn't need a whole lot of power but wants something small and light and cheap. But it all depends on how it handles YouTube and Hulu, because she uses those fairly frequently.

Also interesting is how they plan on offering Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Starter with the 12". I'm assuming this would be 1366x768 resolution instead of the awkward 1024x600? I hope so at least.

 

What's the deal with all the ION systems using an N270? That's the main thing keeping me from buying, no N280. I know the difference is minimal, but I do care.

 

Oh me too then one will actually be worth it (i had one for a while but i sold it for the same price)

 

I don't know either. I also don't understand why they bothered with the N280. The performance difference is not substantial enough to merit the cost of tooling IMHO. But considering the anemic power of the Atom, every tiny bit helps.

Considering the Atom in my N10J overclocked so easily to 2.1GHz, and most others to 2.0GHz no problem, it seems after this amount of time in production, they could start offering factory clocked 2.0GHz chips. That would help things immensely.

 

Anyone try gaming on a via nano....much better then a atom/gma combo!

 

The Z550 is 2GHz.

 

So are there any dual-core netbooks with cards better than the GMA 945 out there? I was thinking about one that could at times output to a monitor, external keyboard, and mouse, and yet be small and portable for school, internet and other uses. Not looking to play Crysis, but some RTS and TBS games I would like to be able to play. The N10 doesn't look bad, but I'm concerned about the single-core processor, seeing as I like strategy games.

 

But which netbooks use it? Weren't the Z line lacking features and/or have generally worse performance than the N line?

I can't recall. But based on Wikipedia they are nearly identical. Again, why the different chips? And why is the N270/280 used primarily instead of the Z series?

 

Z series processors are more expensive and Intel mainly intended them to be used in MID's, not netbooks.

 

Ok, so back to my original question. Curious as to why Intel doesn't market a 2.0GHz N270 or N280 since their yields seem to allow for overclock at that speed without issue.

 

hey whatever happened to someone doing a 3dmark06 on the newest n10 model(the one with the new geforce 102 and n280)?

 

N10JH is $700, you should get Vista, XP, and Windows 7 with it.

 

So does the Lenovo S12 have an ION in it yet? If so, would that make it better than an N10J?

 

I think the S12 has to wait for Win 7 before it can get ION because of the new netbook restrictions.

 

Yeah, OK. Well, I'm still waiting for a ION netbook with a Dual-core Atom. Anyone have any idea as to when one will be released? Happy to wait 6 months if I must.

 

I have no idea why everyone thinks a dual core Atom is coming. Its not. Especially with the re-introduction of low power dual cores as Culv's, dual core Atom in a netbook is not coming anytime soon.

 

So when will there be any processors in netbooks that are better than the 1.6Ghz. Atom? I'd like to play a few strategy games on the go, and they ones I play tend to demand CPU more so than graphics, so the ion should suffice.

 

There already are. The N280 is 1.66GHz with a 667mhz FSB, the Z540 is 1.86GHz, and the Z550 is 2GHz. Coming in Jan 2010 is the Pinetrail platform that will feature the new 64-bit N450 1.66GHz processor with a built in gpu.

 

if your talking 12 inch notebooks,look at the AMD Neo

 

Found another one, the new N470 which will be 1.83GHz. Maybe there will be a 2GHz N490.

 

"The CPU itself has 6.5W TPD"(which I assume its really 6.5W TDP not TPD )

Another proof that Pineview uses different GPU from Lincroft(in Moorestown). 2.5W CPU + 4W GMCH = 6.5W combined TDP

What power reductions will be there then you might ask??

Well, integration to the CPU allows faster p/c-state switching which will allow lower real world power usage. I assume it'll be similar to what Lynnfield will offer for power reductions, in the range of 15-25%.

You know why that won't happen?? Because the Dual Core Atoms are for Nettops and have a TDP of 8W. If its that high the manufacturers might as well opt for a much better performing Core 2 instead.

 

^^^^ Pinetrail uses a 200mhz clocked GMA 500.