*HP Mini 311 Owners Lounge*

Considering Ion shares the memory with the CPU I would definitely upgrade to 3Gbs of RAM.

 

How is heat and fan noise?? Is the fan always ON? Is it loud?
I am very sensitive to fan noise and i'm hoping that this Hp is quite.

 

Wanted a netbook for awhile, windows 7 put me over the top. Here are the specs of my order:

HP Mini 311
• Black Swirl
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
• Intel(R) Atom(TM) Processor N280 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2, 667Mhz FSB)
• 2GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• NVIDIA ION with a 5-in-1 Digital Media slot (For the N280 processor)
• 11.6" diagonal HD LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1366 x 768)
• HP Mini Webcam
• Wireless-G Card
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• External LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Price: $579.98
Tax: $52.52
Shipping: $29.00

GRAND TOTAL: $661.50

Looked everywhere for a coupon but couldn't find one with the specs I wanted. Anyway, estimated ship on nov 12th, keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Well, if we're going to post specs I'll post mine too:

HP Mini 311
• Black Swirl
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
• Intel(R) Atom(TM) Processor N280 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2, 667Mhz FSB)
• 2GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• NVIDIA ION with a 5-in-1 Digital Media slot (For the N280 processor)
• 11.6" diagonal HD LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1366 x 768)
• HP Mini Webcam
• Wireless-G Card
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

APP price: $469.99
Tax:$29.94
Shipping:$29.00

GRAND TOTAL: $528.93
Arrives Nov. 11

I figured I wouldn't spend the extra on the hard drive just to still get a 5400 rpm, so I'll use that cash to buy a faster one later. Same goes for the ram, upgrade to 2 gb was cheap, but I can add the last 1 gb myself for alot less later.

 

I find it acceptable. I tried out the dm3 for a while but at peak loading the fan was too noticeable.

The fan on this isn't as noticeable while I'm playing games. In the bios it is set to 'always on' so even if it is idle the fan will be at its lowest setting and not off.

In a quiet room, you will notice it depending on your position. The fan draws air through the top left keyboard the most. I like it this way since i tend to put my laptop on my lap or other surface blocking airflow. But being above the laptop will get you to hearing the fan whirl.

Other than that it stays very cool!!

 

I was also wondering about fan and heat issues.
I am trying to decide between the 311 and the 5101. Any comments on this?
What about the build quality in the 311?
Is the 11.6 inch screen that much of a difference (as compared to the 10.1 in the 5101)?
And also, there are several versions with win xp around in the stores. Would those be later able to use the video upgrades to stream video from the internet?

Thanks for the info.

 

Anyone crazy enough to try Dragon Age on this one? I don't believe it would be playable, but if I had the money to purchase a copy, I'd give it a try. Well, I do have the money, but I won't purchase it until it hits the bargain bin. I have too many other games to beat and play. Currently playing KOTOR 1, which I will be playing KOTOR 2 after that, and I just might play Jade Empire after that... Then, who knows... King's Bounty Armoured Princess is coming out soon, if not already.

BTW - For those looking to get their LOTRO fix, this little netbook plays all Shadows of Angmar content pretty smooth. There are certain areas where the frame rate may dip below 30 or so, but for the most part, it is butter smooth. Moria, on the other hand, is a different story. Moria is still playable, but there are more delayed and slow downs at times when the action gets heavy.

King's Bounty: The Legend plays very well as well. Can even increase some of the settings. Plays around 25 frames per second or so on average in the main map. The battle map is easily 30+.

Battery life for me still remains a very high 5+ easily. Playing a game such as KOTOR with wifi off and screen brightness at 50%, I can get over 3 hours. LOTRO, with brightness at 30% or so Wifi on will get right around 3 hours flat on a full charge. Hulu, I never really measured.

On a side note, from what I have read about the DM3 is that even the SU7300 and the AMD Athlon Neo L625 still can't play normal Hulu on full screen as reported in the DM3 forums. Which is interesting, since those CPU's are quite a bit more powerful than the Atom. In order for it to be smooth on the Mini, you need to right click on the player and chose 'low' quality. Once that is done, the HP MINI 311 can play full screen decently. During fast action, it may drop some frames. But, you know what, this is SD hulu anyway, so it isn't a big deal if a frame drops every so often. HD Hulu is *NOT* playable in any way on the HP MINI 311. Once flash 10.1 hits and hulu updates their software player, things should be smooth for pretty much any of these netbooks overall. Not sure if GMA950 or GMA500 will handle GPU accellleration, I sort of doubt it, but they might. The 4500MHD and the 9400M and the HD3200 will all handle that just fine.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227492

Is this a good deal or what?
I think I'll get this for my laptop to fill the empty slot =)

Correct me if I'm wrong on the specs.

EDIT: btw the rebate works for only 1 purchase per household. Just read that part.

 

I've actually been questioning my battery life lately. I installed the free prgm BatteryBar and it measures pretty much exactly what real world gives me. I can't seem to get more than exactly 4 hours with normal surfing. This is with Win7 installed, 3 gigs ram, 280 proc, wifi on etc. I'm using the latest NVidia chipset and video drivers.

I wonder why I'm losing about an hour?

-TK

 

This is a little off topic from what others have said: Has anyone else tested out the nvidia ion le graphics driver modification?

I uninstalled the current video drivers and installed the drivers from here.

My WEI jumped a lot because of this(see attachment) FYI.

Apparently the ION LE is the exact same thing as the ION, but with DX10 disabled by drivers. With the above drivers you can enable the DX10 which makes your ION LE an ION. There is a big performance boost in games! HL2 & Portal saw huge performance boosts.

For those of you with the original drivers go to RUN and type DXDIAG. Next go to the display tab, and look at your DDI version on the right. It will say 9XX. With the modded drivers it will change to 10 and you will get the performance boost. Look at my attachment to see my dxdiag info.

Has anyone else done tested this? If so did you get the same results?

Also, did anyone ever get an overclock of the N280? I think the extra MHZ would add to FPS in CSS (15-20)and TF2(6-15).

-Trey

 

Hey, this is not quite what you're looking for but it worked really well for me:

Try disabling the trackpad clicking. You will only be able to click with the buttons below the trackpad but IMO it's the best solution (I just use a USB mouse when i am going to be using it for a while).

This solution kept me from deleting what I had just typed by not allowing me to accidentally select anything with the trackpad. Let me know what you think.

 

Correct but we're looking for a shortcut to doing that. Like myself I want ALPS to allow us to map a keyboard shortcut to disable the trackpad. Like another laptop, the shortcut was Fn+F7

 

I know the flash 10.1 will be coming out sometime before year end which will improve the quality of online video streaming. But what do you guys think it's the minimum hardware requirements to take advantage of the software update?

 

I am sure the 311 can handle flash with no issues once 10.1 comes out from what I have read online.

 

A question:
Will the 311 with Win XP be able to handle flash, after 10.1 is out?
There are several 311 selling for about 399, but with XP (instead of Win 7).
Thanks.

 

That all depends on how well Adobe integrates gpu acceleration. If it comes out the way we expect it, the 311 with XP should have no problems. Ion's graphic capabilities are much higher than intel's graphic solution.

 

Thanks SDASH.
I appreciate your response.
Just one more thing: I read somewhere there was a lot of flex in the keyboard and around the mouse pad. Is that correct?
I just haven't seen any 311 in display at the stores yet.
Thanks.

 

Hmm it wasn't noticeable until you pointed it out. The most flex I've noticed is around the top portion of the touchpad.

It doesn't seem so bad to me though.

 

I have looked at pictures and have read reviews indicating the Mini 311 is easy to upgrade. Will any 2.5" HDD/SSD work? Has anyone noticed if a 7200rpm drive affects the heat/fan noise?

I noticed that HP also sells a 80GB SSD as an upgrade.

 

Any standard 2.5" drive should fit.

Updating the 311 is a breeze - I bought the stock $399 model and immediately put in a 320GB 7,200rpm HD, additional 2GB Ram and did a clean install of Windows 7.

I only ran the 311 with the stock configuration a few times and from what I can see there is little difference to the heat - in fact this is one of the cooler HP laptops I have used ( I had a DM3 for a week and that was terrible for heat).

 

Which HD and ram did you put in your mini 311? If you can share a link would be great. Thanks.

 

I'm strongly considering buying a Mini 311 (hoping for a good Black Friday deal) and I see that HP is now offering an optional 80GB SSD. Does anyone know what brand/model this is? I'd certainly pay for one of the good Intel X25-M models, but I don't want to be charged a premium price for a junk drive. Thanks!

 

I put a Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7,200rpm Hard Drive in . .
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

The Ram was Crucial 2GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148316

These were the best prices I could find (also free shipping !).

 

One thing to note is that the laptop charger gets super hot while the 311 is just warm.

I think it's ok but I think the benefit is that the first to die is the charger and not the laptop. So we'd save money.

I've realized that it can't handle my days with school work. I work on Matlab and juggle that with its editor and figures while surfing the web and opening about 3+ pdf documents for viewing.

But I love using for what it can do. I popped in Age of Empires 3 and it's still pretty fun.

Overall experience: light games, low multitasking, high portability. I like carrying this for long hours. (4hours +- sleep)

 

Thanks for the link as I am planning on upgrading the HD. My question is.. I did a clean install of W7 already, so what are my options when upgrading the HD?
Can I do the clean install of W7 again or is that a one time thing??
If I can clone the HD, how is this done with the mini (as I have only done that when I was able to have the other HD installed already (desktop)...
thanks for any clarity!!

 

I am having serious trouble getting my HP Mini 311 to perform well. It runs DOOM 3 rather decent on ultra high(?!?!). It runs Flatout 2 with ease. Runs Madden '08 with ease on high. Runs NBA 2K9 decent on high. After playing all of the above as demos I went ahead and digitally purchased Tribes Vengeance and Unreal 2004. This system has serious problems with both of these games. Tribes is playable but a serious lag will happen when a battle first commences(like a whole .5 second freeze) followed by a drop in framerate. The same .5 second freeze occurs randomly when not in battle every now and then although the framerate is fine outside of battle. I was thinking this system would play Tribes flawlessly since it pretty much exceeds the minimum requirements. Mini 311 plays UT2004 horribly. Even on all low settings(which in turn makes Dreamcast graphics look modern) it struggled. Is it the online portion of games the Atom cannot handle or is it that the Atom is basically a Celeron from 2003? Now I am kind of worried about making other purchases... IL2 Sturmovik, HL2, STALKER: Chernobyl, Dreamfall, etc. Half-Life 2 demo did run well. Max Payne 2 ran well as well. I'm just kind of dissapointed a tid bit that I don't see any performance gains in most games when turning down the settings which is wierd. Even Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory... a game that was almost playable on my Celeron 633MHz, 384MB RAM, 32MB GeForce 2. Wolf ET on the Mini 311 is still unplayable on this system, only slightly better(15fps in battle, honestly).

System specs-
Mini 311
n280
3GB RAM(Crucial DDR3)
XP
Cable(consistantly get 300kb/s downloads from anywhere- 1mb/s from Direct2Drive- can't be my connection, heh).

Any tips or tweaks to get this running better?? I appreciate any help, no matter how negative the response is. Actually, the most negative response I assume I will get is probably something I already see coming... Atom sucks. I never thought a hyper-threaded 1.6GHz would run like a 1.0GHz Celeron. Most positive response would be some kinda tweak I don't know about... heh. I'll always support Nvidia so I didn't return it. I'll support anyone who makes Intel push out better product. I just wish I had the patience to save up for that AMD DV2Z but I have been computerless for well over a year... I'm sure you understand. I'm not anti-Intel, but dang... this Atom just doesn't perform very well with games and I do not know why. As I sit here and type this Tribes is running is the background. You'd think IE8 wouldn't even load with how bad it performs in Tribes but to the contrary, it loaded up fast and quick. I don't get it. Sorry for the lengthy post, hope this info was... uhhh... informational to potential buyers and yes, I am still pleased with the system, but it doesn't perform up to what I thought it would.

If necessary, I would download 3D Mark 06 to see if my system is actually running okay. Well, actually I'll do that right now and post back in a minute. I shoulda did that first. Thanks for the read bro.

 

Okay, I do not think anything is amiss. I get 1672 in 3DMARK06 with a 516 CPU score. Very comparable to Archangels post long time ago in old forum. Darn. Is there anything to do? I was hoping it was just my system that couldn't play Tribes... erg. Does anybody think a future driver update from anyone(HP or NVIDIA) will increase performance at all? Sorry is I wasted anybodies time with my post.

 

Mini can't handle Unreal 2004 but able to play 2k9 on high? I wonder why?

 

Comparing the size of the areas in both games(an arena versus a battlefield) I'd have to go with the argument that it is the processors fault.

It's like if in an FPS the game runs good indoors but runs bad in large outdoor areas, it'd mean your GPU is not to fault but the CPU.

 

I'm wondering what resolution do you use when you play NBA2k? Does the game lag at all?

 

I cannot get an exact FPS and the demo was offline play only but it does get what looks like a constant 20-25 FPS to me. Again, small area to draw, no online... no real CPU tax. Why the game lists such a high processor speed as a minimuum requirement is beyond me. It runs fine offline, so the requirement is probably for online. ION handles it like it owns it offline(for such a bad CPU).

 

I think I am going to try MLB 2K10 for the heck of it. I already know my 311 is gonna be hot on my lap just loading it but I am doing it because you seemed suprised that the GPU is that good. It's the CPU that shouldn't even still be in existance but is that is the problem... even for old games. Dual-core 1.8 Atom would be awesome. I'd rather have a single-core 2.0 though.

 

Thank you for testing all those games out. I have a question, the mini 311 has resolution of 1366 x 768, so does that mean you cannot play a game higher than that resolution?

 

There is not MLB 2K10 demo, but 2K9 runs playable to my suprise. Same as NBA 2K9, 20-25 fps. Batting is very fluid at 25 fps easy. Fielding is nice 20-25. I would actually buy this game but I couldn't get the batting controls to work no matter what I changed "swing" to be binded to and menus are really choppy and buggy. Wierd. Yeah, games like these can be run because it's all RAM and GPU tax pretty much. Me saying that doesn't mean the CPU isn't used barely, it is used A LOT! Just not as much as a large game full of instructions and a great many possibilities like Crysis or online games. MLB 2K9 and NBA 2K9 are playable offline at highets setting at NATIVE resolution and they look sweet! Just don't exspect silky smoothness nor a slide-show, because they DO NOT run like that. They run in between at a nice playable constant.

 

Absolutly not. A screen's stated resolution on it's spec sheet is called it's "native" resoution. You can play lower resolutions but never higher.

 

Just a quick follow up, the mini 311 has a HDMI output, so if I play game on my netbook with a resolution less than or equal to 1366 x 768 then connect it to my HD tv, the graphics will be stretched out in a way? Like not as clear and somewhat blurry?

 

I'm sot sure on that one. Gonna have to ask somebody else. If your planning on using a Mini 311 as a gaming console, you should wait until early/mid next year when some better 11.6 machines start coming out. I would get a DV2Z if I were you as long as you are not concerned about battery life. All kinds of options are out there if you look hard. AMD's new lineup(Vision, etc), Acer Ferrari, etc, ION2, Congo succesors, etc... Buy a Mini 311 for fun, not seriousness. It is a nice little toy and worth the money I guess.

BTW- Just bought WarCraft3 and it works without a hitch.

 

I don't think I will be using the mini 311 as a gaming netbook. I'm glad to hear that it can handle nba2k9 pretty well, hopefully it's the same for nba2k10. Because that's pretty much the only game I will be playing.

 

It might handle it the same. I will check that one out for you. Give me about an hour from this post and I will check 2K10(I know for a fact that there is a 2K10 demo, unlike my other post where I thought there was a 2K10 baseball demo... heh. I get confused so much from reading about gaming all the time. Read up in an hour or two as I will check 2K10. Don't expect online playability though. I wish primariliy console publishers/developers would put online play in their demos as PC pubs/devs do so we could assess the performance but they do not. That is just one reason I do not like console... bad Q/A depts.

 

My fault. It is for sale at digital download... not demo. I cannot try yet. Sorry.

 

Check this for video. http://www.youtube.com/user/stamstibibi07

Please keep in mind that FRAPS makes it look like 5-10 FPS. This game DOES run at 20-25 FPS without FRAPS!!! I cannot reiterate that enough. This is also very low quality video... originials were 170 to 223 MB.

 

Thanks for the video. I have already ordered a mini 311. I will play with it when I get it. The big concern for me is online video streaming. I can't wait till the flash 10.1 to come out.

 

Yeah, video streaming(high-def, or std-def on bad site) is pretty much the same as my old 1GHz GeForce2 setup. 10.1 Flash should instantly fix that. This GPU isnt the best in the world, but not long ago (2 years ago??) it would have been.

 

=/ too bad two years ago there weren't that many great games I'd still play today.

 

Can the Media Center remote work on the 311? I did the clean install of W7 and am wondering if there is a driver I need to download...
thanks!

 

Hi All :mrgreen:


I am in South Africa and just recieved my Compaq Mini 311 N270/1Gb/ION Le/XP Home

To my knowledge the Compaq and HP mini 311 are identical, just aimed at the europe and US markets respectively. Is this correct?

I was on the fence between getting a 13" laptop or this stunner(mini 311) and after seeing the following Video I decided to go with the mini :mrgreen:



In the video, the upscaling capabilities of the ION gpu are explored and the reviewer in the video remarks that the mini 311 comes bundled with Arcsofts TotalMedia Theatre (Platinum I assume as he says its costs $99).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRCG1eOBLg8&feature=player_embedded

After setting up my new beauty I started looking for the software in the programs menu and found it not to be there, I then searched for it and found its installer to be in C:/SWsetup/ATMT/ArcSoftTotalMedia.exe
I was happy to find it, but upon clicking on the installer I was confronted with an error stating "Setup detects that the system does not have HP compatible hardware. Setup will now abort. For more information, Please contact HP" :cry:

So propmtly contacted HP support and they questioned my honestly :evil: saying the software does not come bundled with this model, as there is no documentation suggesting so, and I realized they are right. As I have not found a single HP/Compaq document that says this softwae is bundled, and yet there it is, in the software folder on my hard drive

I did a search on this part of the forum and found no results, so I am wondering if anyone else is even aware of this software being bundled with our netbooks?

I think we should get it working as if its there and it saves us $100 its worth it right?


Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

Preview/Review of Flash 10.1 with HP Mini 311 among other configurations tested.

 

YAYYY, something to play with tonight

 

I have ION LE since i have xp on my 311. I will try it, when i have time to play with it.

If any one tried it already on XP version, post some input please.

EDIT: i didnt read far enough, just realize they tested it and it worked fine. All is left now is, for me to try.

EDIT2: Just installed it, worked perfectly, there number are dead on on cpu usage with and without 10.1 flash.

 

^^ Ditto.

I just installed and tried it out. Seems to be working just fine.

Now if I could just figure out my stupid audio stutter problem.