Three Slim Atom/Ion 2-Based Nettop PCs Compared

[cleeve]

We put Giada’s Slim-N20, Jetway’s Mini-TOP, and Zotac’s ZBOX to the test. Does Intel's Atom D500-series offer smooth performance in these nettops when it's paired with Nvidia’s ION 2 graphics, or does the platform fall short of entertainment excellence?

Three Slim Atom/Ion 2-Based Nettop PCs Compared : Read more

 

[reprotected]

Nettops fail.

 

[DjEaZy]

... it may be a good mac mini hackentosch...

 

[hmp_goose]

Retest the N20's playback with a RAM drive for the temp files; I suspect the drive system is the issue . . .

 

[dEAne]

Overall it is good. The benchmark is fair enough - And it is presentable too.

 

[cushgod]

SHould test results with a SSD complared to a "mechanical" HDD to see how much that can help an Atom move along

 

[fullcircle_bflo]

So if I wanted a computer simply to stream internet videos to a television via HDMI(such as Hulu or CBS website), would any of these be a good candidate?

 

[kriminal]

^^ guess so.. fullcircle

 

[mchuf]

For $150 - $200, you can buy a used Pentium D or C2D pc off of craigslist. Add a $50 HD5450 gpu and a $40 wireless KB/M combo and your all set. That would be a more capable box than one of these things and at a lower price (even if you upgrade to Win 7 HP). Hell, even a used Mac Mini (old model) might be a more cost effective solution. Unless you're extremely tight for space, I don't see the appeal for an overpriced "net" device.

 

[nonameworks]

^^ Only if you ignore the cost of electricity

 

[tipoo]

Zino HD review, please! At close to the cost of many of these nettops, it blows them away in performance and is almost as small and consumes almost as little power.

 

[azcoyote]

I would love one of these for only one reason. To get rid of the clunky box I let my kids play noggin.com games on. Not sure they have enough guts for the pig that is Flash though.

 

[Guest]

The last page seems to imply that the Zotac box is the only one of the group lacking TrueHD. Is that correct?

 

[gs92110]

Recently connected my Gateway 17" laptop to TV by HDMI, it works fine, but a large footprint, might be interested in one of these little Nettops, "IF" they would let me surf/email/streaming videos to TV[without pixelation messing up the videos]...I don't expect much, but need these features...

 

[ethaniel]

Good read, and a good thing that you opened all of them.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

I'll pass on Nettops until they can easily handle games like Metro 2033 and Crysis with the highest settings.

 

[ProDigit10]

Jetway mini has slower readings because it's harddrive is massively slower!
I'd replace it with an SSD, and do the tests again, and see how it'll outperform the other nettop platforms..

 

[Sandburner20]

Interesting that the D510 system can't play Flash video fullscreen. I have run into the exact same problem with the Shuttle D510 system. Even more interesting that the D525 can. Could this be a timing issue with the D510 since the FSB is apparently different?

 

[JohnMD1022]

We can scratch the Giada immediately.

Why you ask?

A Seagate drive.

Can anyone remember the Yugo? That's Seagate.

 

[naturalandtech]

ASRock always rock! especially Vision 3D Series coming with:
# Intel® Core™ i7 / i5 / i3 Mobile Processor Family
# 2 x 2GB DDR3-1066MHz
# NVIDIA® GeForce GT425M Graphics, NVIDIA® 3D Vision, 3DTV Play Capable
# 2T2R WiFi 802.11b/g/n
# 3 x USB 3.0
# 7.1 CH HD Audio with THX TruStudio Pro™
soon it will be on my hand,,, muhaha

 

[teeth_03]

Your USB port totals are a bit off when you are forgetting the eSATA combo ports. So the Giada actually has 3, not 2, and so fourth.

 

[BulkZerker]

[citation][nom]greghome[/nom]Still wouldn't buy a netbook until at least FUsion is released[/citation]

Just buy one with the AMD Neo chip(s) atoms suck for anything more than basic browsing.

 

[Lutfij]

netbooks...worth it or worthless?

worthless to people who know whats going on in them. worth it for those who have a life less ordinary.

 

[wanderlustx2]

I guess for size they're not bad but I think they're entirely over priced.

 

[wa1]

For "General" purpose I think this is enough...