Atom 330 - Decent CPU?

[Zstream]

The reason why I went with the ATOM was for low power consumption and decent GPU/DVD Playback performance. The price was attractive as well

Lian Li + Mobo/CPU

Zotac Nvidia ION, Intel Atom N330

Anyone running one of these? I am wondering if there are any issues with the HDMI/DVI to LCD's.

 

[alyarb]

performance is of least concern with Atom. It's main focus is on power consumption and die area. Personally I think the pricing of the atom combos is absurd for the abysmal performance it offers. Atom exists for mobile or low-power, task specific non-multimedia systems. Atom is terrible for flash video playback and probably loads pretty high with MPEG4 as well. It's main purpose is web/email/word processing and other basic 2D productivity apps. at least you have the IGP to do all the dirty work with your movies.

one thing i can't stand is that the zotac board only offers two SATA ports, which means you can pretty much only have an optical drive and a hard drive, or a pair of hard drives and no optical. They never figured you'd put it in a case with room for more drives. this is an irritating limitation because, in the event that you actually are building an Atom system (go figure!), it would be nice to have file server capabilities as a secondary objective, yet they've ruined that by only giving you two plugs.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: alyarb
performance is of least concern with Atom. It's main focus is on power consumption and die area. Personally I think the pricing of the atom combos is absurd for the abysmal performance it offers. Atom exists for mobile or low-power, task specific non-multimedia systems. Atom is terrible for flash video playback and probably loads pretty high with MPEG4 as well. It's main purpose is web/email/word processing and other basic 2D productivity apps. at least you have the IGP to do all the dirty work with your movies.

one thing i can't stand is that the zotac board only offers two SATA ports, which means you can pretty much only have an optical drive and a hard drive, or a pair of hard drives and no optical. They never figured you'd put it in a case with room for more drives. this is an irritating limitation because, in the event that you actually are building an Atom system (go figure!), it would be nice to have file server capabilities as a secondary objective, yet they've ruined that by only giving you two plugs.

Good review,

This system is for DVD/Video playback within Windows 7. I should be able to get decent 1080i resolutions. Maybe a little music but I doubt it.

 

[alyarb]

music is a piece of cake. and don't worry, ION systems have been tested rigorously in bluray playback and it runs fine (credit for this is owed entirely to the 9300 IGP), so you have nothing to worry about with DVD. I just think Atom is cutting it a little close. I'm used to having a bit more CPU power off hand. atom is fine as a non-primary machine though.

 

[beginner99]

the 330 will IMHO is good enough for everyday use. The only issue is flash HD-Content, which probably does not always run smoothly (flash can't yet be accelerated by gpu's).

1080p works fine if you use gpu acceleration. for that you need the according software like MPC-HC. vlc can't use gpu as far as i know.

I have a netbook with a z520 atom. single-core with 1.33 ghz. more than enough for browsing, music, xvid/dvix (stanard resolution),...

I was a little doubtful too before buying wether such a cpu is usable. but it is.

 

[Griswold]

Originally posted by: beginner99
the 330 will IMHO is good enough for everyday use. The only issue is flash HD-Content, which probably does not always run smoothly (flash can't yet be accelerated by gpu's).

Yes it can, as of flash 10. But the website owner has to enable it. And thanks to a typical adobe slackjob, it doesnt always help performance...

The announcement from june that adobe and nvidia partner up to "deliver flash GPU acceleration" is just marketing yip-yap. They merely are finally trying to get it working right this time around..

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: beginner99
the 330 will IMHO is good enough for everyday use. The only issue is flash HD-Content, which probably does not always run smoothly (flash can't yet be accelerated by gpu's).

1080p works fine if you use gpu acceleration. for that you need the according software like MPC-HC. vlc can't use gpu as far as i know.

I have a netbook with a z520 atom. single-core with 1.33 ghz. more than enough for browsing, music, xvid/dvix (stanard resolution),...

I was a little doubtful too before buying wether such a cpu is usable. but it is.

This is MPC-HC http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpc-hc/ ?

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: Zstream

This is MPC-HC http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpc-hc/ ?

Yes

 

[zsdersw]

A much better choice would be a mobo with GF9300 IGP and a Celeron E3300; I use it for my HTPC and couldn't be happier. It's running Ubuntu 9.04 with XBMC.

Of course, bluray on Linux is clumsy, at best, thanks to our DRM overlords, but I'm not invested much in bluray anyway.

 

[lopri]

Has anyone seen this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16883103228

Very attractive. Last year I bought an Atom board to build a kitchen-top but gave up for various reasons, and this one looks perfect for that purpose. Surprisingly good price considering it is a whole package. It's 230 which is a single-core, but the price and form factor even that out, IMO.

Anand did a review of ION platform (vs. 945GM) here.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: zsdersw
A much better choice would be a mobo with GF9300 IGP and a Celeron E3300; I use it for my HTPC and couldn't be happier. It's running Ubuntu 9.04 with XBMC.

Of course, bluray on Linux is clumsy, at best, thanks to our DRM overlords, but I'm not invested much in bluray anyway.

This. The Atom is complete garbage outside of devices with extremely limited space/battery. Easily the worst Intel product since the Prescott / Pentium D days, maybe even worse.

 

[HannibalX]

I've been toying with the idea of building a little PC I can carry around or use as a spare with an Atom 330 board. I have the single core Atom 270 in my MSI netbook and it's acceptable for what I ask it to do - I even have Windows 7 running on it and it's acceptable so I think that on the 330 it would be even better. I think the Atom 330 boards are priced right for what you get.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: zsdersw
A much better choice would be a mobo with GF9300 IGP and a Celeron E3300; I use it for my HTPC and couldn't be happier. It's running Ubuntu 9.04 with XBMC.

Of course, bluray on Linux is clumsy, at best, thanks to our DRM overlords, but I'm not invested much in bluray anyway.

This. The Atom is complete garbage outside of devices with extremely limited space/battery. Easily the worst Intel product since the Prescott / Pentium D days, maybe even worse.

You can say a lot about how much the Prescott sucked, but at least it worked. Load Quake 4 on a Prescott and it will work. Try to run a full resolution DivX encoded dvd rip on an Atom and tell me how that goes. It just isn't fast enough to function as a media center.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: zsdersw
A much better choice would be a mobo with GF9300 IGP and a Celeron E3300; I use it for my HTPC and couldn't be happier. It's running Ubuntu 9.04 with XBMC.

Of course, bluray on Linux is clumsy, at best, thanks to our DRM overlords, but I'm not invested much in bluray anyway.

This. The Atom is complete garbage outside of devices with extremely limited space/battery. Easily the worst Intel product since the Prescott / Pentium D days, maybe even worse.

You can say a lot about how much the Prescott sucked, but at least it worked. Load Quake 4 on a Prescott and it will work. Try to run a full resolution DivX encoded dvd rip on an Atom and tell me how that goes. It just isn't fast enough to function as a media center.

You sure? I though in Anand's review he clearly stated it was ok. He did mention the single core is not meant for a media center?

 

[exar333]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: zsdersw
A much better choice would be a mobo with GF9300 IGP and a Celeron E3300; I use it for my HTPC and couldn't be happier. It's running Ubuntu 9.04 with XBMC.

Of course, bluray on Linux is clumsy, at best, thanks to our DRM overlords, but I'm not invested much in bluray anyway.

This. The Atom is complete garbage outside of devices with extremely limited space/battery. Easily the worst Intel product since the Prescott / Pentium D days, maybe even worse.

You can say a lot about how much the Prescott sucked, but at least it worked. Load Quake 4 on a Prescott and it will work. Try to run a full resolution DivX encoded dvd rip on an Atom and tell me how that goes. It just isn't fast enough to function as a media center.

Intel didn't design the Atom for media center purposes, it was a low-power processor for netbooks/very basic PCs. If the Atom makes you "angry" maybe blaming NV would be more accurate since they marketed the Ion to do these purposes (although the heavy lifting is done more by the GPU).

Edit: Added information from Intel's webpage about the Atom:

The Intel® Atom? processor is Intel's smallest processor, built with the world's smallest transistors and manufactured on Intel's industry-leading 45nm Hi-k Metal Gate technology. The Intel Atom processor was purpose-built for simple, affordable, netbooks and nettops.

Intel Atom processor-based netbooks and nettops offer both an easy-to-use mobile device with simple interfaces and targeted performance for a good online experience. They are rugged and compact in design, and offer the freedom and flexibility of wireless connectivity¹.

Great for Internet, these devices are an affordable option for education, photo and video viewing, social networking, voice over IP, e-mail, messaging, browsing, and numerous other Internet activities and basic applications.

 

[zsdersw]

I have no desire to purchase an Atom CPU/mobo, but I don't understand the animosity toward the chip. Intel isn't depriving anyone of more powerful and general-purpose x86 CPUs, it's just adding one for more specific needs. There should be room in our point-of-view for both types of CPUs.

 

[Yukmouth]

I really would not mess with an Atom CPU if you can avoid it.

It's one thing if it's in a netbook, but on a desktop, you're multi-tasking abilities are still going to be zero.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Zstream

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: zsdersw
A much better choice would be a mobo with GF9300 IGP and a Celeron E3300; I use it for my HTPC and couldn't be happier. It's running Ubuntu 9.04 with XBMC.

Of course, bluray on Linux is clumsy, at best, thanks to our DRM overlords, but I'm not invested much in bluray anyway.

This. The Atom is complete garbage outside of devices with extremely limited space/battery. Easily the worst Intel product since the Prescott / Pentium D days, maybe even worse.

You can say a lot about how much the Prescott sucked, but at least it worked. Load Quake 4 on a Prescott and it will work. Try to run a full resolution DivX encoded dvd rip on an Atom and tell me how that goes. It just isn't fast enough to function as a media center.

You sure? I though in Anand's review he clearly stated it was ok. He did mention the single core is not meant for a media center?

http://www.n4g.com/News-154973.aspx

Once you start a 720p video, it utilizes between 75 and 100 percent of your CPU time, with 85 as the number that shows most often and we've noticed that sometimes the playback would stutter and won't look smooth.
(picture of CPU usage)

Intel Atom and Via Nano compared

(mpeg4 playback, DVD quality)
While both systems were able to playback the MEPG-4 video without jittering or audio sync problems, the VIA CPU never broke 25% usage, where the Atom was over 60% usage, this meant that if we tried to multi task, it would sometimes lag up the video for a second on Atom, VIA had no problems opening a Web page or loading Email.

(720p playback)
Atom was lagged all the way through; there was audio sync problems and video jitters. In fact, it was more like watching a slideshow of pictures on Atom with its CPU usage going right up to 98% where VIA managed to run at no more than 60% without a hitch.

So it can't play DivX/XviD/H.264 that I encode from DVD and it can't play raw blu-ray movies? That's just perfect.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: zsdersw
A much better choice would be a mobo with GF9300 IGP and a Celeron E3300; I use it for my HTPC and couldn't be happier. It's running Ubuntu 9.04 with XBMC.

Of course, bluray on Linux is clumsy, at best, thanks to our DRM overlords, but I'm not invested much in bluray anyway.

This. The Atom is complete garbage outside of devices with extremely limited space/battery. Easily the worst Intel product since the Prescott / Pentium D days, maybe even worse.

You can say a lot about how much the Prescott sucked, but at least it worked. Load Quake 4 on a Prescott and it will work. Try to run a full resolution DivX encoded dvd rip on an Atom and tell me how that goes. It just isn't fast enough to function as a media center.

Yeah, I wasn't comparing the direct performance, just the level of fail involved. The Atom serves its purpose as an ultra-low power processor, but the uses are incredibly limited with an Atom. Okay for Netbook purposes for someone just wanting web/email, borderline useless for anything else.

 

[pm]

I bought an Atom as a HTPC and I found it to be too slow to be usable at the HTPC task, and sold it after less than a month. It worked for standard def. video recording and playback with XP's Media Center, but didn't work very well at all for HD (using BeyondTV)- it could barely handle HD recording, but the machine couldn't be used for anything else while this was happening. And Vista Home Media Center was unusably slow as well (although XP was fine... maybe drivers).

It wasn't an Ion-based Atom board and it wasn't a dual-core Atom, and my Atom board (MSI as I recall) didn't have a slot for a PCI/PCI-E video card so my experience is dated.

I switched to a Pentium M 770 in a desktop board (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article252-page1.html). It was cheaper (under $100 for the CPU and the board both were new, on Ebay) and it was far more capable and flexbile in terms of slots, although I had issues with the integrated graphics being able to handle HD recording and playback simultaneously and replaced it with some ATI low-power card instead. By the time that I was done, I have still spent less money than a Ion-based Atom would cost, although I'm in the ~50W idle and 70W peak range so power dissipation is quite a bit higher and the board and system is quite a bit bigger than the Atom system was.

 

[Zstream]

I will receive the items tomorrow, anything in particular anyone would like me to run?

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
http://www.n4g.com/News-154973.aspx

Once you start a 720p video, it utilizes between 75 and 100 percent of your CPU time, with 85 as the number that shows most often and we've noticed that sometimes the playback would stutter and won't look smooth.
(picture of CPU usage)

Intel Atom and Via Nano compared

(mpeg4 playback, DVD quality)
While both systems were able to playback the MEPG-4 video without jittering or audio sync problems, the VIA CPU never broke 25% usage, where the Atom was over 60% usage, this meant that if we tried to multi task, it would sometimes lag up the video for a second on Atom, VIA had no problems opening a Web page or loading Email.

(720p playback)
Atom was lagged all the way through; there was audio sync problems and video jitters. In fact, it was more like watching a slideshow of pictures on Atom with its CPU usage going right up to 98% where VIA managed to run at no more than 60% without a hitch.

So it can't play DivX/XviD/H.264 that I encode from DVD and it can't play raw blu-ray movies? That's just perfect.

That is a single core Atom with a Intel IGP. The one I linked is a dual core Atom with basically a 9300.

Anyways, I will run some sandra benchmarks later.

 

[Lithium381]

i've been thinking about getting the atom 330 to run a small print/file server in the closet. since it's ultra low power, for a 24x7 machine it should serve it's purpose fine... i love how it's marketed to do e-mail/chat and everyone comes in here bashing it for it's inability to handle HD tasks. you all probably look at an 18-wheel semi truck and say "why can't it get 45mpg like my prius, it sucks!" lulz


i'm looking at this one

 

[exar333]

Originally posted by: Lithium381
i've been thinking about getting the atom 330 to run a small print/file server in the closet. since it's ultra low power, for a 24x7 machine it should serve it's purpose fine... i love how it's marketed to do e-mail/chat and everyone comes in here bashing it for it's inability to handle HD tasks. you all probably look at an 18-wheel semi truck and say "why can't it get 45mpg like my prius, it sucks!" lulz

Lithium! But, but, but, the Atom was supposed to be the "Holy Grail" of CPUs from Intel! Thats what all my "techie" friends at the local BB said to me! It's new, so it was supposed to be crazy-fast! It's not playing my BD movies, allowing me to encode porn, while downloading porn. If only these cpu companies worked on making faster chips with more than 1-2 cores...oh wait...

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: Lithium381
i've been thinking about getting the atom 330 to run a small print/file server in the closet. since it's ultra low power, for a 24x7 machine it should serve it's purpose fine... i love how it's marketed to do e-mail/chat and everyone comes in here bashing it for it's inability to handle HD tasks. you all probably look at an 18-wheel semi truck and say "why can't it get 45mpg like my prius, it sucks!" lulz


i'm looking at this one

I have the Foxconn Atom 330, been very pleased. It's been my everyday PC since May. With 2GB it has been able to do large map projects. However I've not done any HTPC tasks so I can't say ya or nay.

I do plan on upgrading to a Clarkdale mini-ITX next spring.