Intel Atom 330 review

[NoobyDoo]

Link

... The Atom 330 and D945GCLF2 signify a turning of the table. The Atom 330 consistently dominated our performance charts; and did so without overreaching its power consumption and thermal limitations that the Atom's Silverthorne core was designed to achieve ...

 

[Idontcare]

I would love to see one of these in a laptop, 12" screen, nothing teeny-tiny, with a typical battery (not reduced so battery life sucks at 2-3hrs as they like to make them) and decent sized keyboard along with SSD.

 

[mooseracing]

I would like to see this upa gainst Via's latest C7, iirc mine is 1.5 or 1.7 not the 1Ghz they tested. Not to mention I wish Via would release a dual core as I bet it would still beat atom in performance/energy.

 

[Falloutboy]

if it had HDMI/DVI output that would make a kick ass base to a cheap media extender

 

[Zap]

Thanks for the link. Will read it over lunch.

EDIT: Read it. Nice that they updated to GBe, still saddled by old and inefficient chipset. Imagine if Intel makes a dedicated low power chipset to be used with this? Anyways, if priced just like the other ones from Intel ($70-80) this will be a hit.

 

[mooseracing]

I found another Atom benchmark among 5 Atom boards with one being the dual core. It has perf and wattage use.

http://www.mini-itx.com/review...oms/default.asp?page=1

I was suprised to see quite a few at 30-40 watts with a HD hooked up. I've seen a few builds of the latest AMD CPU BE low wattage cpu around 50 watts and 80 watts at load.

Also in the above review there is an MSI itx board with a different chipset that seems to make 10 watts of difference. I'm going to look at that more as I am working on building a new low power storage server. I'm starting out at about 10 drives and planning on a low power but powerful chip. I already have a VIA C7 1.5Ghz that I am going to do some more benchmarks on, but from my experience with it in Server 08 it preforms closer to a 3Ghz P4.

Sorry for the rambling, just have alot of ideas and questions in my head.


edit: forgot to mention I am also working on a low power setup for a HTPC. I had a spare 754 Turion Chip, so I'm hoping to achive 40-50 watts with 2 HD's, and AGP Vid card. I plan on using crystal to undervolt it all and make shortcuts to bump speed and voltage when watching a video.

 

[NoobyDoo]

One more review here : NeoSeeker Link .

The D945GCLF2 costs about $90. Add a 2GB memory stick for about $33. A small mini-ITX case with power supply for about $40. Add $50 for a hard drive - these days you will get at least 250GB for that, 500GB if you are lucky. Add a $25 DVD burner, and $25 for a cheap keyboard and mouse. Download and install Ubuntu. You don't even need a monitor, you can use the S-Video output to display 800x600 (almost) to your TV.

Guess what?

You have just built a nice little general purpose computer for $263, and its only the size of a shoe box. And it is about eight times the floating point performance of a Cray XM-P, which was classified as a weapon.

Want it even cheaper? Lose the hard drive and dvd burner, use a $10 1GB flash stick for pendrivelinux. You only spend $198 then!

I am as guilty - if not more so - as the next guy in wanting faster computers all the time. I love overclocking and tweaking the last drop of performance out of systems; but the fact is that for normal, every day usage, the Atom will do.

Don't miss :

... isn't it amazing that the processor is passively cooled, yet the chipset requires a fan?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: mooseracing
I'm going to look at that more as I am working on building a new low power storage server. I'm starting out at about 10 drives and planning on a low power but powerful chip.
...
edit: forgot to mention I am also working on a low power setup for a HTPC. I had a spare 754 Turion Chip, so I'm hoping to achive 40-50 watts with 2 HD's, and AGP Vid card.

Wow, at this rate does it even matter if you save 5 watts on the CPU?

For the HTPC, I'd think you would be better off with a more modern setup. Latest IGP for AMD can do HD video decently, so no need for video card. For CPU you can just use a lower power AMD chip. I'd think you would get better performance and lower power draw than a socket 754 Turion. Maybe.

 

[mooseracing]

The turion chip can use 25 watts with alot more performance that Geode, Via, Atom can give me, not to mention I already have it. The Via 1.7Ghz C7 is supposedly around 15 watts with cooling fan. If I upgrade to a new chipset, there is still alot more power draw plus extra cash for the parts. For the HTPC there will be occasional regualr DVD's and alot of music, I would doubt if i ever watch 720p quality. Plus did I mention I already have the parts....

And I am happy if I save 5 watts or more, that adds up over time as far as electric and HVAC. Of course I am using a Dual Opteron 880 setup as my desktop, talk about wasted juice. Although when not using it I keep each cpu clocked at 1Ghz and 1.1 core volt.

 

[Ika]

I was doing some reading and it seems that Intel doesn't want OEMs to use the 330 in netbooks, as it's designed to be a desktop chip.... I found two sources for this info, but one was a guy who's English wasn't very good, and the other was Fudzilla. Anyone have any thoughts or can shed some light on this?

 

[ibex333]

Originally posted by: Aflac
I was doing some reading and it seems that Intel doesn't want OEMs to use the 330 in netbooks, as it's designed to be a desktop chip.... I found two sources for this info, but one was a guy who's English wasn't very good, and the other was Fudzilla. Anyone have any thoughts or can shed some light on this?

But the thing is, it doesn't really matter for many people out there... The new 330 doesn't offer better gaming performance and it still wont allow you to do the things people do on bigger, better CPUs. The biggest advantage of this new cpu is the power consumption, not better performance. It's only SLIGHTLY better than the 270 in that deppt.

I read several reviews already, and I don't see any reason why people with single core atoms would want to upgrade unless power costs are a big issue.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Falloutboy
if it had HDMI/DVI output that would make a kick ass base to a cheap media extender

Your wish is my command, check out this tiny thing.


http://www.pcper.com/article.p...=663&type=expert&pid=1

 

[alcoholbob]

The single core atom could do 720p albeit with about 80-90% CPU utilization. I think alot of HTPC enthusiasts would really enjoy a Atom 330 platform for 1080p.

 

[alyarb]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Falloutboy
if it had HDMI/DVI output that would make a kick ass base to a cheap media extender

Your wish is my command, check out this tiny thing.


http://www.pcper.com/article.p...=663&type=expert&pid=1

i know, i can't wait for this thing. you can just mount it to the back of your tv and use a bluetooth keybd.

 

[Arkaign]

Wow. I understand the need for low-power/low-heat processors, but I sure hope they improve the performance on these soon. These things are agonizingly weak. As in, beaten silly by processors from years and years back weak.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: Zap
Imagine if Intel makes a dedicated low power chipset to be used with this

Exactly. it needs a new gma to go along with it. i think the chipset uses like 11 watts, that kinda negates the awesome 2 watt TDP of the chip. instead of the N270+945GSE+ICH7M combo for netbooks, they need to use the Z530+US15W (Silverthorne + Poulsbo) combo. That is probably what most future netbooks will be.

Originally posted by: Astrallite
The single core atom could do 720p albeit with about 80-90% CPU utilization. I think alot of HTPC enthusiasts would really enjoy a Atom 330 platform for 1080p.

mine struggles with 720p.