Mini Notebook (netbook) - Atom w/ nVidia Ion or Core 2 Solo SU3500 w/ 4500MHD?

[aphex]

Been eying the Acer 1410 (Core 2 Solo SU3500, 2GB Ram, 250gb HD, 4500MHD Graphics, 11.6") for $399 locally, but am curious if its worth waiting for those new Ion netbooks.

Ion seems to have a slower CPU, but better graphics card (9400m), which do you think would be a better overall system?

Not looking to play games, but will occasionally watch some online videos (Hulu, etc.) FWIW, I don't think Hulu uses any graphics acceleration, so I wonder if the faster CPU in the Acer would be better suited any any Ion netbook.

 

[Zap]

I'd go for the faster CPU in your case. I've got an Atom-based netbook and have already encountered some CPU-limited circumstances.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Zap
I'd go for the faster CPU in your case. I've got an Atom-based netbook and have already encountered some CPU-limited circumstances.

Thats kinda where I'm leaning. Also love that the Acer gets 6+ hours under normal usage (with a 6 cell battery thats flush), but I assume the Ion's will be similarly frugal.

Thanks!

 

[ecom]

Youtube is Flash and I'm going to guess Hulu is also. Flash video is all CPU - there is no hardware acceleration. The 4500MHD has h264 decoding so you can watch Bluerays and such but the software has to support hardware acceleration features that you have.

I've tried, admittedly not very hard, to get h264 decoding to work on my 4500MHD, GS45 chipset laptop, but I haven't got it working yet with only what I can get for free. The hardware acceleration is definitely there and somewhat working, but it's not being rendered correctly on the screen. With CPU decoding, it consumes about 60-70% of my Intel SP9400 but looks fine. When I start invoking hardware decode, CPU consumption is about 20% or less but all I have are green squares on the screen. But it wasn't until yesterday that I had ever tried to get h264 decoding to work on my laptop.

 

[Parasitic]

If you don't game, then that leaves very little incentive to get the Atom+9400M combination; as a matter of fact the Atom CPU itself is so underpowered that it really negates the added graphics processing power of the 9400M.

One redeeming thing about the Atom is that it has hyperthreading, which I am not sure if a C2S would or not. The C2S probably has EMT64 support built-in though.
The 4500MHD is a relatively decent integrated GPU, already a step up from GMA950 and slightly faster than X3100 I believe. At lower resolutions it's more than adequate.

 

[aphex]

Thanks guys. After reading through your responses and the Acer 1410/1810t thread over at Notebookforums, I am going to pick up the 1410 tomorrow at my local BJ's. If I get time I may post a review of my thoughts in a few weeks.

Thanks again!

 

[IlllI]

even with hyperthreading an atom will get smashed (smashed..atom..get it..? lol) by a c2s