The Atom love-in / confession thread. Do you like Atom-based hardware?

[DrMrLordX]

I got an EeePC years ago with the damn single-core Atom. It was fun but slow. Much better with teh Lun1x. XP on it was a bit painful, and the storage . . . woof.

My kids had an Iconia though I'm not sure if their version had an Atom in it or not. It seemed alright, though they cracked the screen on it.

 

[Summerfun]

I finished stalker shadow of chenobly and F.E.A.R on a z3775 asus t100.

 

[TeknoBug]

They're OK, my Z3740 tablet works well but my wife's Z3735F 2-in-1 tablet/laptop can get sluggish. Also recently got a X5 Z8300 PC Stick and it's actually fairly snappy and plays videos just fine even at 1080p and has a nice wifi module (and bluetooth doesn't even interfere with it) and I can play streamed games from Steam or XB1/PS4. Also used a Surface 3 with Z8700 for a while which was more than good enough for a lot of things.

The N3150 is next on my list, but not sure what I'd use it for.

 

[CHADBOGA]

No Atom based device has been good enough to tempt me, but I probably set a higher bar than most, for what I am expecting from the sort of devices that Atom has found itself in.

 

[ZGR]

I finished stalker shadow of chenobly and F.E.A.R on a z3775 asus t100.

How was the battery life doing that?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

1) Whether you've ever purchased Atom-based hardware, and

Yes. A SFF PC (FoxConn NanoPC) and an HP Stream 7 tablet.

2) Whether you liked the product.

No to both.

The NanoPC used an older Atom (D2550 I think) which used a PowerVR IGP and lacked driver support for anything but Windows 7 32-bit. I was able to get CLI-only Linux running on it by disabling all the GPU drivers (forcing the console back to VGA emulation mode.) But when I did that and set it up as a minecraft server, it suuuuuucked. 2 Atom cores w/ HT were a choppier Minecraft experience than a single core VM on my current server. It also sucked as a file server. (CPU bottlenecked, still.) So I gave it to somebody for free to use as an HTPC.

The HP Stream 7 is... a nice tablet at first. Ran full x86 Windows 8, the Z3735F is fast enough for most tablet applications. But I had bad luck with the rest of the hardware - the first one I had cracked when my cat stepped on it. (Swear to god; I heard it crack. It was even in a padded case at the time.) I got a warranty replacement, but after a couple months it started giving me fake/ghost touchscreen input, so it was unusable as well. I replaced it with an iPad mini which has taken all the same abuse without skipping a beat. (Still using the same generic 7" tablet case I got at MicroCenter.)

 

[jihe]

would rather use arm than atom

 

[Essence_of_War]

The HP Stream 7 is... a nice tablet at first. Ran full x86 Windows 8, the Z3735F is fast enough for most tablet applications. But I had bad luck with the rest of the hardware - the first one I had cracked when my cat stepped on it. (Swear to god; I heard it crack. It was even in a padded case at the time.)

Pictured below, dave_the_nerd's cat:

600 lb Siberian Tiger, answers to "kitty-kitty-kitty".

 

[dark zero]

Even AMD Mullins would give better experience than Atom.

The Atom my father has was OK, but graphically sucked hard

 

[reb0rn]

Problem is also AMD had nothing better to offer in that price range, e-350 was as same bad as first atom!

 

[hojnikb]

Using Z3735F for TV and its working great. For basic browsing and video streaming its perfect. And its passive while using 3-5W on the wall.

 

[Sweepr]

I'm a big fan of the full Windows on small/cheap tablets idea. Already used Dell Venue 8, ASUS T100, Surface 3 and other devices. Of course Core-based devices are noticeably faster, but the small cores handle most basic tasks just fine, at a fraction of the price/power.

 

[ehume]

I got an EeePC years ago with the damn single-core Atom. It was fun but slow. Much better with teh Lun1x. XP on it was a bit painful, and the storage . . . woof.

Yup. But it was my wife's portable before she got a Mac. It has sat in a drawer as a limited-duty-go-on-a-trip computer, until it got to be too slow.

Now I bought an HP Stream to look at lecture slides on PDF while I sat in the audience. I do this once a year. For $179 it was fine for that. However, the 11" screen bothers me. So I'll be glad to get a Goldmont with a 13" screen next January.

 

[DrMrLordX]

At least Goldmont/Apollo Lake will be a step up from Bay Trail! Cherry Trail . . . ugh.

 

[krumme]

Problem is also AMD had nothing better to offer in that price range, e-350 was as same bad as first atom!

Hell no. Then you havnt tried the first atoms. Almost all of the first atoms was single core. It had 60% slower ipc than bobcat at same freq.
I had a samsung 10 inch with such a dog slow processor and compared to it the bobcat we had was fast. Lol.

Love my nas with bt atom. And ct+ was much faster than arm a9. Fine processors except the first generation especially single core stuff. But hey did god with a 5400 hd.

 

[jkauff]

I have an HP Stream 7 I hardly ever use, but it runs Win 8.1 just fine with a Bluetooth mouse (Win 10 brings it to its tiny knees, though).

When I do use it, I'm usually playing movies. I can run MPC-HC with LAV filters (using QuickSync HW decoding) and madVR (on default settings) and the movies look excellent. That's really impressive for a CPU/GPU as limited as the Atom chip. The app for MLB.TV also looks great.

For $89, no complaints.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Atom sucks.

 

[Phynaz]

Atom sucks.

Yup.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yea, dont know why those mini usb ports are such a problem. I have one of the Winbook 7 inch tablets that is unusable because it will no longer charge through the mimi usb. I bought a different model from best buy, and the mini usb works, but doesnt fit well. I have a cheap twenty dollar flip phone that has a better fitting, sturdier feeling mini usb port.

 

[DrMrLordX]

it will no longer charge through the mimi usb.

No wonder it doesn't work.

 

[frozentundra123456]

No wonder it doesn't work.

Wise guy!!!

 

[lightningbaron]

The first Atom based netbook I had was a Latitude 2100, slow as a dog. The Bay Trail Atom processor on cheap tablets was an improvement; HP Stream 7 and Toshiba Encore, the latter which sucked because of its 16GB capacity.

 

[nerp]

I have an Atom in a Gigabyte board I bought about six years ago running my home server and it has been perfect for the task. No complaints or problems. I do have to replace the CPU fan as it has worn out and beginning to grind. I'll get several more years out of this thing and it uses about as much power as a lightbulb.

 

[skipsneeky2]

So glad i am content with just my desk top and basic flip phone.Never took interest in anything mobile except for a PSP once till that died quickly.I go out and its usually not long enough where i may die if i can't Youtube or Netflix.

My neighbor some years ago had a small cheap Atom notebook that ran XP with 1gb,it was her daily computer pretty much and i swear i really don't know anyone could use such a device like that.It couldn't be upgraded either lol.Nearly as useless as all those Vista towers neighbors had me look at which usually were Compaq presarios with cheap AMD dual cores with 512mb with their half decade long boot times and constant lagging.

 

[PingSpike]

I have a Double Power 7" Tablet with Atom Z3735G. I got it for $5AR. I powered it on to make sure it wasn't DOA before sending the rebate form. Its been sitting on my shelf ever since. I can't think of a use for it.