What difference do current Atom CPUs make to Celerons and Pentiums for bugdet laptop?

[virtuality]

First, let's see what PC manufacturers usually offer:

Atom with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB eMMC
Celeron with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB eMMC (most common: N3050)
Celeron with 4 GB RAM and 500 GB HDD
Pentium with 4 GB RAM and 500 GB HDD (common ones: N3540 and N3700)
(Celeron and Pentium example configurations from: http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-11-3147-laptop/pd but other manufacturers' offerings are similar)

Let's say I dont' want to load a full HDD with data, just the OS, a few programs, and my data can go onto an SD card. For my use case - we are speaking about budget laptops - eMMC is better than HDD.

Atoms has 4 cores. Celerons and Pentiums have 2. Atoms cost around $25, Celerons $100, Pentiums $150.

Now the old adage with older notebook/desktop processors go (such as with Core 2 Duo, but I guess it's still the case with i3, i5 and i7) that for office and browsing, single core performance is what matters most. Multicore mattters if you do stuff like edit videos. Even on mobile, Apple's ARM A8, A9, etc chips are beating the competition in single core performance.

Brad Linder of Liliputing reviews such machines I'm in the market for (can be more than $200, in fact)

Brand new Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11
http://liliputing.com/2015/10/acer-...ook-for-under-200-but-it-comes-at-a-cost.html
Is said to be sluggish, becuase of the low clocked 2 cores.

The year old ASUS EeeBook X205TA with an Atom Bay Trail-T Quad Core Z3735
http://liliputing.com/2015/01/asus-eeebook-x205-budget-windows-laptop-review.html
Is said to be much better, faster; single core speed is similar but it has 4 cores.

Both of the above machines compete in the 2 GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC category.

So, can we conclude that in the budget category, multicore performance is more important than single core? If so, why do manyfacturers use the more expensive and power hungry, but not necessarily faster Celeron and Atom processors? Such as the popular(?) HP Stream 11 as well. A mystery to me. Or, I may totally misunderstand something.

Not to mention battery life, the ASUS with Atom offers 12 hours, the Celeron $200 laptops 8 hours. The Ideapad 100s, which just came out, but uses the same year old Atom as the ASUS (why?), also offers a measly 8 hours; another mystery.

How about RAM? Does having 2 GB or 4 GB matter as much in this category and typical use cases as the CPU? None of the Atoms come with 4 GB onboard, though (except for the Microsoft Surface 3, non Pro, maxed out version only).

I can't wait to see Atom x5s and x7s in normal laptops as well, not only in tablets.

 

[virtuality]

Maybe I should have placed it in the General Hardware branch? I honestly don't know.

 

[Ken g6]

First, let's see what PC manufacturers usually offer:

Atom with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB eMMC
Celeron with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB eMMC (most common: N3050)
Celeron with 4 GB RAM and 500 GB HDD
Pentium with 4 GB RAM and 500 GB HDD (common ones: N3540 and N3700)

The specific processors you listed here are all Atoms. Somebody at Intel decided to confusingly brand certain higher-end Atoms as Celerons and Pentiums. Look them up at http://ark.intel.com/ if you're confused.

And I'm confused because I click the link for "Inspiron 11 3000" at your Dell link, which claims to be a dual-core Pentium, and I get a Pentium N3700 listed, which is a quad-core Braswell (Atom).

Edit: There's a good chance a Celeron or Pentium is not an atom if its number starts with "G", not "N" or "Z". I wouldn't guarantee anything, though.

 

[Yuriman]

The specific processors you listed here are all Atoms. Somebody at Intel decided to confusingly brand certain higher-end Atoms as Celerons and Pentiums. Look them up at http://ark.intel.com/ if you're confused.

And I'm confused because I click the link for "Inspiron 11 3000" at your Dell link, which claims to be a dual-core Pentium, and I get a Pentium N3700 listed, which is a quad-core Braswell (Atom).

Edit: There's a good chance a Celeron or Pentium is not an atom if its number starts with "G", not "N" or "Z". I wouldn't guarantee anything, though.

This.

Quad core Atom > Dual core Atom

I'd like to add that "U" at the end generally designates that it's a big core (e.g. Haswell, Ivy Bridge), while an "N" at the beginning of the model name generally designates a small core (Atom).

Celeron 2955U = Dual core Haswell @ 1.4ghz

Celeron N2940 = Quad core Atom (Bay Trail) @ 2.25ghz

 

[dark zero]

In fact
Dual BIG Core > Quad Core Atom > Dual Core Atom > .... > Celeron N3000 > Single Cores > ... > AMD E1 2100

Not joking, those duals....

 

[ArisVer]

And to answer your RAM question, you should see it independently of the CPU as it depends on how many (and what) programs you load.

 

[Phynaz]

This.

Quad core Atom > Dual core Atom

I'd like to add that "U" at the end generally designates that it's a big core (e.g. Haswell, Ivy Bridge), while an "N" at the beginning of the model name generally designates a small core (Atom).

Celeron 2955U = Dual core Haswell @ 1.4ghz

Celeron N2940 = Quad core Atom (Bay Trail) @ 2.25ghz

Cool, I never knew this.

 

[virtuality]

And I'm confused because I click the link for "Inspiron 11 3000" at your Dell link, which claims to be a dual-core Pentium, and I get a Pentium N3700 listed, which is a quad-core Braswell (Atom).

Try clicking on a desktop, then it should give you the whole family of that notebooks. Companies tend to offer completely different mobile web views - maybe they just wanted to sell you the more expensive model.

 

[virtuality]

And to answer your RAM question, you should see it independently of the CPU as it depends on how many (and what) programs you load.

In the above machine type I'm looking for RAM is not (always) upgradeable.

 

[dark zero]

In Atoms is imposible to upgrade RAM. It comes soldered.

On Celeron N or Pentium N, it can get the RAM upgraded, but it's tipically one slot. Only on desktop format it can be upgraded since it has 2 slots

 

[jumpncrash]

In Atoms is imposible to upgrade RAM. It comes soldered.

On Celeron N or Pentium N, it can get the RAM upgraded, but it's tipically one slot. Only on desktop format it can be upgraded since it has 2 slots

My netbook came with 1gb of ram and I swapped it out for a 2gb, it is an atom n2600

 

[myocardia]

My netbook came with 1gb of ram and I swapped it out for a 2gb, it is an atom n2600

Dark meant the 2015, 14nm, varieties of the Atom. Your N2600 was introduced 4 years ago, and is built on a 32nm process. Back then, they were still including SO-DIMM sockets on netbooks.