Zacate laptops, worth it?

[Obsoleet]

I'm looking at a new laptop and took a look at some $250 Asus netbook, the Ion stuff around $500 and saw the E-350 being sold for about $500 too.. checked some benchmarks and reviews.. the thing looks amazing for the money.. best on the market to my knowledge.

Do you guys recommend this as the best choice under $500? I have been waiting for SB to come out so I could pick one up for around $500 (no frills).. but so far I haven't seen that happen. I assume a SB laptop should beat the E-350 in gaming and everything else but will it be cheaper in time? I have mainly been looking for the 2520M but this Zacate thing is just impressive all around for battery life and everything else.. slick package. What's the general verdict around here on those?

 

[IntelUser2000]

It's going to be pretty hard for Sandy Bridge laptops to reach $500 without Black Friday sales and/or Celeron-derivatives.

 

[Zap]

Do you guys recommend this as the best choice under $500? I have been waiting for SB to come out so I could pick one up for around $500 (no frills).. but so far I haven't seen that happen. I assume a SB laptop should beat the E-350 in gaming and everything else but will it be cheaper in time?

You can look at the first gen Core i3/i5 for pricing. I'm not sure they could be found under $500.

If I were to buy an under $500 thin/light I would get one of these Zacates.

 

[beginner99]

I assume a SB laptop should beat the E-350 in gaming

Gaming modern games is IMHO out of the question even on an E-350 (fastest Zacate). Yes they play but at horrible frame rates and settings = very poor experience.

For browsing and media stuff yes go ahead but not for gaming.

 

[richierich1212]

Check out the latest review from Anand, even though it's the m-itx version:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/the-brazos-review-amds-e350-supplants-ion-for-miniitx/5


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Reviews of HP DM1z:

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/hp-pavilion-dm1.aspx?page=1#axzz1AhUrYVl8
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/17/hp-pavilion-dm1z-with-amd-fusion-review/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375736,00.asp?tab=FullReview
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/783550/review/hp_pavilion_dm1z.html

 

[grimpr]

Minecraft runs just fine, as all flash based and 2d/3d low budget titles.

 

[Arkadrel]

Remember the HD4200 onboard grafics cards on the amd motherboards? those could usually overclock from around 500mhz -> 1000mhz with very good results from doing so.

It ll kill abit of its power effeciency over atom/ion thingy, but Im sure you can OC these bobcats and their GPUs to sneak abit more performance out of them.

 

[beginner99]

the online shop i use listed a netbook with the 1 Ghz dual core version at around 550 $. Cheapest i3 system is only about 110$ more. Of course heavier and probably less battery life but 550$ IMHO too much because it sure will be slower than the benchmarked chip.

 

[Obsoleet]

I find this very impressive. Does anyone know if HP is coming out with a model with a USB 3.0 port? That's the only thing really holding me back. Lacking an optical drive makes USB 3.0 even more important IMO. I use external USB 3.0 for storage exclusively on my desktop and love it, and wouldn't mind having an external bluray USB 3.0 drive either for both the laptop and desktop.

 

[eternalone]

Does anyone have video of Zacate in Action, that would help alot in getting a feel for performance.

 

[Obsoleet]

Almost every review is Editors Choice, editors choice.. across the board. I think this thing is HUGE
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6018&p=4

I just want a USB 3.0 port damnit.

I'm going to be putting in my 160GB intel ssd into this, and giving away (to my family) my 40gb intel drive. Then putting the new 250GB Intel G3 into my desktop. That, with my USB 3.0 1TB drive should be great with a Zacate that has USB 3.0.

 

[nyker96]

short answer? YES! every review I read says this new platform is superior to Atom+ION combo, especially when factoring in pricing.

 

[Obsoleet]

Yeah I never was a fan of Ion + Atom because I don't like dual vendor solutions in laptops. I like Sandybridge, I like Fusion, I like Atom by itself.. but I don't like anything tacked on to any of these from outsiders.. for power usage purposes and overall fit/finish in how it works together.
Having DX11 sounds meaningless to some, but I see zero reason to not have the latest standards in ANYTHING I buy.. thats why I have given up on Sandybridge until the DX11 refresh. Sounds harsh but if it doesnt have USB 3.0 or DX11 I'm not buying period.

 

[wirednuts]

i think zacates will give culv laptops a run for their money. im sure usb 3.0 with hdmi output is coming soon, and on sale if you find one for $400 then i cant imagine a better laptop. it will do anything you need short of gaming, it wont have that "netbook slow" feel to it while browsing, and the battery life is in its own class.

i think im also going to hold out for a usb 3.0 version, but again i really dont think we will have to wait long.

 

[Obsoleet]

It can do some games just fine though. L4D2 did really well on it and I read a guys comment that League of Legends works fine at native res. I'm sure Team Fortress 2 is also OK. That's good enough for me (actually a little better than good enough for this price), but EXACTLY what I've been looking for. Mostly I'd just use this for Plants Vs Zombies, but I'm fully confident in it being able to play TF2 well enough for the short/infrequent times I'd game on this (mostly when traveling).

 

[RaiderJ]

I want a Zacate mini-ITX board for my HTPC.... any word on when those will arrive?

 

[Spikesoldier]

i had a prerelease acer netbook that had a zacate running at 1700MHz. i forget whether it was a single or dual core but i recall it had 1700MHz CPU clock.

 

[hans007]

I want a Zacate mini-ITX board for my HTPC.... any word on when those will arrive?

anand has a review of the msi one so it shoudl be soon.

 

[maniac5999]

i had a prerelease acer netbook that had a zacate running at 1700MHz. i forget whether it was a single or dual core but i recall it had 1700MHz CPU clock.

I believe that there's a 1.7ghz single core out there, To be honest however, I think that the thing could use just a little more CPU power, If AMD could put out one of these things clocked at 2ghz with the same battery life, that would basically kill Sandybridge UM.

 

[RaiderJ]

anand has a review of the msi one so it shoudl be soon.

Hopefully, I'd buy one now if I could. For what I could sell my HTPC for I could probably come out darn near ahead cost-wise. Really interested in the bitstreaming capabilities to go with my new receiver.

 

[ShadowVVL]

I think it would be a good buy if you dont plan to play any big games.
I was hoping anandtech would do a assassins creed bench, I think it would do ok.

Mostly i see it good for light gaming, watching dvds and web browsing!unless you plan to OC if its not locked.

 

[Erudite21]

Does anyone have video of Zacate in Action, that would help alot in getting a feel for performance.

Check out this video:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/btH_gwd8CSg" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btH_gwd8CSg

How do you embed here?

 

[yottabit]

I think you could probably find an older Core 2 Duo laptop with discrete graphics for about $500. It would be much more capable for heavy tasks and games but pretty bad battery life. I still see ads for them from Tigerdirect and the like. I don't think you'll find a Core i3 laptop with discrete graphics at that price point, but you may find an i3 laptop with integrated graphics which may have less gfx performance than the zacate but would dominate it in CPU power.

 

[richierich1212]

Core 2 duo is 2 generations behind now. If the prices for those laptops aren't dropping then why even bother with them? Core-i series are better and should be just as cost effective. Plus SB mobile processors are going to be released very soon.

We all know C2D processors are faster than Zacate-based ones, but Zacate is targeted at the Atom.

 

[busydude]

How do you embed here?

I am afraid you can't.

Here is a video of HP pavilion dm1 http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavilion-dm1/4505-3121_7-34467063.html