[Mark W]

I am thinking of buying an Acer Aspire One. I had hoped the 11.6 version would offer the N280 but seems they even chose a slower chip than the N270. I still hope Acer comes out with an N280 netbook soon. I've also heard ASUS is looking at a 11.6" netbook
My questions:

Is there really much of a speed difference between the 1.6 and 1.66Ghz versions? I know there's that .06Ghz but is it that noticeable? I know there are also now chips such as the Z520, Z530, Z540, and Z550. Unfortunately I know Acer chose the Z520 for their 11.6" model. It's only 1.33Mhz though which I can't see going to but with the Z540 and Z550 being 1.866 and 2Ghz respectively they have my attention.i don't know of any netbooks yet that are using them though. What kind of devices can we expect to see them in and at what cost? I know these were meant for MID's and I dont' know much about the MID's on the market but these seem to be used in some netbooks in.

How much difference does the Front Side Bus make though? I know the N280 is 667 Mhz vs 533 for the N270. The z series from the Z520 and above seem to be all 533Mhz.

What I'm asking is does the 667Mhz FSB plus the .06Ghz increase between the N280 and N270 make a big difference and would a Z540 at 2Ghz but only 533Mhz FSB really be faster than a N280 at 1.66Ghz but 533Mhz FSB?

Are there any more Intel Atom upgrades planned such as a faster chip such as a N290 at 1.8Ghz or even a Dual Core Atom? It seems I heard earlier about a Dual Core Atom but it seems to only be the desktop version (330).

If I'm correct all Intel Atom chips are 32 bit. Are there any 64 bit versions of any 64 bit versions planned?

I've also heard about the new CULV Core 2 Processors coming out later this year and that they will be more powerful than the Atom N and Z series but yet lower power than the regular Intel laptop CPU's. Maybe these will become popular in the 11.6 to 13 inch 'netbooks' if they are called that. Is there much information on them yet such as what the prices would be, the speed, etc?

I apologize for all the questions but just want to get some ideas where all of this is going. Part is I am a heavy user of KDE and use KDE 3.5 but want to start using KDE4 soon. On a N270 netbook it seems a little slow. I know part of it comes to graphics processing though and seems that all netbooks, even N280 netbooks, use the same graphics power. Are there any updates to faster GPU's in any upcoming netbooks?

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Is there really much of a speed difference between the 1.6 and 1.66Ghz versions

Not much, you are looking at a MAXIMUM theoretical improvement of 3.75% and that more than likely will not be realized. Improvements of 1% or less would be more likely.

How much difference does the Front Side Bus make though? I know the N280 is 667 Mhz vs 533 for the N270. The z series from the Z520 and above seem to be all 533Mhz.

FSB can be moderately important as it speeds up transfers between RAM and the CPU. I know older Pentium 4's were FSB limited. Meaning their performance would scale very well with increases in FSB. That being said, I don't know if these CPUs are internally limited or FSB limited.

If I'm correct all Intel Atom chips are 32 bit. Are there any 64 bit versions of any 64 bit versions planned?

The nettop (netbook type desktop I think Asus makes one called the eeeBox ) N230 I think supports 64-bit. Otherwise, no plans in the future until we netbooks start being capable of 4GB of RAM.

I apologize for all the questions but just want to get some ideas where all of this is going. Part is I am a heavy user of KDE and use KDE 3.5 but want to start using KDE4 soon. On a N270 netbook it seems a little slow. I know part of it comes to graphics processing though and seems that all netbooks, even N280 netbooks, use the same graphics power. Are there any updates to faster GPU's in any upcoming netbooks?

There IS something VERY important on the horizon. nVidia's ION platform is slated to debut in June. Ion combines nVidia integrated graphics with intel Atom chips. The result is EXCELLENT graphics processing in a SUPER SMALL size.


Here is an article about the ION platform:
http://www.anandtech...doc.aspx?i=3478

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 09 May 2009 - 02:38 PM.

[PedroDaGR8]

Is there really much of a speed difference between the 1.6 and 1.66Ghz versions

Not much, you are looking at a MAXIMUM theoretical improvement of 3.75% and that more than likely will not be realized. Improvements of 1% or less would be more likely.

How much difference does the Front Side Bus make though? I know the N280 is 667 Mhz vs 533 for the N270. The z series from the Z520 and above seem to be all 533Mhz.

FSB can be moderately important as it speeds up transfers between RAM and the CPU. I know older Pentium 4's were FSB limited. Meaning their performance would scale very well with increases in FSB. That being said, I don't know if these CPUs are internally limited or FSB limited.

If I'm correct all Intel Atom chips are 32 bit. Are there any 64 bit versions of any 64 bit versions planned?

The nettop (netbook type desktop I think Asus makes one called the eeeBox ) N230 I think supports 64-bit. Otherwise, no plans in the future until we netbooks start being capable of 4GB of RAM.

I apologize for all the questions but just want to get some ideas where all of this is going. Part is I am a heavy user of KDE and use KDE 3.5 but want to start using KDE4 soon. On a N270 netbook it seems a little slow. I know part of it comes to graphics processing though and seems that all netbooks, even N280 netbooks, use the same graphics power. Are there any updates to faster GPU's in any upcoming netbooks?

There IS something VERY important on the horizon. nVidia's ION platform is slated to debut in June. Ion combines nVidia integrated graphics with intel Atom chips. The result is EXCELLENT graphics processing in a SUPER SMALL size.


Here is an article about the ION platform:
http://www.anandtech...doc.aspx?i=3478

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 09 May 2009 - 02:38 PM.