If you are a fan of Atom, come on in!

P

P4Power

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 1, 2006
Messages
185
Every website I go to has someone complaining about how terrible all Atom processors are. Frankly, I am sick of hearing this. I have been a long time Atom nettop and netbook user. My first Atom-based machine was a small Mini-ITX case system containing the first Atom released, the 1.60GHz 230, and 2GB of RAM. It has just a single core and Hyper-Threading, but for what I used it for I absolutely loved it! The little Atom provided excellent performance when web surfing and Office tasks under Windows XP.

Eventually, I grabbed an 10" Eee PC with a 1.60GHz N270 and 2GB of RAM running XP. Basically identical to the desktop chip except for the incorporation of SpeedStep and the lack of EM64T. I had a 12.1" Dell XPS M1210 with a Core Duo T2600 at the time, but the little Atom netbook became my main note taker for my classes. It ran all day long clocked at 800MHz (I used SpeedSwitch for this) and it still provided plenty of power for what I needed.

Next came the upgrade to the Atom 230 system in the form of a new motherboard containing the newly released dual-core Atom 330 and NVIDIA ION graphics. Same clock speed, but just another Atom processor placed on the chip; a dual-die chip. The extra core was definitely noticeable if you were hammering it, but that is to be expected. I eventually built another system around the Atom 230 to take the place of my Pentium II file server for noise and power reasons. After building my first quiet workstation with a Xeon X3210, my 330 system has been given the role of my low-power backup server. Then came Pineview and I built another system with a 1.80GHz Atom D525 and a GeForce 210. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I picked up a new 10" Eee PC with Intel's newly released 1.66GHz dual-core N570 for netbooks because the extra core makes all the difference in the world in my virtual machines. It also contains 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA ION 2 graphics. I installed XP on it and it just flies and has pretty much become the only computer I take to class. I am a CS major, so it does more than just take notes.

Another system was built around my old Atom 230 with a PCI GeForce 8400 GS for a friend. He was in college at the time as well and lived in a small dorm room where his main desktop, a C2Q Q6600 with an 8800 GTX OC2, turned the place in to an oven. The 230 became his daily work computer typing papers, playing music, doing research all while remaining completely silent and putting out a miniscule amount of heat. He absolutely loved it. Today it is his file server.

So, with all of this experience with Atom, I respect it immensely. It does exactly what it is supposed to do; be a companion to a higher performance desktop and NOT to replace one or replace a powerful notebook. In short, I am sick and tired of hearing people say Atom is garbage and so slow that it isn't useful because that is just bullshit. I could be wrong, but maybe it is because most Atom netbooks ship with 1GB of RAM and Windows 7 Starter. My N570 Eee PC did and it really was a dog, but up it to 2GB and the thing flies.

Does anyone else share my feelings about the Atom processor? If you are going to flame me about this, please don't bother posting.

P.S. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted people to know that I have had plenty of experience with this processor and not just some highly tweaked setup.
 
I've always wanted to get a D525 fit a 180w peltier/water loop (something off a chipset cooler or something for waterblock) to it (it's barely double digit watts, almost any peltier is going to be overkill) and see how far I can push it! Main problem would be the motherboards limits. 3.5gh/z would be a nice figure... Would make a nice [H] fileserver :D Especially if you could get hold of that thing that uses 250+ atoms :D

I think lots of the hate comes from comparisons to higher end stuff and not understanding the purpose. Or switching from an i5/i7 to one then feeling the drop in speed.
 
Big fan of atoms here!

I have two dual-core atom based servers in my attic, one running AD and the other runs utorrent and jdownloader as services (with their web front ends enabled), both on Win 2K8 R2 (technet subscriptions are very handy!).

Both of them are silent, put out very little heat and sip power.

They are perfect for my needs - I don't like virtualizing AD and the utorrent box is on a VPN permanently so I wished to have an 'air gap' between that and my other virtualized servers.

I'm looking to put together a htpc for my parents that is atom based, do we know when the next chips are coming out?
 
DeathPrincess said:
I've always wanted to get a D525 fit a 180w peltier/water loop (something off a chipset cooler or something for waterblock) to it (it's barely double digit watts, almost any peltier is going to be overkill) and see how far I can push it! Main problem would be the motherboards limits. 3.5gh/z would be a nice figure... Would make a nice [H] fileserver :D Especially if you could get hold of that thing that uses 250+ atoms :D

I think lots of the hate comes from comparisons to higher end stuff and not understanding the purpose. Or switching from an i5/i7 to one then feeling the drop in speed.
Click to expand...

You are right the motherboard limiting you. The D525 already runs an 800MHz bus unlike the other Pinview chips with run 667MHz buses. I don't know how far you could raise that. I think you nailed it about replacing a more powerful chip with an Atom.


unconnected said:
They are perfect for my needs

I'm looking to put together a htpc for my parents that is atom based, do we know when the next chips are coming out?
Click to expand...

You have summed it up nicely there. They are perfect for your NEEDS. Not excessive, but they get the job done efficiently, quietly, and aren't expensive. I am pretty sure the last I heard Intel would be releasing Cedar Trail before the end of the year.
 
I want to be a fan of atom, but can't. The N550 is a freaking turtle compared to my desktop so I thought no way I am going to use this asus. Decided to get a SSD and helped a lot I would say, but still kind of laggy. I think I need to bump the ram to 4gb or smth to get a smooth feel.
 
I cant say that I am an ATOM user directly but ......

My QNAP TS659 Pro II has an Atom Dual Core 1.8ghz processor in it I think and all I know about is it has four threads total and literally is amazing for a NAS. I honestly do NOT see the need for more processing power in a NAS outside the requirement of having to do real time Intel Encryption on the volumes which I have zero need for.

This little processor coupled with 3 GB of DDR1333 can transcode 1080p content using PS3 Server on the fly. I know it takes a little bit of processing power to do transcoding like that for HD content so I know it is doing it quite well. And while doing so I never see the cores surpass 60% usage.
 
I can't wait to see what Intel can do with Atoms using 22nm lithography. They should make for some pretty powerful but ultralow TDP applications.
 
hmz said:
I want to be a fan of atom, but can't. The N550 is a freaking turtle compared to my desktop so I thought no way I am going to use this asus. Decided to get a SSD and helped a lot I would say, but still kind of laggy. I think I need to bump the ram to 4gb or smth to get a smooth feel.
Click to expand...

What do you expect!? You are running and a 4.5GHz Sandy Bridge i5! How can you compare the two? What OS are you running on the N550?
 
Perhaps I should build one of these for the wifey. How are they with Facebook games (since that's all she really plays anymore) and the occasional non-3D steam game (Bejeweled etc)?
 
atom is a bit slow, i have a xtreamer ultra for a htpc. I could not play 1080p youtube videos smooth on it.

so it is a bit too slow.


however in xbmc i could play it fine. But if it was a bit faster where it can handle windows and flash it would be great.
 
P4Power said:
What do you expect!? You are running and a 4.5GHz Sandy Bridge i5! How can you compare the two? What OS are you running on the N550?
Click to expand...

Well, my penryn laptop is a lot snappier than the atom with a ssd. I mean, it's annoying when even a browsing gets sluggish.
 
hmz said:
Well, my penryn laptop is a lot snappier than the atom with a ssd. I mean, it's annoying when even a browsing gets sluggish.
Click to expand...


Depending on the model of your mobo/cpu combo you may be seeing more video lag than cpu lag.

Does your setup use an older version of the Intel integrated video?

Does it use ION2?

How much RAM?

Do you have Indexing turned on? un-needed services? (etc...)

Any of these could slow your responsiveness.

I used my AT5IONT-I for 6 months at least 4 hours a day and I had no complaints whatsoever...just saying your problems may not be "Atom" related...
 
I am a big fan of the Intel® Atom™ because of what it can do. When you stop and thing about processors with these preformance level were using for power. The Intel Atom N525 is a dual core processor running at 1.8GHz with only a TDP of 13w. The Intel Core™ 2 Duo e6300 runs at 1.83GHz and is a dual core but it has a TDP of 65w. So while an Intel Atom N525 might not stand up well to my Intel Core i7, I dont think that the Intel Core i7 or even an old Intel Pentium 4 can stand up to the Intel N525 on battery.
 
IntelEnthusiast said:
I am a big fan of the Intel® Atom™ because of what it can do. When you stop and thing about processors with these preformance level were using for power. The Intel Atom N525 is a dual core processor running at 1.8GHz with only a TDP of 13w. The Intel Core™ 2 Duo e6300 runs at 1.83GHz and is a dual core but it has a TDP of 65w. So while an Intel Atom N525 might not stand up well to my Intel Core i7, I dont think that the Intel Core i7 or even an old Intel Pentium 4 can stand up to the Intel N525 on battery.
Click to expand...

Actually there's much less known Intel chip which deserves more of low TDP praise

http://ark.intel.com/products/42791/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-SU7300-(3M-Cache-1_30-GHz-800-MHz-FSB)

SU7300 brings dual core 1,3 Ghz core 2 architecture cpu which runs circles around atoms in 10W TDP and that's only 45nm part.

I have atom netbook (1x1,6) and asus subnotebook running that culv at 2x1,73 and there's collosal difference in power level.
 
Michaelius said:
Actually there's much less known Intel chip which deserves more of low TDP praise

http://ark.intel.com/products/42791/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-SU7300-(3M-Cache-1_30-GHz-800-MHz-FSB)

SU7300 brings dual core 1,3 Ghz core 2 architecture cpu which runs circles around atoms in 10W TDP and that's only 45nm part.

I have atom netbook (1x1,6) and asus subnotebook running that culv at 2x1,73 and there's collosal difference in power level.
Click to expand...

Yes, the SU7300 is much faster, but it also cost $289 when it was released. The N570 launched at $89. That is a pretty big difference in price.


BTW, Cedar Trail has been launched.
 
I think the Atom's are alright, but the Core i3 CPUs make more sense.
 
I'm a fan of the atom for its niche uses and purpose. I don't think it's a main computer platform unless for extreme value end of the market/internet only use. But I've had an atom 330 dual core ticking away for the past couple years as my home web server and test platform 24/7. It draws very little power, is quiet and reliable, and suits its needs perfectly. In the near future I hope to upgrade to a better integrated graphics solution with atom or get a low wattage pci vid card and have it multitask as webserver and htpc sitting in the living room. Have it stream 1080p content, and surf the web conveniently also. They will never replace a high powered platform but for low demand usage when setup correctly these things totally rock. Pair it up with an extremely efficient power supply and low wattage components and these things are dirt ass cheap to run 24/7.
 
I think atom is OK but the problem is smartphones compete heavily for its niche. I think what has caused alot of negative atom press is the fact that M$ announced windows 8 on arm. Now I personally thought that eventually we would see atom running a full copy of windows in smart phones, tablets and netbooks, but it appears that while that may happen arm will also be moving up and running windows. This is were the negative comments come from, atom no longer owns a niche of power efficient windows devices as arm moves in to compete. So now we have atom vs arm in the same niche. We will see how it pans out.
 
rudy said:
I think atom is OK but the problem is smartphones compete heavily for its niche. I think what has caused alot of negative atom press is the fact that M$ announced windows 8 on arm. Now I personally thought that eventually we would see atom running a full copy of windows in smart phones, tablets and netbooks, but it appears that while that may happen arm will also be moving up and running windows. This is were the negative comments come from, atom no longer owns a niche of power efficient windows devices as arm moves in to compete. So now we have atom vs arm in the same niche. We will see how it pans out.
Click to expand...

You have a good point here. However, didn't MS say that you would be unable to run x86 code? It's not surprising since emulation requires a lot of speed. So Atom might still make a good showing in the smartphone market. That is if there is anything that was designed for x86 processors that will behave on a screen the size of a smartphone. Now in an iPad form factor, that would be a deal breaker for me. I sort of went off topic a little there.
 
Ruoh said:
Perhaps I should build one of these for the wifey. How are they with Facebook games (since that's all she really plays anymore) and the occasional non-3D steam game (Bejeweled etc)?
Click to expand...


I forgot to reply to this, sorry. I would assume (bad idea I know) that those FB games are Flash-based. If so you would want to get a board with ION graphics because it takes it off the Atom's hands. Then again I doubt a game on FB would require much power.
 
I find that as a single core, atom just barely does do it for me. (Of course, that could be because I am using it in a Gateway Netbook that is 2 years old.) Even though I do not have a dual core version of it, I would imagine that would be much better.

I think the only thing that limits that netbook is the intel onboard graphics. :( However, the machine still works and does ok on an external screen. Atom is a nice chip, I just wish it were faster.
 
ManofGod said:
I find that as a single core, atom just barely does do it for me. (Of course, that could be because I am using it in a Gateway Netbook that is 2 years old.) Even though I do not have a dual core version of it, I would imagine that would be much better.

I think the only thing that limits that netbook is the intel onboard graphics. :( However, the machine still works and does ok on an external screen. Atom is a nice chip, I just wish it were faster.
Click to expand...

Yeah, another core helps a lot. The jump from my N270 to my N570 feels a lot more significant than the 60MHz clock speed increase would suggest.
 
My loveable little Asus EEE 1050n has a dual 1.8ghz atom processor, paired with a 512mb ion2 nvidia graphics card... I've never even heard of a netbook that could play games decently, let alone... doom 3 on maxed out settings! This thing is a beast, and while it isn't great for new games coming out, I was able to play arkham asylum, bioshock (well....bioshock works /okay/ with latest drivers), portal 2, L4D, Kotor.... the thing is surprisingly powerful. If you're in the market for a netbook, for sure look over at the new 1000 series EEE. (Mine is 1050, I know they make better models now but at $400....awesome deal at the time).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top