Is Clover Field an "able" replacement for my Entry-Level Notebook from circa 2008.

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Comp625

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First off, let me point out that I already have a beefy desktop for gaming. I use my old Dell Inspiron from 2008 for MS Office and light Photoshop work (jewelry photography). The old Inspiron features Windows Vista, a T2390 Intel Core 2 (1.86ghz), 3gb memory, 500gb hdd and a 13" 1200x800 screen (I hook it up to an external color-calibrated monitor for PS purposes). However, the Inspiron's charging port is b0rk3d which has led me to window shop.

I am super interested in one of the new Window 8 convertibles/tablets, namely for its superb battery life, potential portability and x86 software capabilities. The Acer Iconia w510 looks quite appealing. I know the Intel Atom Clover Field chip will do fine with MS Office and web browsing. Is the CPU and integrated GMA usable for heavier tasks like Photoshop or old school gaming (Starcraft, original Half-Life, etc.)?

Admittedly, the price difference bothers me a bit, in that the Iconia w510 is not that much cheaper than i5-based devices (e.g. Iconia w700 or the Surface Pro). I could also opt for a cheaper Atom-device, such as the Asus s200e notebook, that routinely goes on sale for less than $500 - but lose out on the tablet-transforming abilities.

Help!! Any advice is appreciated!! :confused:
 
Actually the name is Clover Trail. I have a device based on it, the Samsung Ativ Smart PC 500T and the platform isn't suitable for gaming or over GPU intensive work.
 
Lol, I am an idiot for calling it Clover Field. Also, the Asus s200e has an i3 and not an Atom. It's been a long day. :(
 
What about the Thinkpad Twist? I think it has the convertible aspects you're looking for.

If you're in the market for something cheaper without the convertible option I'd honestly consider refurb x230 Thinkpads from the Lenovo Outlet.
 
Honestly how accurate is that portrayal? Brute force CPU power isn't really the only factor in terms of how snappy or fast a system performs. Lots gets done by the GPU now, the chipsets have more bandwidth/interconnects these days, etc. I don't know what they use for criteria, but it seems like it might be too narrow for a proper judgement call for your needs. It's basically about your priorities, high performance is not a reason someone would get a clovertrail device. Portability, battery life, and x86 for office/internet/light gaming is.
 
The Clover Trail performs roughly on par with the old netbook Atoms, so it's going to perform worse than your old notebook.

OldPueblo, the GPU part of that SoC is arguably even worse. The I/O isn't great either, as it relies on eMMC storage. It's also 32-bit :/

The up side is that the Clover Trail Atom is enough to run your basic stuff like video and browsing. It can certainly do light Photoshop work, but rendering is going to be painful. If you're gaming then it better be Metro games, otherwise it's not going to run well at all.

If you're looking for a tablet or notebook at a modest price then I'd wait until AMD gets their Jaguar-based stuff out. Hopefully by then Intel will *maybe* lower their prices a bit on the Ivy Bridge stuff.
 
OldPueblo said:
Honestly how accurate is that portrayal? Brute force CPU power isn't really the only factor in terms of how snappy or fast a system performs. Lots gets done by the GPU now, the chipsets have more bandwidth/interconnects these days, etc. I don't know what they use for criteria, but it seems like it might be too narrow for a proper judgement call for your needs. It's basically about your priorities, high performance is not a reason someone would get a clovertrail device. Portability, battery life, and x86 for office/internet/light gaming is.
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CPU Benchmark is a good rough comparison on speed. It does factor in a couple things during the benchmark test.

I have found it a good rough comparison of similar speed, 2x as fast, 4x as fast, half as fast, etc.

For example, my i5 3570k is around 7000 and Celeron G540s are around 2500, the i5 is about 2-3x as fast.
 
I've been struggling with this question as well. I really want the Samsung Ativ with the atom, but I'm just not sure how much power it really has. Right now my main ultraportable is a 2012 13in Macbook Air. I just wonder if the atom can provide a somewhat similar experience.
 
LTR said:
I've been struggling with this question as well. I really want the Samsung Ativ with the atom, but I'm just not sure how much power it really has. Right now my main ultraportable is a 2012 13in Macbook Air. I just wonder if the atom can provide a somewhat similar experience.
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What are you planning on running on it? Anything that's GPU or CPU intensive probably wouldn't work very well especially compare to a Core i5.
 
heatlesssun said:
What are you planning on running on it? Anything that's GPU or CPU intensive probably wouldn't work very well especially compare to a Core i5.
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Thats why I'm thinking I could get away with it. Its really for web browsing and word processing. So, I really don't need that much horsepower. I just love the designs, and battery life that these new convertibles offer. Anything more serious then that I break out either my XPS 17 or use my desktop.

I've just been burned by Atoms in the past and even tried a netbook with the AMD C-30 APU that was a step up from the Atom, but still things just weren't as snappy as I would like. Using the display models at stores has shown me that these new machines certainly have more speed, and an SSD always helps in that department.
 
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