Mobile Test Setup

Below are the specifications for the ASUS 1005PE we're testing. We'll include performance results from other similarly priced laptops, with a bit of leeway on total cost. The 1005PE targets a price of $300 to $380, so it's basically filling the same role as previous Atom netbooks. $30 more brings in competition from entry-level laptops and CULV offerings. We'll include ASUS' own UL80Vt as the high-water mark of what you can get for $800 (twice the price for well more than twice the performance), and we'll toss in results from a Gateway EC5409u with SU4100 CULV CPU. Spoiling our future article somewhat, we'll also have preliminary results for the Eee PC 1201N. Test specs of these laptops are included below.

ASUS Eee PC 1005PE Test System
Processor Intel Atom N450
(1.66GHz + SMT, 45nm, 512KB L2, 533FSB, 5.5W)
Memory 1x1GB DDR2-667 (Max 1x2GB)
Graphics Intel GMA 3150 (in CPU Package)
Display 10.1" LED Glossy 16:9 WSVGA (1024x600)
Hard Drive(s) 250GB 5400RPM HDD
Optical Drive N/A
Battery 6-Cell, 10.8V, 5800mAh, 63Wh
Operating System Windows 7 Starter
Pricing Available in January @ $379 MSRP as configured
Smaller HDD and 48Wh battery for $299 MSRP

ASUS Eee PC 1201N Test System
Processor Intel Atom 330
(2x1.6GHz + SMT, 45nm, 2x512KB L2, 533FSB, 8W)
Memory 1x2GB DDR2-667 (Max 1x2GB)
Graphics NVIDIA ION (16 SPs)
Display 12.1" LED Glossy 16:9 768p (1366x768)
Hard Drive(s) 250GB 5400RPM HDD
Optical Drive N/A
Battery 6-Cell, 11.25V, 5600mAh, 63Wh
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
Pricing Available Online starting at $471

Gateway EC5409u Test System
Processor Intel Pentium SU4100
(2x1.3GHz, 45nm, 2MB L2, 800FSB, 10W)
Memory 2x2GB DDR3-1066 (Max 2x4GB)
Graphics Intel GMA 4500MHD IGP
Display 15.6" LED Glossy 16:9 768p (1366x768)
Hard Drive(s) 320GB 5400RPM HDD
Optical Drive 8x DVDR SuperMulti
Battery 6-Cell, 11.1V, 5600mAh, 62Wh
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Pricing Available Online starting at $620

Before anyone complains that the EC5409u is substantially more expensive than the Eee PC netbooks, let us again mention the Acer Aspire 1410. It has 2x1GB RAM, a smaller HDD, and an SU2300 CPU, which makes it about 15% slower than the EC5409u. Basically, the two systems should perform roughly the same, and the Aspire 1410 costs $417 (which is already up $20 since we started talking about it two weeks ago).

We'll include the usual assortment of application benchmarks along with a few graphics tests courtesy of 3DMark. If you're wondering, actual gaming performance with the new Atom N450 is still unacceptable on anything but the least demanding titles. Battery life is arguably going to be the most important aspect for these systems, so we'll run our usual assortment of battery drain tests. Given the timing of our receiving the 1005PE and our NDA deadline, we were only able to run one of our battery life tests over the weekend, but we will update with additional battery life tests as we complete them.

Inside the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE General Performance Hits a Speed Bump
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  • JOEyGADGET - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link

    I bought a 100PE thinking I could use eeectl to boost the screen brightness to the ultrabright setting the way I boosted the brightness on previous ASUS netbooks. However eeectl ultrabright setting has no effect. Anyone know how to force the 1005PE to turn on or activate ultrabright setting? At its brightest setting the 1005PE is simply too dim for my eyes. Suggestions welcome and appreciated. Thanks, JOEyGADGET
  • ProDigit - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link

    I totally stopped reading after page 4, where the results became opposite of tomshardware results, and opposite of logic.
    The memory controller is on chip, and yet it's slower than a separate?
    Don't make me laugh!

    Really, for benchmarks you don't need to be with anandtech, for they just paste some stupid numbers there that won't make any sense whatsoever!
    Then again, tomshardware is only interested in running 3D mark and Crysis tests!
  • whatthehey - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link

    You, sir, are a moron if you are going to compare the THG article with this one. Unless I'm mistaken, the only Pine Trail article is this one:
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/atom-d510-d510...">http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/atom-d510-d510...

    See the problem? One, they're testing D510, not a netbook. Two, they don't have results for old Atom N280 and new Atom N450. Three, you're trusting THG, a site known to have sold out on too many occasions to even begin to count, just like HardOCP.

    Which results in this article are wrong? PCMark is all over the map, which as they point out is pretty much par for the course. Don't trust PCMark05, and there aren't any meaningful points of comparison for Vantage. They would need to show other netbooks with Windows 7 Starter, and they don't have that here.

    In short, to be "opposite" of some other site, they actually have to compare the same sort of hardware. AnandTech has a separate D510 article, but D510 isn't a netbook. Looks to me like the N450 has no reason to be faster. Same cache instead of the desktop, where the D510 has twice the cache size compared to 330.

    Please take the THG trolling and go elsewhere. THG ceased to be relevant right around the time that Thomas Pabst stopped being the head honcho.
  • foolsgambit11 - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link

    It looks like in the next couple years, we'll see Atom-derivatives relegated to MIDs and CULV-derivatives taking it's place for netbooks/nettops. I think this was Intel's stated objective for Atom from the beginning, right?
  • geok1ng - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link

    The very simple reason that Pineview sucks soo much is that Intel want to push the crappy GMA 3150 and the sluggish 4500HD down our troats. Another point for the Asus UL80vt, Dell 14z, Ions. The consumer cant have both products:a good GPU and a good enough CPU.
  • Fanfoot - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link

    I'm surprised that Intel had the GMA 500 core available to them, yet the GPU they've paired with the N450 is still so anemic. The battery life is certainly nice, but the inability to play HD Flash is seriously questionable.
  • piroroadkill - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link

    GMA500 is a decent product with godawful driver support
  • Shadowmaster625 - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link

    Sempron M100 is lurking about out there. And I cant find much of any info on it. Can you guys try to find and review a Sempron M100 notebook with HD4200 graphics and a decent size battery? If you do can you play around with underclocking/undervolting it?
  • JarredWalton - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link

    I've been trying to get *any* of the 45nm AMD laptops. I'll continue working on it, as I'm quite interested in seeing what they can do for power reqs. Turion II Ultra + HD 4200 seems like it should at least be competitive with dual-core ION (i.e. ASUS 1201N), but I'm not sure AMD is going to get power requirements down low enough.
  • MamiyaOtaru - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link

    "When Intel released the Atom CPUs, netbooks received a dramatic boost in performance and battery life"

    Battery life, yes. Performance, not so much. In single threaded apps, the Celeron was faster than the Atom. Overall, having that second thread was nice, but raw performance wasn't helped so much

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