Comparo
| Laptop | Dell Zino HD nettop | MSI X-Slim X600 laptop | Acer Timeline 3810T laptop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Athlon Neo X2 6850e (1.80GHz, 1MB L2 cache, dual-core) | Intel Pentium U9600 (1.60GHz, 3MB L2 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core 2 Duo U9400 (1.40GHz, 3MB L2 cache, dual-core) |
| Motherboard | Dell 780G | MSI GS45 (MS-1691) | Acer GS45 |
| Memory | 8GB DDR2 | 4GB DDR2 | 2GB DDR3 |
| Memory timings and speed | 6-6-6-18-2T @ 720MHz | 5-5-5-18-2T @ 800MHz | 6-6-6-15-2T @ 800MHz |
| Graphics card(s) | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB | Intel X4500MHD |
| Screen size and native res | N/A | 15.6in - 1366x768 | 13.3in - 1,366x768 |
| Wireless | Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11b/g) | Intel WiFi 5100 802.11a/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0 | Intel WiFi 5100 802.11a/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0 |
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, 1TB, 7,200RPM, 32MB cache | WD 500GB BEVT, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache | Hitachi 500GB, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache |
| Optical drive(s) | Hitachi/LG CT10N BD combination drive | None, external DVD ReWriter supplied | None |
| Graphics driver | Catalyst 9.11 | Intel 7.15.10.1666 | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit | Windows 7 Ultimate, 32-bit (demonstration purposes) | Windows 7 Ultimate, 32-bit (demonstration purposes) |
| Weight, (inc. battery) | 1,635g | 2,135g | 1,665g |
| Current price | £610 (as tested) | £799 (as tested) | £550 (as tested) |
| Benchmarks | 7-zip (7z4.65,
32/64-bit) -
internal benchmark HEXUS.PiFast - calculation to 10m places CINEBENCH - multi-CPU render (32- and 64-bit) VLC 1.0.2 playback of Terminator Salvation 720p YouTube HD playback of Earth clip Far Cry 2 v1.0.3 - 800x600 LQ and 1,366x768 HQ |
|---|
Notes
We thought it would be unfair to compare the sample's performance to a cheap-as-chips ION system, the obvious competitor, so we've added in a couple of decent notebooks from MSI and Acer. The former also carries the same graphics card.In terms of benchmarks, 7-zip is a compression program that's multi-threaded for optimum performance. We're running the built-in benchmark.
HEXUS.PiFast tests single-core performance and CINEBENCH stresses as many cores as are available.
The video-playback tests take in the Terminator Salvation trailer, as found here. We use VLC player to play a one-minute section - from minutes one to two - on the 720p clip. An average CPU utilisation is then derived from the Resource Monitor.
Omnipotent Flash is then tested by running the high-definition clip of the Earth trailer on YouTube.
A nod towards gaming, Far Cry 2 is fired up and run at 800x600, ensuring all machines can run the test. We set the benchmark to low-quality, DX9, and high quality at 1,366x768, this time with the DX10 codepath.
