Test Setup
You can read about our testing setup and the other laptops used in our previous Gigabyte M1022 review. We'll have a few additional tests specific to the HP Mini 311, but we'll start with the comparison to other netbooks. Here are the specs of the test HP Mini 311.
| HP Mini 311 Test System | |
| Processor | Intel Atom N270 (1.60GHz, 512KB L2, 45nm, 667FSB) |
| Memory | 2x1024MB DDR2-667 CL5 (1GB onboard + 1GB SO-DIMM) |
| Graphics | Integrated NVIDIA ION LE |
| Display | 11.6" Glossy LED-Backlit 16:9 WXGA (1366x768) LG Philips LP116WH2 |
| Hard Drive | 2.5" 160GB 5400RPM 8MB Fujitsu MJA2160BH |
| Battery | 6-Cell 10.8V, 4910 mAhr, 53.028 Whr |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit |
| Extras | External USB Blu-ray combo drive |
| Price | Test system priced at $635 |
For our performance tests, we mentioned earlier that an interesting point of comparison is the ASUS N10JC that we reviewed about a year ago. We'll color the ASUS results Gold where applicable, with the Mini results in Green.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
51 Comments
View All Comments
takbal - Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - link
I turned the net upside down to find some comparisons in gaming with Acer AS1410 vs ION. None found, although there are plenty of videos on youtube about the ION-powered Samsung N510, showing games which look perfectly playable, while there are barely any for the 1410 or the 1810.And then came the surprise: the only comparable benchmarks I found were for Doom 3, where the N510 is said to have around 28 FPS while the 1810 had about 12 FPS, although it was with the SU3500 CPU. N510 costs £380 here while the Acer 1810TZ costs £430. Twice the performance is pretty good for less the price, isn't?
So whatever the specs on paper, probably the reality is that GPU-limited games are perfectly playable on ION, and having a CPU 2x-2.5x stronger usually counts less than having a stronger GPU. It would be nice to see clear and I hope you will do a fair heads-on comparison on games in that upcoming article.
And exactly what does the 2x more powerful CPU helps? Video encoding is something I never do on the move. If I really-really need to, I can just simply remote into my quad i7, and I do it quicker than anything here. Actually, the review at http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1923">http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1923 says about the 1410:
"When officially benchmarked, the Core Solo SU3500 is about 20 percent faster than an Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, but ‘real world’ it felt about the same."
If I add to this that N510 has bluetooth, matte screen and a much better keyboard imho, until somebody shows strong arguments against, my vote is currently for the ION.
takbal - Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - link
Some more found with 3DMark03. Sources:http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=4...">http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=4...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_skqaPDFo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_skqaPDFo
Acer 1410 SU3500: 1529
Acer 1810T SU7300: 1543
and the dual-cores seem to perform worse as they are lower clocked.
Compare it the N510's result which is 3470, more than 2x better.
You may hate Atom, but looks like that for gaming ION wins hands-down over current CULV platforms. For other purposes, I am fine until Atom can play all videos, run a text editor, office apps and remote desktop, which it does. Oh, and add decent Linux support, too.
JarredWalton - Thursday, December 3, 2009 - link
3DMark is NOT a game. At all. Sorry. I include is mostly because the earlier versions in particular are great "theoretical gaming" benchmarks -- they show what the GPU can do when CPU performance isn't much of a factor.The reality is that many games do a lot of work on the CPU. There are games that don't run acceptably on a 1.3GHz dual-core CPU (Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Call of Duty World at War...) and that CPU is still more than twice as fast as Atom. As you can imagine, that makes Atom very questionable on all but the least demanding games, even when paired with ION.
CZroe - Friday, November 27, 2009 - link
"The HP Mini 311 is one of the first netbooks to ship with NVIDIA's ION platform. The question everyone's... "???
"The question everone's [asking]" is, where is the question? ;)
This is gettting ridiculous. Anandtech has had truncated opening statements for as long as I can remember with no continuation inside the article. If you can't fix it, stop typing up opening statements that don't fit!
JarredWalton - Friday, November 27, 2009 - link
You'd need to look at the "Mobile" tab to get the full abstract. Here it is:The HP Mini 311 is one of the first netbooks to ship with NVIDIA's ION platform. The question everyone's asking is: does ION improve the netbook experience? The answer is yes, but there are other questions we still need to address.
rwrentf - Friday, November 27, 2009 - link
I don't know why the review sites seem to be ignoring this (I can't find a decent review anywhere), but what about the HP Pavilion dm3z? The specs I've been able to find specify a 4-5 hour battery life, 13.3" display, Radeon 4330 graphics (on the high end, but low end is still Radeon HD 3200), 7200rpm hard drive options, and a dual core AMD Athlon X2 Neo processor. There's a sweet system for $650 AR at the egg (just search for dm3 - 4GB, 320GB 7200rpm, and Radeon 3200 graphics). If you're already talking about close to $500 for this HP netbook, it's not a lot more, and it sounds like it would be enough for me to retire my real notebook. Please review it if possible.rwrentf - Friday, November 27, 2009 - link
If you go to Amazon you can get just about the same machine (with Windows 7 home) for $550noquarter - Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - link
I'm curious to how well these Ion netbooks handle popular MMO's, specifically World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online, any chance to test those and maybe Eve?zxc367 - Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - link
i want gigabit ethernet too! 100bit fails!Roy2001 - Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - link
And what's the point to watch HD movies on a netbook? 18fps with 800x600 and lowest quaility for game, that's a joke. 18fps == 0fps.