Can I get a little info on small form factor Ion PCs ? I'm considering building a couple for an office. It's a small publishing house. Synthetic benchmarks don't do me much good, and the large amount of coverage seems vista-based , so could anybody tell me whether they run bearably on XP, just for basic applications like Chrome and Word, and I just wanted to know whether I should go with that or build a couple of Athlon-based ones that are more expensive, because every penny counts here.
Basic applications such as web browsing, office work, etc. are really what Atom was built for in the first place. So long as you're not using it for anything more intense than watching HD video (e.g. DIY file server, image processing a la Photoshop, what not), you'll be fine with Ion. Bear in mind that up-front costs for Ion are about the same as a low-level Athlon-based system. Where Ion will really save you money in the long run is power usage. - Diosjenin -
Oh, okay then. No, what I was more worried about is do they run smoothly on XP? Because my customers get put off by a computer running at all clunky. Actually, as I'm speaking from India, here an entry level athlon is about 22k (rupees- I forget the exchange rate) where as you can build a ion-based system for 16k. Also, a couple more things I wanted to clear up: a) Is a better CPU or a workstation graphics card more important for fast photoshop work? b) And how suitable is an Ion for a windows home server install? c)Anyone know any good US/UK based websites that'll ship to India (Video cards, Cases, etc.) Thanks anyway, Btw, do I get a prize for being the youngest bit-tech forum member ?
Ion runs XP just fine. It will supposedly run Windows 7 fairly smoothly as well, but I have yet to see any actual tests of that done. That being said, it might be a good idea to clarify just how slow of a computer you're thinking of when you say 'clunky'... A 22k rs system translates to about $455 US, by the way. a) Most everything in Adobe CS4 is designed to take advantage of the parallel processing power of graphics cards. Every previous version (CS3 on back) is entirely CPU-driven. I would highly recommend almost anything but an Atom-based system for Photoshop work - primarily because Atom is an in-order architecture and everything else around today is an out-of-order architecture. (Way more than you ever wanted to know about Atom's architecture here). b) It depends on what functions you intend the server to perform. If you're just using it to keep backups of Word documents and things like that, it would likely suffice. Try streaming video over the network, though, and you're screwed - you'd want a mid-range Athlon (like the 4850e or 5050e) for that. c) Newegg doesn't ship outside the continental US, that much I know. The other good websites I can think of off the top of my head are zipzoomfly (US), tigerdirect (US), scan.co.uk (UK, obviously) and ebuyer (UK). I don't know their international shipping policies, though. If anybody else around here has other ideas, they can obviously feel free to contribute. hmm... a prize? Depends. How old are you? - Diosjenin -
Hmm. Well, they will be replacing Pentium 4s, so as long as it boots up within a minute and a half and everything runs smoothly(as in apps open within 10 seconds and clicking on stuff is smooth), I get a good order. Yeah, no, I was repurposing an old gaming rig with a fried processor, so I was wondering whether I should splurge and go for a high end quad core or pick up a good gfx card. Also, is their any real difference between the GeForce series and the Quadro FX? I started filtering out newegg from my browser because everytime i look at the prices, I feel like killing myself. We get really ripped off on IT stuff, and more so because theres a 1-3k(20-60$) difference in prices between here and Mumbai, so you can imagine the difference between here and the US. For example, a 4770 will run 15k.($300) Which is pretty much triple it's US price. Before I answer the ladst question, riddle me this : a) Are you a pedophile? b)Do I get kicked if I say I'm thirteen? (Ahem)Not that I'm thirteen of course. Are you the only person who ever logs on to the forums? because other websites I get like 20 different answers. lol .
Ehh... hmm. Well, in that case, just be sure you're getting a 300-series (dual-core) Atom instead of a 200-series (single-core). If anything, that's what will really give you a speed boost over a P4. Take a look at Zotac's IONITX boards. Yes - GeForce is targeted for gaming and isn't great at rendering (compared to Quadro), and visa versa. a) No. I only asked because you wanted a prize, remember? b) No, you don't get kicked. Actually, I'd be a bit surprised if that makes you the youngest one on here. c) Since you brought it up, you might find this funny. No, I'm not. Really. It's just that the topics that always get the most replies in the Hardware forum here are usually the "here's my list of components, what do you guys think" sort of things. - Diosjenin -
Ah. That must be why all my pdfs are in court and our friendly neighbourhood pedophile is running around free. Yeah, zotac's the one i've been looking at. thanks a lot. that was helpful. well, here's my hardware, what do you guys think? Core i7 920 MSI X58 Pro Corsair XMS3 3GB PC3-12800 Galaxy 9600GT Corsair TX750W Cooler Master 690 An old seagate 400gig and an even older 80 gig. (Both SATA 2) Damn, I should have made an account earlier. I've been reading bit-tech since I was 10, but I never signed up for the forum.
Just going off on a wild tangent, since you seem to speak for the people who inhabit this planet, Diosjenin, d'you know what the best tool is for video re encoding? I'm looking to encode evrything I have into mp4 so it'll play natively on all the devices in my house. I don't know much about this sort of thing, but I'm willing to learn. And before anyone mentions google, If you don't want to answer, fine, some people probably do. SO if I hear one "Search on google!" I'll pull out the chainsaw.
i am using a atom n280 and 1gb ram in my Eee PC. it is running on both XP and Win7 just beautifully. the boot time is significantly less than 1m30s in both XP and Win7. and opening apps takes around the 10s. depending on what app and what is running. i haven't noticed any stuttering unless i am running a virus/spyware scan in the background. but that is only because my 1gb ram is being fully utilized. imo, i think the 200-series is just fine for regular usage. i would just suggest more than 1gb of ram.
Looks pretty good, with the exception of the video card (which I'm sure you probably know already). Check this article for a great guide on ripping DVDs. The program they mention, HandBrake, also takes video files and reencodes them - quite well, in my opinion. It's free, quite full-featured, and takes full advantage of multicore optimizations, etc., so for someone with an i7 system like yourself, it should be quite speedy. Oh, and thank you, lxrysprtmscl, for letting us know about actual first-hand experience with Ion. +1 - Diosjenin -
the Ion board is great for small, menial, tasks such as stuff like writing up a word document, or checking your email but no more than watching HD Video. The Ion board will save power at the sacrifice of performance. You might want to look at the Zotac Mini Itx GeForce 9300 Board if you need something thats small form factor, inexpensive and powerful.
Yeah. I mentioned the prices here, didn't I? lol. By the way, anyone ever tested those generic chinese graphics cards? hmm. I thought HandBrake was mac-only? Well, either way i'm going to hackintosh my pc as soon as iATKOS v7 downloads.
