The Celeron & Atom CPUS...

[Abz Hussain]

are they ok for these little 2 in 1 convertables that you see from the likes of ACER and ASUS?
Im looking into buying one to take to work as i have a lot of downtime.
Other than the usual web browsing and email the most intense thing i will do is watch full HD video which will either be streamed or on the machine itself.
Also, which ones are the latest and the better...the naming conventions have me a little confused.
Thanks

 

[OspreyO]

See how it compares here

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html

 

[Steveocee]

The older Atoms handled in just fine in "netbook" format. There is an atom now that is quad core (ASUS I think use it it one of theirs).

Browsing and a bit of streaming it'll be fine, may be worth a look at some slightly higher grade ex corporate though? You can get some i5 Lenovos for decent money.

 

[Rroff]

The Z series Atoms are pretty decent for what they are - core for core, MHz for MHz fairly close to the desktop Core 2 line of CPUs. The older Atoms and some Celerons (in tablet, netbook, etc.) are pretty much useless for anything other than light internet browsing, playing older games, light productivity apps.

The older Z3740, 3770, etc. are generally a bit quicker than the Z3735 that seems to be cropping up in most devices at the moment which is a more cost effective version at a slight performance penalty. The Cherry Trail Z8000 series, etc. are quite a bit quicker again.

 

[OspreyO]

Obviously this isn't the full story as you have cores, threads, hyperthreading, battery life to consider. But I think its interesting.

Intel Core i5-6300HQ @ 2.30GHz 5,501 (2016) Quad
Intel Core i7-6500U @ 2.50GHz 4,358 (2016) Dual
Intel Core i5-6200U @ 2.30GHz 3,913 (2016) Dual
Intel Core i3-4110M @ 2.60GHz 3,873 (2014) Dual

Intel Core i3-4030U @ 1.90GHz 2,703 (2015)
Intel Pentium N3700 @ 1.60GHz 1,824 (2015) Quad
Intel Core i3 U 380 @ 1.33GHz 1,197 (2010)
Intel Core2 Duo T7200 @ 2.00GHz 1,168 (2006)

Intel Atom Z3740 @ 1.33GHz 1,066 (2025)
Intel Celeron N2840 @ 2.16GHz 1,063 (2015)

 

[BusError]

I have a Micro-ATX with a J1900 (Bay Trail) quad. It's clearly not massively fast, but it's <10W heat dissipation and it doesn't require a fan. Not only that, it's COOL TO THE TOUCH when running! Amazing little board.

 

[OspreyO]

Exactly.

Also when checking out the specs make sure to check out the battery size. On many cheaper machines they might use a much smaller battery to keep price and weight down.

 

[Abz Hussain]

Been looking at the acer aspire switch and all its variables, seems to be a bit marmite. Also had a look at some refurbished lenovo thinkpads but they seem way too chunky to be carrying about in my bag.
I just need something to see me through for 6 months or so.

 

[Rroff]

I have a Micro-ATX with a J1900 (Bay Trail) quad. It's clearly not massively fast, but it's <10W heat dissipation and it doesn't require a fan. Not only that, it's COOL TO THE TOUCH when running! Amazing little board.

Its almost mind blowing sometimes that the upper end Atom Bay Trails have comparable performance to 65watt TDP Core 2 CPUs but in a 2watt package...

 

[rtho782]

I have a few low power PCs about the house, perfectly fine as video players etc.

 

[leezer3]

The Z series Atoms are pretty decent for what they are - core for core, MHz for MHz fairly close to the desktop Core 2 line of CPUs. The older Atoms and some Celerons (in tablet, netbook, etc.) are pretty much useless for anything other than light internet browsing, playing older games, light productivity apps.

The older Z3740, 3770, etc. are generally a bit quicker than the Z3735 that seems to be cropping up in most devices at the moment which is a more cost effective version at a slight performance penalty. The Cherry Trail Z8000 series, etc. are quite a bit quicker again.

Yep, agree 100%

I've got an older atom netbook (About 3 years). Even after adding a SSD and bumping the RAM to 2gb, it's still not a pleasant experience to use; Whilst MS Office and a browser with a couple of tabs work acceptably, loading programs has a noticable hitch, and Windows updates are plain nasty.

On the other hand, I've just acquired a Windows 10 tablet very cheap. This feels considerably snappier in use, despite the fact it's got half the RAM and a much slower disk drive.

-Leezer-

 

[AthlonXP1800]

You should look at HP too.

My sister found it harder to read on her 10.1 inch Linx tablet I gave last christmas, she used Surface Pro 3 at work was very comfortable with 12 inch so she wanted new laptop with either 11.6 or 13 inch with IPS screen for maximum £250 budget. She saw HP Stream 11 laptop at Currys but screen was terrible she found it very hard to read. I searched for a week and found perfect laptop for her then she went to bought HP Pavilion X2 convertible laptop with 11.6 inch IPS screen, Bay Trail Pentium N3510 quad core CPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB m.2 SSD for £190 second hand to use it for college course. I updated laptop to Windows 10, it seemed faster than my Atom Z3735F on both Linx 10 tablet and PC stick.

While my desktop PC was down due to H80 water cooler leaked on MSI GTX 970 send to Corsair for damage claim, I now used PC stick with 2GB RAM, 32GB Toshiba eMMC and Windows 10 Pro as main PC. The stick handled everything fine, was watched Netflix HD movies on 1920x1080 resolution everyday for 3 weeks now. The total system power consumption on PC stick was used amazing 1W accorded to my power meter.

Just noticed Z3735F scored 902.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Atom+Z3735F+@+1.33GHz&id=2326

Pentium N3510 scored higher at 1632.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+N3510+@+1.99GHz

I am so excited about upgrade again in 2016, can't wait for Willow Trail Atom CPU Z9000 series with more powerful CPU and DirectX 12 feature level 12.1 GPU.

 

[Abz Hussain]

Well I managed to pick up a dell venue pro 11 with keyboard, 8gb ram, 256 m2 ssd and 4300Y core i5, for less than £300. Refurb of course but that will do me for now.