ASUS N10JC: the Netbook Goes Corporate
by Jarred Walton on December 24, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Graphics Performance
We also ran some graphics performance tests for quick reference. We don't have any comparable gaming results at 1024x600 for other laptops, so we're comparing the N10JC to itself, with and without the 9300M. For 3DMark, we used an external display in order to test at the standard resolutions.
| ASUS N10JC Gaming Performance @ 1024x600 Low Quality | ||
| GPU | 9300M | GMA 950 |
| Company of Heroes | 40.4 | 8.4 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 | 30.41 | Fail! |
Obviously this is not going to be a gaming powerhouse, but at the native 1024x600 resolution the GeForce 9300M is capable of running many games at low to medium detail. Note that the slow CPU is also going to be a bottleneck in certain titles; unreal tournament for example scored the same at 800x600 as at 1024x600, indicating a CPU bottleneck. The 9300M certainly won't set any performance records, but it does offer nearly 5 times the performance of the GMA 950. It also allows you to offload video decoding, which is definitely required for high definition content -- the Atom N270 completely choked on any H.264 content without GPU assistance.
Something else the 9300M brings to the table is compatibility. You will notice that we put "fail" under Unreal Tournament 3 with the GMA 950. There will certainly be plenty of other games that won't run on the integrated graphics, so it's nice to be able to flip a switch, reboot the system, and meet the necessary GPU requirements. It would be even better if we didn't have to reboot the system, but it's not something we envision ourselves doing so frequently that it's a critical flaw on this type of laptop. Also remember that while the GPU does support DirectX 10, you will need to install and run Windows Vista to enable those features. Considering the GPU performance on tap, however, Windows XP and DX9 are a safer bet.
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DILLIGAFF - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Thanks for listening :)i checked the download page and the utility is called power4gears hybrid under utilities for n10jc. in the utility you go to performance and in lower left there is a turbo dropdown. change it and save. i used cpuz to verify clocks
supposedly there is a way to wire it to the power profile button but i gave the laptop to my girl before i could get it all done
DILLIGAFF - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
looks like vista only...my bad...ouchpattycake0147 - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
The text of the article on page makes mention of a Western Digital drive while the specs and picture show a Seagate drive. You might want to change the WD to Seagate.Khato - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Just wondering why the article is stating that the 945GME chipset is used, contrary to Asus' spec page which has it using the 945GSE? Sure it's not all that much of a difference, just 1 watt on the TDP and a smaller package.Still find it annoying how many manufacturers are unwilling to touch the US15W. I'm guessing the combination of it only supporting 1GB of memory (really don't understand why that design decision was made) along with it costing more is the reason...
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Fixed... I'm guessing the 1GB limitation is exactly why companies stay away from the US15W. Like you, I'm a little surprised that Intel didn't support 2GB with the chipset; I mean, how much of a change would that be? Still, the next generation Moorestown platform should hopefully correct the power requirements of the chipset.Khato - Thursday, December 25, 2008 - link
Well, the reason for limiting the configuration to 1GB was almost certainly to save a pin. Support for 2GB would require one more addressing pin, which in a low cost product is significant. It also may well have been somewhat a marketing decision - it's a constraint that can keep the platform from growing upwards too far performance wise.Hopefully Moorestown allows for 2GB of memory, but it may very well stay at 1GB. After all, that's still more than enough for the intended market, and I believe you'll be stuck with whatever Intel provides for the chipset.
iFX - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
... but smaller companies might.Large corporate IT departments have their own "procurement" sub-groups which handle IT equipment purchasing. These groups generally buy in bulk, say 100-200 notebooks at a time from companies they have service contracts with like HP and Dell. They buy for considerably less than what consumers pay in the retail channel. For $700 they can buy a considerably better equipped notebook. These groups generally make purchases with a "one size fits all" attitude, therefor, netbooks are out as a software developer won't want to be doing all his work on a tiny netbook - the same goes for an accountant or an attorney.
Small companies like AnandTech for instance might buy these new netbooks because they don't have sophisticated infrastructures, large numbers of employees, huge service contracts and IT purchasing can be done on a more personal level - many times with the actual employee making the purchase. Equipment, models, brands, etc are not uniform in small companies.
iFX - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
And on top of all that... keep in mind that 99% of large companies operate in a Microsoft Windows domain environment and XP Home is not able to attach to a domain natively.Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Ergo my first comment on this article.There's a 800 dollar business version though not perfect because too low res for business and lack of 3G modem option, with VB, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB drive that I would have rather saw reviewed instead of the consumer version.
So not even the N10J-A2 fit the bill as a ultra-portable business notebook. But I would have rather seen it's week spots instead of the consumer version. As said not perfect for business but it at least is better then this and has a chance of being useful.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
All of what I had to say about the N10JC-A1 applies to the N10J-A2, but with a change in RAM, HDD, and OS. As for large corporations, I don't think they get as much of a break on hardware as you assume. I worked for Target Corp. and they used Dell hardware, but I'm pretty sure they were spending *more* on the laptops/PCs because they wanted a 4-year onsite, next day service warranty. Of course, you're overlooking the fact that big corporations also just wipe the HDDs and install their volume license copy and standard build of Windows XP Pro -- I did that for three years at Target, at least.