MSI Ships 2 AMD Netbooks With Radeon HD3200
There's no shortage of Intel powered netbooks packing the chip giant's Atom processor. Among them is MSI's line of Wind netbooks. Starting today MSI is shipping two AMD-powered Winds, the Wind12 U230-033 and the Wind12 U230-040. They're both a little on
They're both a little on the large side for netbooks (12.1-inch displays), but they're neat little notebooks that boast AMD's Athlon Neo MV-40 and Athlon X2 L335 respectively. The U230-033 packs a 250GB HDD while the 040 bumps storage up to 350GB.
That's where the differences end, folks. They both feature ATI's Radeon HD3200 graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 6-cell battery, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 3 x USB, VGA and HDMI out, a 4-in-1 card reader and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. Each weighs 3.3 pounds and runs Windows 7 Home Premium.
The U230-033 has a price tag of $429.99 and the U230-040 costs $479.99. Both are available today on Newegg.
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That's actually not a bad price tag. Convenient Vidcard if you have a few PSD projects that need touching up before class etc.
Not bad. Although it just scratches the minimum system requirements for the latest PC gaming....
Not bad. Although it just scratches the minimum system requirements for the latest PC gaming....
Don't know if I would be comfortable gaming on a 12inch screen.
Dual core CPU,
and 2 GB of ram?
These things may soon be fast enough to be worth buying.
(The price whould have to got down for me though.)
I can assemble a (HP) 6910p from parts for less than that price and if I'm correct I believe that laptop is a 14 inch. What's a couple more inches? It would cost less and have a bigger screen... Although the graphics in this netbook would still be better.
wow this is fantastic im selling my ion base netbook
What's the battery life on the dual-core? That looks decent.
Looks awesome! Will wait until someone posts a review saying that they could connect to an hdmi on a hd tv and playback itunes movies without stutter and I'm in for one of the dualcores.
link from newegg for them both btw http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] me=12.1%22
thats great, if the battery is good im definitel replacing my HP ION netbook... a relatively powerful netbook is the best thing a student can have
Just
Battery life is 4 hours according to MSI.
But since it only weighs 3.3lbs you can probably afford to carry an extra battery.
Just FYI, I've been looking foward to this since November when it was first announced. Here's the info I've uncovered. (All about the dual core version, why go for a single core just to save $50) A) It's a 1.6ghz K8 x2. It's easily twice as powerful as an Atom, and about as powerful as a 1.3ghz CULV. The 3200HD is still AMD's go-to IGP, the 4200 just adds dX 10.1, and the 3300/4290 are just clocked higher. It's about half as powerful as an Ion/9400 and can run circles around any Intel IGP. Battery life is mediocre. Hexus got an early engineering sample and reported 4 hours, which is a little less than an Asus 1201. Now these Athlon Neos are supposed to undervolt rather well, so it might be able to make battery life about the same as the 1201.
Found this:
"Compared with other notebook computers, the Wind12 U230’s battery lasts 2 times longer! While other notebook computers operate on a 2-hrs limit, the Wind 12 U230 enables a 4-hrs* operating time without the need to recharge. The Wind 12 U230 truly redefines the definition of mobility.
*Actual battery life may vary depending on use and settings.
*Testing configuration: BatteryMark4.0.1, Max Power saving, WLAN off, Bluetooth off, LED-level= 0"
...so, realistically still probably 3+ hours. Hmmm, tempting... I wonder how well it would handle Guild Wars...
Very nice. Affordable.
ib4 "can it play crysis 2?"
I AM HORRIFIED!
I just bought a dang timeline netbook with core 2 solo and X4500 graphics for that same price. DAMN. This timeline is SOOO damn slow. That Wind is nice and a VERY nice price, its like a small notebook that beats in weight but loses in size. BANG 4 THE BUCK!
Just FYI, I've been looking foward to this since November when it was first announced. Here's the info I've uncovered. (All about the dual core version, why go for a single core just to save $50) A) It's a 1.6ghz K8 x2. It's easily twice as powerful as an Atom, and about as powerful as a 1.3ghz CULV. The 3200HD is still AMD's go-to IGP, the 4200 just adds dX 10.1, and the 3300/4290 are just clocked higher. It's about half as powerful as an Ion/9400 and can run circles around any Intel IGP. Battery life is mediocre. Hexus got an early engineering sample and reported 4 hours, which is a little less than an Asus 1201. Now these Athlon Neos are supposed to undervolt rather well, so it might be able to make battery life about the same as the 1201.
Where did you get that the 3200 is 1/2 as powerful as the ion? I have two HTPCs, one with an amd 3200, and the other with an Nvidia 9300 (same as ion). Other that the Nvidia having better Linux support for video acceleration, they are pretty much on par. I think the 3200 actually does better in windows benchmarks.
Looks nice. I was torn between waiting for this and or getting the Asus 1201n Silver a while back.
I went ahead and got the Asus. It's been fantastic thus far. I haven't done any gaming on it, but the HDMI works great and youtube/liveleak videos work well on the big screen tv (no stutter).
I have no complaints at all about the 1201n; I'm curious to see what these AMD chips can dish out.
Where did you get that the 3200 is 1/2 as powerful as the ion? I have two HTPCs, one with an amd 3200, and the other with an Nvidia 9300 (same as ion). Other that the Nvidia having better Linux support for video acceleration, they are pretty much on par. I think the 3200 actually does better in windows benchmarks.
The Tom's Video Card Hierarchy chart has them as "equals." Just posting to backup your assessment: http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 569-6.html
Where did you get that the 3200 is 1/2 as powerful as the ion? I have two HTPCs, one with an amd 3200, and the other with an Nvidia 9300 (same as ion). Other that the Nvidia having better Linux support for video acceleration, they are pretty much on par. I think the 3200 actually does better in windows benchmarks.
Not exactly, The Ion/9400 is definately more powerful. It has 16 cores instead of the 3200's 8 (AMD cores are 5-way letting them say '40 shaders') Now, looking at the numbers half might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the ION is definately significantly more powerful:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDI [...] 949.0.html Vs.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-R [...] 591.0.html
Still, The U230 is much more balanced than anything out there. Compared to an ION/Atom combo that's severely CPU limited, and a CULV 4500MHD combo that has much less than half the graphics muscle, the choice is clear (for me at least.)
So, it leaves me with just one question:
Do I buy today or wait for it to come in white?
About time I'm try of heard Intel this and Intel that. We welcome the other (Amd/Ati)choice.
id get this before getting a HP,dell,acer or gateway laptop.
Not exactly, The Ion/9400 is definately more powerful. It has 16 cores instead of the 3200's 8 (AMD cores are 5-way letting them say '40 shaders') Now, looking at the numbers half might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the ION is definately significantly more powerful: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDI [...] 949.0.html Vs.http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-R [...] 591.0.htmlStill, The U230 is much more balanced than anything out there. Compared to an ION/Atom combo that's severely CPU limited, and a CULV 4500MHD combo that has much less than half the graphics muscle, the choice is clear (for me at least.)So, it leaves me with just one question
Not exactly, the 3200 has 40 unified shaders organized into shader clusters with 5 shaders in each cluster. (8 shader clusters) I'm not sure what you mean by 5-way, unless you mean they are unified shaders, which is correct, and there are in fact 40 separate "5-way" unified shaders.
Just looking at the architecture is irrelevant. You just need to see how it performs. And since it performs about the same they are on the same tier on the chart.
Just looking at the architecture is irrelevant. You just need to see how it performs. And since it performs about the same they are on the same tier on the chart.
+1 I should have said something along these lines at the end of my post.
This isn't bad at all. For ~$180 less you can build a more powerful HTPC with an optical drive and the ability to add expansion cards, but these netbooks include a screen, wireless, portability, and the specs aren't that much lower. I'd seriously consider buying one of these instead.
How does it compare to this Toshiba that has an Athlon Neo X2 L325? It's a bit smaller, costs a hint more, and also has an HD3200:
The wife has an ASUS 1201N and so far it freaking rocks. I haven't done any type of gaming on it, but it does everything she needs it to with little to no effort. I have to agree, there will definitely have to be some side by side comparisons.
The only thing I like less is that AMD hasn't invested in some form of hyperthreading technology in these chips.
Without hyperthreading or HT like capabilities you're not using the fullest of these chips.
That's why even when having faster cpu speeds for single threaded apps, I still prefer the Atom processor, as it in my mind has lower latencies (although with the N450 this might not be the case anymore).
,....... its called hypertransport for AMD, it does the same thing and I find it to be more responsive. If you checked benchmarking sites or did a little research on the CPU's you would know this. You need to read a little bit more Mr. ProDigit80.
I don't see this really taking off. It's priced in the same category as some 15.6" notebooks with Athlon II X2 processors and Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics. Unless that 3200 isn't a Mobility Radeon (which I seriously doubt because the power of the desktop version would kill the battery life) then there are better deals on bigger and better machines out there. Netbooks are supposed to be cheap and this one isn't.