Dell: Intel's Atom in Small Businesses

The netbook has seen tons of success as a low-cost solution for the casual PC user and during time of economic crisis, consumers are benefiting from Atom-based notebooks more than ever.

While it’s an interesting concept, we can’t see too many businesses opting for an Atom-based PC just to cut back on costs (including the electricity bill) because it will mean trading in performance. That said, Dell seems to think that those shelling out for computers with a more powerful processor when they’re just carrying out basic office work would do well to look into Atom-based machines. PCWorld cites Dell's website for Middle East sales as saying the chip "delivers the performance required for basic office computing."

Check out the full story here.

Jane McEntegart
Contributor

Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.

  • Wouldn't businesses be better off with an Intel Celeron or a low power AMD Athlon (single/dual) core?
    Reply
  • jsloan
    soupheadbWouldn't businesses be better off with an Intel Celeron or a low power AMD Athlon (single/dual) core?
    i agree, atom is way to get more money from older hardware.

    sure new cpus are overkill, who needs a quad core to read their email.

    people would save money and get better performance from using older amds. i still like dual cores over single cores, you get a better experience.

    then again who needs vista, windows xp is much better, most businesses just dont need vista and 3-4 gb bloat tax for running vista over xp which does nicely with 512-1gb

    since xp will not be an option soon, linus really gets an opportunity to deliver a desktop distribution that runs on low end amd with 512-1gb and that does things that most people do. like email, web browsing, basic word processing and spreadsheet, photos, music, ect

    microsoft i think is making a big mistake dropping xp and forcing people into higher end hardware. i mean i need 2 gb just to run vista smoothly, that's nuts.
    Reply
  • average joe
    I have a few older pentium M based laptops at my desk. There running XP Pro with 2 gigs of ram. They are so slow I could double click on word and go take a walk around the block before they would launch the app. Simply forget about multitasking at all. We maybe spoiled here with nice speedy newer equiptment but it makes a serious difference on my productivity. Now I'm aware that an Atom Processor has about 1/2 to 1/4 that much power. If I was issued one of those to replace my D630 I would probably just quit.
    Reply
  • average joe
    It'd be like telling a construction worker to park his bulldozer and use this garden trowel instead. Think of the savings!!
    Reply
  • jsloan
    average joeIt'd be like telling a construction worker to park his bulldozer and use this garden trowel instead. Think of the savings!!
    nicely put
    Reply
  • It's definitely good enough for SAP, which most companies work with.
    I'd not buy a netbook, but rather something like an Eeebox,or a Nano platform box.
    Reply
  • a cpu won't do without a brain
    intel outside and then the processor, cause the proc cannot chose its software
    Reply