ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Netbook - A Home and Office Powerhouse?

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Performance

First, here's a subjective evaluation of performance. I used the 1000HE for an extended period for web browsing, email, word processing and spreadsheet work. Applications opened quickly. Data entry was quick and very easy with the large keyboard. Paging and Internet access were fast. My work was always saved to the 160GB hard disk drive in a flash. I have no qualms about using either the 1000HA or 1000HE for office work. And, I was very satisfied with battery life, which in my real world experience ran about 5 hours.

I used PerfTest from PassMark Software to test the 1000HE. PerfTest is a very good, comprehensive testing suite that, unlike FutureMark’s PCMark Vantage products, can run on both Windows Vista and XP computers.

The PerfTest measured performance of the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE’s Atom N280 processor compared quite closely with that of an old Intel Celeron 1.33MHz processor, data for which is in PassMark’s database library. I’ll spare you the details of those numbers. Instead, I want to compare some PerfTest numbers for the 1000HE with those from my daily workhorse Toshiba M200-ST2002 standard notebook.

My purpose here is not to compare apples and oranges. Rather I want you to see how the 1000HE at $375 compares with the Toshiba that cost me almost $1300 back in late 2007; upgrades to the Toshiba’s memory cost another $100 and a Vista Ultimate upgrade added $200. So, call it $1600. I’ll talk more about non-netbook alternatives in the next section.

Test Computer Configuration and PerfTest Results (Higher Scores Are Better)

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Computer ConfigurationASUS Eee PC 1000HEToshiba M200-ST2002
ProcessorIntel Atom N280 1.66GhzIntel Mobile Core 2 Duo T7100 1.80GHz
Memory1GB DDR2-667MHz at 333MHz3GB DDR2-667MHz at 333MHz
Main HDDSeagate ST9160310AS 160GB, 5400 RPM, SATA-IIToshiba MK-2035GSS, 200GB, 5400 RPM, SATA-I
ChipsetIntel 945GSE, Intel GMA 950 Graphics ProcessorIntel GM965, Intel GMA 3100 Graphics Processor
Operating SystemWindows XP Home SP 3Windows Vista Ultimate SP 1
Row 5 - Cell 0 Row 5 - Cell 1 Row 5 - Cell 2
PerfTest ResultsASUS Eee PC 1000HEToshiba M200-ST2002
CPU Mark198.6865.7
2D Graphics Mark115.2200.4
Memory Mark168.1376.1
Disk Mark423.1130.1
3D Graphics Mark59.294.3
PassMark Rating191.7366.8

PerfTest does a number of CPU, graphics, memory and disk tests. It then summarizes these into basic categories. These are the “Mark” numbers above. The benchmark also computes a single value that summarizes all the tests, the PassMark Rating.

The 1000HE is clearly no match for the M200-ST2002, except in the disk drive category, where the 1000HE’s SATA II interface and drive give it a marked advantage. Do note, however, that the 1000HE’s graphics performance is still pretty good compared to the M200-ST2002. Watching the displays on the two computers during the tests, it was difficult to see a significant difference in performance. Note again, however, that the 1000HE ran at a display resolution of 1024x600, while the Toshiba’s display ran at 1280x800.