Test Setup
There is a long back-story to the battery life benchmark used in this review. We have decided to save that long explanation for another time. What you should know is that it has similarities and differences to BAPCo’s MobileMark. Like MobileMark, it is a workload-based benchmark, running processes through several programs. However, this is a benchmark that we have coded from scratch, so that is where the similarity ends.
We want to stress real-world usage, which is perhaps one of the biggest reasons we decided to have an in-house-developed benchmark. This benchmark mimics what you should expect from everyday life. Currently, we have programmed the battery life metric to simulate a user typing at about 45 WPM and reading at about 200 WPM. So, this is a “Real Life Use” benchmark, hence the name RLUMark (at least until we think of a better name).
Since we are testing netbooks, there is no need to include content creation programs like those from the Adobe CS5 suite. This limits benchmarking to the General Use Battery Workload.
This workload consists of the following programs:
- IE8
- Excel 2010
- Word 2010
- Outlook 2010
- WMP12
We will try to keep the benchmark as up-to-date as possible. As of now, everything has been updated to 2/20/2011.
In addition, we are always going to benchmark systems as they ship, including their default battery profiles. There is no clean wipe of the OS here. In reality, when you buy a notebook, system vendors rarely include a blank copy of Windows 7. Some of the included software is useless, such as trial software, but other programs are important for functionality; for example, ThinkVantage’s Power Manager.
Beyond turning down all the “special offers” when starting the system for the first time and installing Office 2010 Professional Plus, we do not disable or uninstall any software. Bloatware will naturally hog more system resources during the benchmark process, so we want to encourage manufacturers to cut down on this trend. The time it takes to complete a benchmark workload is unaffected by included software.
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Test Conditions For All Systems:
- Windows 7, all patches updated to 2/20/2011
- BIOS updates, current as of 2/20/2011
- Master Audio Volume: 50%
- System Drivers, current as of 2/20/2011
- Graphic Drivers, current as of 2/20/2011
- Catalyst 11.3
Some vendors tweak their Windows 7 battery settings a bit in order to maximize battery life and longevity. There isn’t anything wrong with this. Every company has a different battery strategy that it believes is the best for its system. For example, some notebooks are hardwired to force hibernation at 5 percent. Other systems will let you go all the way to 0% and just die, no matter what you set in the battery profile. We are going to be testing at default shipping settings under the “Balanced” battery profile.
Some manufacturers have a different name for this profile, but this will always be the “Recommended” Windows 7 profile. To simulate the same visual experience, we only “untweak” the display settings to retail Window 7 settings. In addition, all displays have been set to about 100 nits brightness, which is usually the 50% brightness level for the majority of systems.
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one-shot I ordered a Lenovo X120e E350 4GB RAM Win 7 Pro for $529. Lenovo's build quality and matte screen made the deal for me. Personally, I think the DM1Z is hideous.Reply -
hp79 Yeah, I also had a lenovo x120e. Build quality is excellent on those. I wasn't impressed with the performance too much though. It's was little bit slower than my thinkpad x61t core2duo L7500 which was from 4 years ago. But video playback was really smooth. It played 1080p mkv videos with only 30% cpu usage.Reply
Since I got my x120e with e-350 for $305, I eventually sold mine for a small profit.
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Toms, please fix the navigation menu!!!
Everyone that is annoyed at the navigation menu, please vote this suggestion.
http://feedbacks.tomshardware.com/forums/14581-site-forum-ideas/suggestions/1297969-page-navigation-really-sucks?ref=title
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bobdozer The D525 can only go toe-to-toe with the 3-350 if you only look at the results of multi-threaded benchmarks.Reply
Use the D525 then use the E-350 and you will not go back to the D525 and it will be obvious why. -
juliom Impressive how much bias Tom's has these days... E-350 performs quite a bit better than Atom in pure CPU power and don't even get me started on the GPU performance. All in just ONE chip! As much as it hurts you Tom's, Brazos is a much, much better platform than Atom is.Reply -
They wont put a large battery nor will they price it lower.Know why ,bcos the blue monster has found a new and novel way to continue its monopoly.Reply
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acku 9512452 said:Impressive how much bias Tom's has these days... E-350 performs quite a bit better than Atom in pure CPU power and don't even get me started on the GPU performance. All in just ONE chip! As much as it hurts you Tom's, Brazos is a much, much better platform than Atom is.
9512451 said:The D525 can only go toe-to-toe with the 3-350 if you only look at the results of multi-threaded benchmarks.
Use the D525 then use the E-350 and you will not go back to the D525 and it will be obvious why.
I'll admit that is a bit of stinging indictment. :) Can't we play nice? But I understand the sentiment. I really was after the point that the E-350 isn't all that different from the D525/Ion2 combo. It is better in graphics but in terms of CPU it is probably the closest to SU3700. And to be fair, many applications and tasks we preform on a daily basis continue to be multi-threaded.
I completely agree that Brazos is much better than Atom, but I don't think it's one of those automatic game changers, unless you're talking about a netbook. Now if AMD wants to completely and utterly destroy Intel in the the low-end market, I say drop the price another $50 bucks. Price per performance is where AMD historically has had an advantage. Remember X2? But right now, the company is benefiting from Intel having not released a successor to Pine Trail. For the netbook market, Brazos is great, but that isn't what is going to help AMD dominate the market. The lack of products in the mainstream mobile space is why AMD fired Dirk Meyer.
On a side note, I'm a hardware agnostic. That's the way it should always be. I believe in competition and Brazos is delivering it. I just want AMD to bring a bigger fight to the table. They talked so much about Fusion, it's time to deliver. At the moment, I tend to cringe every time Gartner or IDC talks to me about market share.
I think part of the disappointment is that AMD promised me an epic gunfight and I'm watching two people duke it out with peashooters. Ooo so Ion2 does 9 fps Brazos does 12 fps.