Acer Aspire Revo R3600

Nvidia's Ion gives Atom the boost it needs

We’ve pulled together some further test figures from five systems running Atom and the Celeron E1200. Three systems – the Intel D945GCLF Atom motherboard, the Acer Aspire One 751 netbook and the Revo - have a hard drive, while the two Celeron-based systems ran with an Intel SSD. This doesn’t affect the graphics, memory and CPU tests, but it does distort the PCMark05 Overall and HDD results.

PCMark05 Results
CPU

Longer bars are better

Graphics

Longer bars are better

3DMark06 Results

Longer bars are better

A quick glance down the figures shows that Atom on Intel D945G has very poor CPU and graphics performance and the Intel GMA 500 graphics in the Aspire One 751 are even slower. We can also clearly see that the Intel graphics in the G45 chipset are no match for GeForce 9300 or Ion. However, we can also see that you get three times the processing power from a Celeron E1200 and feel that a change would result in a superior product.

Verdict

Nvidia’s Ion platform makes perfect sense here, but Atom, at least the single-core version, has no obvious place in a mains-powered nettop PC. Still, the Revo is cheaper and sexier than its nearest rival, Asus' HDMI-equipped Eee Box B206. Still too pricey at £250? We say get the £150 one with Linux and an 8GB SSD, while stocks last. ®

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