Asus 1201N Reviews and Owners Lounge

So here is another amazing netbook that has a dual core atom, coming from the company that started the netbook, time has flown by since then. Atom dual core 330 comes with 1.66 each core and 533 FSB, 2 gigs expandable up to 3 gigs.Nvidia Ion, 12.1 inch screen all for 500 bucks, who will be getting this machine? I know i will! I wonder how does this pair up with the UL series, and also i hope, but also being Asus being themselves they probably will come with an overclocking suite where you can overclock the processor to 30 percent or something, just like the UL series. Comments are appreciated. Amazon has the machine but they won't be shipping until next month. Also B and H has the machine now, its not truly a dual core atom, it is just two 230 atoms put together but hey better than nothing.

 

i got 2 of these laptops on order from exPC, one of each color, i will be giving one of them to my bro in japan for xmas/bday... he's got the msi wind u100 [iirc] for a couple years now and that is his primary computer, so i thought this would be a great upgrade... if the brushed aluminum looks too "fake" i will go with the black model, even though it will be a smudge magnet :/

one question, is it possible to run adobe ps on these? i got the cs3... other than that, both of us will be using these for basic tasks...

 

Yes, plenty of videos on youtube of Photoshop on single core Atom netbooks, so it should run fine on this.

 

Yes it will be able to work on these machines way better also if a dedicated graphics card is with the machine which both of them have. Also you can overclock the cpu to 1.73 with the overclocking tool by Asus. I hope the brushed metal is not to cheap, i prefer brush metal anyway. That is a great upgrade.

 

these look really interesting. i hope the screen on these are as nice as the one that they put on the 1000he. i was let down by the screen they put on the ul80vt-a1. it wasnt a bad screen, its just the 1000he has a great screen and i guess i got to used to it lol.

 

Lol yes that does happens at times, well the screen is pretty good i read, glossy of course it is not busy, Asus tends to not always put great screens in on even the most expensive machines.

 

Should be a nice little system.
Wish they matched the ION with a CULV processor and not the ATOM, but at least it's a dual core ATOM.
Have high hopes for this ASUS.

 

I think eventually they will put a CULV processor in the machine, its not really a dual core atom though. What will you be doing with the machine anyway?

 

You can also preoder from B and H http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...1N_PU17_SL_Eee_PC_1201N_PU17_SL_Seashell.html

 

Mostly looking for a nice portable secondary laptop to be able to handle some gaming.Don't expect them to play at high settings but just run with decent FPS.
This ASUS just might fit the bill, will wait for reviews first.

 

Yes don't think of seeing high gaming setting but it will be a nice little gaming machine for simple rpgs, sorry no far cry it will have problems maybe call of duty modern warfare 2.

 

I hope your wrong but if it can play MW2 halfway decently even at the lowest settings I'd be happy.
Not expecting it but would be pleasantly surprised if it could.
Hopefully ASUS has some built in OC feature to boost the CPU a bit.

 

Hi I have had some time on the 1201N
It is a sturdy machine. with a stunning keyboard.
It is lighting fast compared to other Netbooks.
after bumping the RAM from 2GB to 4GB it realy came to life.
It would give you around 1600 points on 3D mark 2006.

 

1,600 that's a good score, so you have the machine? I can imagine it is lighting fast, yes if you put more ram in a machine like this, it will really make a difference. Can you take pictures? Can you review the 1201n? What do you think of the keyboard?

 

Hi I have acess to one.
This is posted on one
Wat I was trying to say is that it is lightning fast compared to the standard Netbook.

For the Keyboard.
There is a Nice Tacktile feedback to it.
The only problem that I can forsee is that to upgrade your HDD.
You would need to remove the keyboard and the coverplate below it.
And there is a Warantee void sticker on one of the screws holding it down.

Just ask waht you want to know.

 

Sheesh a warranty covered sticker, how big is the hard drive? How heavy is it, where do you live? I don't think you live in the united states? How fast is the hard drive?

 

Its good that its powerful and more better to use than a damn netbook, does it come with overclocking software?

 

Is the keyboard backlit?

 

No i doubt it is, if the UL series doesn't have it, then i doubt this will have it. It should of had one cmon Asus your a great innovator you started this craze! Besides with other companies only on the higher end models have the backlit keyboard.

 

HI It has a Hitachi 250GB HDD, I havent run a benchmark on it yet.
It Weighs ~ 1.5kg
There is no backlit keyboard.
It comes with the Super hybrid engine.But it doesn’t overclock the cpu much.
ON Super Preformance Mode the CPU is clocked at 1650Mhz
The Power Brick tends to get hot, but I have noticed that the modern units tend to do that.
The bulk of the heat genarated by the unit is vented out to the left were the main fan and heatsink assembally is situated. I would have prefurred it be vented out the back. But that is just me.

Under high load for long periods the GPU can go to about 60 degrees celcuis.

I'm not based in the USA, but I have it under good authority that if Customs plays nice that we can look foward to these units under our cristmas trees
in my country.

 

So where do you live? I saw it listed on Amazon.com with a delivery date of January 15. Does that mean, it will be delivered erlier in other countries?

How is the general Build Quality? Any flexing of the palm rest, keyboard or the lid?
I have looked at the Acer Aspire 1410 at a local store and was really disappointed by the extreme keyboard flexing even under normal typing.

Is this the Case with the Asus too?

 

I would never waste my time with Acer, never.. The timeline series does look nice though but just not interested.

 

Yes this info would help many.
Another thing would be nice is tell us how loud the fans get and if they run constantly ( Bothered me in my HP DV2, it ran hot and loud with the fans audible at ALL times)

You are very lucky to get one so soon
Overall are you satisfied with the performance?
Tried any games?

 

What about the screen quality and boot time

 

One site that tested it said the screen quality was average and boot time was like 2 minutes.Not good

 

to bad average these days is total rubbish

 

Any numbers (cd/m^2) on the brightness of the screen ?

 

I'm anxious to hear about gaming experience, overclocking and tweaking. Play with your toy and share with the rest of us how good it is !

I'm down to this and something congo-based, which means I have to wait until January. It looks fantastic.

 

Yes average today is not acceptable anymore, if it was maybe even a year ago, but four years ago would of made sense. I am also interested in the amd congo, in terms of these types of performance, amd still shines in power but not in battery life, i just like to have an inexpensive lenovo with congo, its funny how amd chooses these names, what's next i wonder. The build quality is decent, only thing i hate is that the glossy palm rest. It seems like there really is a difference with this nettop processor.

 

I'm looking at getting one of these to replace my 1000HA, which I love but I find the 1024x600 resolution too small and the power from running Youtube etc too weak.

I found this great review here (in French) http://www.blogeee.net/2009/12/test-asus-eeepc-seashell-1201n-performances-et-autonomie/ Google translate: http://translate.google.com/transla...201n-performances-et-autonomie/&sl=auto&tl=en

They did some battery tests and its not as bad as people think. almost 5 hours on 100% brightness and using wifi etc.

The website also shows some great videos of what gaming is like on the machine. Pretty impressive. If only there was a way to overclock it to 2.00 Ghz like I can with my N270 atom on my 1000HA.

Looks like I will get this vs the UL30vt as its much cheaper and I only need it fro traveling.

 

I got the 1201N today which I ordered from newegg.com while they had some in stock. How do you upgrade memory on 1201N?

I know the 1201N's memory is upgradable to 8gb. Is this easy to do? If so which memory do I get and how do I install it. Please advise.


Also how do you overclock on the 1201N? Is there a setting that needs to be turned on

 

Hi What are your impressions of the 1201N? Hows the screen and build quality etc? You can upgrade too two x 4GB sticks of RAM instead of the 1 slot of 2GB RAM. Make sure you buy the same spec and speed of ram DD3 200pin etc.

At this stage the eeectrl overclocker won't work as its got the ION chipset vs intel 945. You only over clock a little with the preloaded Asus Super Hybrid Engine. I think it only over clocks it to 1700Mhz from 1600Mhz. But still its something!

 

thanks hendrickson for posting back so quickly,

I like the build so far, very sturdy and not real hot. Yeah I set the Super Hybrid Engine to Super Performance mode.

Would this memory card work if I got 2 of them to total 4gb?
CORSAIR 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) or should I get the DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
What memory card maker is the best?


Some other quick questions:
1) Regarding drivers, if a new one gets listed on the asus website do I just install it on the asus or do I have to uninstall the other one first. Where can I find on the netbook which drivers I have installed and what version is each one.
2) Regarding BIOS, if a new one gets listed can I just install it through the asus update on the netbook and once I do, do I need to reinstall all my other drives and windows 7 again.

 

I have had the 1201N for a few days now and am, overall, very pleased with it. Gaming is decent, but not awe inspiring. Overclocking adds a LOT of gaming potential to it though. I can maintain a stable 1.88 GHz with the OEM ram using the Asrock OC Tuner. I do have a question for anyone who also has this system. I am planning to upgrade to 4gb; however, I don't want to lose any ability to OC. I am considering the following:

OCZ DDR2-800 CL5

or

Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 CL4

Judging from what I have read on other threads, the ram is the limiting factor when it comes to OC'ing this system. My hope is that the Kingston will allow for a higher OC than what I currently can obtain since it is rated at CL4 and the stock ram runs at CL6. I would really like to get it up to 2.0GHz. I have seen that the Atom can reach as high as 2.1GHz stable; and, this would go a long way to improving non-multi-threaded apps and game performance. Has anyone tried either of these and, if so, how far can you OC?

 

adolen, what program are you using currently to overclock the 1201n. Also what did you do exactly within those programs. Did you have to adjust something with the memory timing?

I got the OCZ one.

 

I am only using the ASRock OC Tuner, I did not adjust the memory timings. I simply increased the FSB to 157MHz which translates to a 1.88GHz CPU clock (280MHz or 17.5% increase). If I'm not mistaken, you are running the OCZ memory I'm considering, how far have you been able to OC?

 

Make sure you update the trim.

 

what do you mean update the trim, can you be alittle more specific please. How do I enable/disable it?

Also are you using super performance mode along with overclocking with octuner.

 

I asked this earlier on this forum, possibly in another thread, but I never received an answer: is there a SIM card slot and/or a MiniPCI-E slot so that one can add an internal 3G modem?

 

hey guys,

been reading around here for about a week now and finally decided to join up.

right now im torn between the 1201n and the 311. ive seen it basically comes down to a lil more performance vs a lil more battery life.

so here goes my question....

can any of you running xp on the 1201n post some 3Dmark scores? OCed numbers would be more helpfull if you got emm.

also what battery life are you seeing when just doing normal stuff like browsing and such?

thanks for any replies! i really appreciate it!

 

@slumpey: No, I am not using the SHE, I am only using OC Tuner

@nightalon: There is no SIM slot. I believe there is a Mini PCI-e slot; however, it is currently holding the Wi-Fi card and it is not accessible from an outside panel, perhaps you could get to it by removing the keyboard. I have not tried this myself.

@some guy: Well, I'm not running XP, but I'll be happy to post 3D Mark numbers. See below for scores. As for battery life, once I drained and fully recharged the battery a couple times, I am now getting 4 - 4.5 hours of average use, 50% bright, WiFi on, browsing web, Win7 64 bit... I get 2.5 - 3 hours gaming with the system OC'ed to 1.88GHz. I have read reports that in XP the battery life is roughly 15 minutes longer.

3DMark - 1746
SM2.0 - 656
SM3.0 - 674
CPU - 973

See the full breakdown here.

 

thanks Adolen.

ive heard a few 1201n owners cry about crappy battery life for a "netbook" but to be honest i don't care what its labeled as. laptop, notebook, netbook... i just need it to meet my needs and budget.

thats at least 4-5hrs with normal computing and being able to do some light gaming here and there.

i know the 311 has great battery life and DDR3 on its side (more OC headroom). but if i can justify getting better FPS and or a bigger library of games that are playable on the 1201n vs the 311 due to the 330 in the 1201n, ill be willing to sacrifice the extra battery life and go with 1201n.

any numbers or real world usage you can post will be very helpful. basically im looking for stuff the 311 cant do that the 1201n can. from what ive read over in the "MyMiniHP" forums they have pretty much maxed out the performance on the 311 around 1.8-1.9ghz on avg. and are able to get around the same 3Dmark 06 score the 1201n gets stock. one guy hit 1800pts @ 2.0ghz in W7. if i 1201n owners can get a round 2000pts in W7 then im sold on the 1201n. if not then i may end up going the other way. i know benchmarks dont always reflect real word results. but im pretty familiar with how 3Dmark 06 runs and if the score increases to around 2k then ill know the CPU bottle neck is opened a lil wider with the 330 and justify the decreased battery life.

 

Well, I am planning to upgrade to 4gb CL4 ram and that should allow for a better OC that the stock memory it has, I'll update again when I do the upgrade, but I'm not sure right now when that will be.

As far as numbers go, I don't have any right now, I'll see if I can run a few more tests or get something to indicate exact FPS for you. All I can say at the moment is that I am very happy with it's overall performance.

 

Actualy someone on a french board that installed windows xp is reporting 45 minutes more in battery life compared to win 7.

I'm sure the 3d mark scores will be higher too since xp uses alot less cpu ressources than win 7.

 

As far as numbers go, I don't have any right now, I'll see if I can run a few more tests or get something to indicate exact FPS for you. All I can say at the moment is that I am very happy with it's overall performance.

thanks man, i dont need exact FPS. but.... what games have you tried and consider "playable" any chance you played TF2 or other source games?



Actualy someone on a french board that installed windows xp is reporting 45 minutes more in battery life compared to win 7.

I'm sure the 3d mark scores will be higher too since xp uses alot less cpu ressources than win 7.

thats kinda what i was hopping for. all of the benchmarks out are with the 1201n using W7 and i was planing on running Xp for that very reason.

 

i just noticed that the video end of the avg. 311 score is around 100 pts higher while the cpu score is much lower....

http://myhpmini.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=2445&start=204#p19300

i understand the difference in the cpu score, but the difference in the video scores would suggest the DDR3 in the 311 is giving it an edge in the video area.

but on the other hand if this is the case... 1201n users may see a nice bump in performance from OCing the ION (if DDR2 isnt holding it back). where as the 311 users don't seem to gain jack from OCing the ION due to the CPU bottle neck.

hmmmm... Adolen, could OC the GPU with the same CPU OC you had with your last 3Dmark06 run and post back your score? even 50mhz extra on the GPU should prove or disprove this theory. it would mean the world to me.

i see newegg has the silver 1201n in stock!

 

Ok, with the Atom OC'ed to 1.88GHz (1.6GHz default) and the ION OC'ed to GPU 500MHz (450 default) and Shader 1200MHz (1100 default) I did see a slight increase in numbers. The one who posted a 1800+ was using a N280, which has a significantly faster FSB, they are posting speeds of up to 195MHz while the N330 and N270 seem to cap out around 157 without swapping memory. I'll try toying around with the memory timings a little to see if I can squeeze even a bit more out of it. Also, I have noticed that several applications (read: games) do not make use of the multiple cores made available by the N330. This would help explain the apparent advantage the 311 with an N280 seems to have. This is offset by the fact that Windows and many day-to-day applications like Media Player, Office, and Internet Browsers DO make use of all cores, so almost everything, non-game related, does see an increase in performance over the HP 311.

3DMark - 1794
SM2.0 - 678
SM3.0 - 694
CPU - 974

See detailed break down here.

 

While I was messing with settings I found something interesting. I had mentioned in my previous post about games only using one thread on the CPU; well, In the nVidia Control Panel, under 3D Setting > Manage 3D settings there is an option called Threaded Optimization. This was set to "Auto," I changed it to "On." Now the same games that were previously only using one thread are now using two and four threads. This does not seem to have increased the max FPS significantly; however, it does seem that the min FPS has dramatically increased in games that are now utilizing both cores.

WoW, oddly enough, has not seen much of a change in FPS, despite spreading it's workload across two threads; but, it's load times have decreased. It is possible that it is still only operating on a single core, but is now making use of hyper-threading... not quite the result I was hoping for, but improvement is still improvement, I suppose. In open world settings, I get 30-35 FPS on med gfx settings and native res, in capital cities I get 15-20, and in Dalaran I get 6-10 in crowded areas of town.

Despite WoW's lack of gfx improvement, Rappelz (F2P MMO produced by GALA-NET rappelz.gpotato.com) went from using one thread to now using all four available threads; and, performance in towns and dungeons, which previously cut the FPS in half, is now much closer to it's max performance in open world areas. There was also a noticeable decrease in input lag for skill execution and wait times for window loads. While an increase in max FPS would have been nice, Rappelz was already running at an acceptable 30-40 FPS outside town with high gfx; so, overall, a welcomed change and very playable game, even at native res.

 

thanks Adolen!

your trials are getting me closer to a decision.

from what im gathering the HP is a solid win in the single core world. (games and programs that don't use multiple cores/threads) due to the higher FSB on the n280 and DDR3 headroom for OCage (probably helps in the world of shared GPU memory too). the 311 also tend to get 20% more battery life.

on the other hand the 1201n is king of the hill in multitasking. regardless of OCing or not. which is great for day to day usage and will be probably what i use the netbook for 80% of the time. i don't think the 1201n will necessarily do worse in games by any noticeable margin. it will just come back to what games use multiple cores and what ones don't.

ok, a few last questions...

is it safe to say all you 1201n owners are getting 4-5hrs battery life browsing the web?

anyone consider source games playable OCed or not? (mainly TF2)

thanks for any replies.

 

For overclocking I am just using OCTuner only, no other programs, and just upping the CPU frequency to 150 to get my CPU to 1.8ghz. Is this fine or do I need to do anything else.

I also have 4gb worth of memory at 800mhz (PC2 6400), I believe the latency is 5.