The netbook models of several manufacturers include similar hardware. Usually this means an Intel Atom processor that is running at 1.6GHz and either an 80GB-160GB rotary drive or a 8GB SSD (solid state drive) hard drive. A closer look should be taken at these options available (and some brands even offer you other options). Zooming-in on those factors will enable customers to decide if a minibook is right for them and which one to choose.

CPU – the central processing unit

The central processing unit that is offered in almost all netbooks is either an Intel Atom or a Via Nano. Both of them run at 1.6GHz. They represent clock speed and a non-Due Core architecture which makes them seem quite unimpressive. However, Intel and also Via have done something extremely smart. They adapted a processor that was initially intended to be used in mobile phones and PDAs and made them work in a miniature laptop computer.

First of all they needed to radically reduce the power consumption to achieve their goal. This led to less heat being used under long usage. When netbooks first came out many of them had overheating problems, but this is rarely the case now. Also lower clock speed supported this as in physics higher frequency leads to higher energy output which usually occurs in the form of heat.

In this area the Intel processor, which takes the form of a chip smaller than a thumbnail, outdid the competition. Using only half the number of transistors (50 million compared to the 94 million used by Via) and a special architecture the power curve was really driven down. Via also did a great job in achieving their goal, however, the focus of the company was more on efficiency than simplicity.

There is one more important difference. Via supports a rather old, single-threaded model of processing program instructions whereas Atom supports real hyperthreading. This may seem like a rather esoteric issue, but in practice this means that both Linux and Windows XP, which are the two most commonly used OSs for minibooks, will operate a lot better with Atom than with Via. However, Via is said to be a slightly better performer theoretically because of its out-of-order instruction processing.

Storage on the minibooks

Another crucial difference between the netbooks offered are the storage options.

Some minibooks offer an 8GB SSD as a default option. The inherent benefit of solid state theoretically is being faster and less subject to destruction through impact. In practice, however, many have not fulfilled their potential in either area yet. A hands-on test is the only way of revealing the true story.

A quick historical side note: solid state storage has been around for about 30 years. At that time it was used with mainframe computers, but as it was really much more costly than rotary, multi-platter drives the latter won out in the market place.

There are other brands providing a range of other rotary-style hard drives of that kind that have been used in desktops and laptops over the years. One or two offer the high-end 7200 rpm drives, while most feature a version of 5400 rpm drive. One – the Intel Classmate – has the slower 3600 rpm drive. Capacities run the gamut beginning as small as 30GB to as big as 160 GB – Mac Mini features 320GB, but it is technically not a netbook.

All other things being equal, of which there are many as you can imagine, the faster the platters spin, the better is the overall performance. That’s because individual files are stored in separated chunks on the drive (this is true for Windows; Linux works a little differently, but the idea described above is still applicable).

When the platters spin the so-called read-write heads come into proximity of the data location and depending on their task read or write it. Then the pieces are assembled by the instructions running in the CPU in memory and presented in on the screen in the usual way. If the platters spin faster those chunks take less time for coming near the heads.

Summary of the research

If you are interested in getting a netbook, check out several models listed in our Netbook Comparison Matrix. Just be aware of the fact that you won’t get the same performance that you could have with a full-sized laptop or a desktop. The CPU and hard drives can’t deliver this performance and you also have to expect a much smaller memory capacity.

However, the speed and capacity of these portable devices still match the capabilities of laptops of a few years back. This is quite impressive for a device that’s technically only a bit more than a jazzed up cell phone.