A review of the new class of devices: nettops
Some time ago, a new class of devices that revolutionized the market of laptops. The impact of netbooks, a comparative bomb blast. Low cost devices of small size, therefore not very powerful, but for everyday work they lack the head, found a huge number of supporters. Speaking in numbers, the share of netbooks in the notebook market reaches 10%, which is quite a bit. And now, after more than a year, a new class of devices, netbook desktop options - nettops - appeared on the IT market.
Following the logic of the word "nettop" was formed as a result of the merger of the concepts of "netbook" and "desktop". Although the power of these devices is enough for everyday routine work, such as Internet surfing, watching movies, working with documents, but they are not suitable for solving more complex tasks that require sufficient system resources, such as processing photos in Photoshop or watching HD video. That is why to replace the standard desktop computer, at the moment they are not able to.
In favor of the nettop certainly plays a price that so far ranges from $ 300 to $ 700. But here it is worth noting the fact that in this price category there are quite powerful personal computers. But even in spite of this, the purchase of a nettop can be considered completely expedient.
If the user is faced with the choice of what is best to purchase, then you should figure out the purpose of using the device. Netbooks are good because they are mobile, have several wireless interfaces, so there is always the opportunity to go online, nowadays in large cities wi-fi is present in almost every cafe / restaurant. But the problem of netbooks also lies in their small size. The keyboard on them is not very convenient, although to me, as a netbook user, the keyboard seemed quite decent, as for such a class of devices, but a full-fledged keyboard is much more convenient than a netbook. The second drawback of netbooks is the size of the display. Small screens make painful analysis of small parts on the screen. Nettops, in turn, are equipped with sufficiently capacious hard drives, sometimes even DVD-recorders, but the whole point is that nettops provide the user with the opportunity to choose the keyboard and monitor according to their needs.
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Nettops have advantages over the PC, since practically everyone has a quite reasonable question: why take a computer that is less productive for the same money? The answer is simple - nettops are superior to PCs in that they are quieter, and sometimes they don’t make any noise at all, consume less electric power, and, most importantly, take up less space. Nettop can easily be placed on a table or behind a monitor, moreover, designers have worked well on the exterior and most of such devices can easily become quite a good addition to the interior.
Those at the moment are already several models. I will consider the most popular nettop - Asus EeeBox B202 and MSI Wind CS 110 .
No need to go far in history to remember how Asus brought the release of the netbook EeePc. For the company it was a big step forward. The fate of the nettop from Asus is, most likely, the same fate.
EeeBox is equipped with an Intel Atom N270 processor with a clock speed of 1.6 GHz, the same as in netbooks. This nettop is good primarily because its price is $ 370 and has very compact dimensions (only 223x178x26 mm), and also has a very good design.
The nettop hard drive has a capacity of 160 gigabytes and is made in a 2.5-inch form factor. The amount of RAM is not very much, but it is quite enough to perform routine tasks, and is 1 gigabyte. The pre-installed OS is Windows XP. There are 4 USB ports, 802.11n WLAN, gigabyte Ethernet, card reader, audio inputs and outputs, and there is even a DVI port. Such isoilism can hardly boast of another nettop. During operation, nettop power consumption does not exceed 15 W , and the device is absolutely silent . It is this little box nettop leader and so far out of competition.
However, there is another model nettop, which I would like to consider in more detail. This is MSI Wind CS 110 . Suffice it to recall the fact that MSI Wind series netbooks have gained great popularity, because of their performance and maximum proximity to full-fledged laptops.
MSI Wind CS110 can be called the most budget nettop, since its price is really the lowest among other devices of this class and is $ 310. The size of this device is also not large: 300x65x240 mm. The model has a hard disk capacity of 320 GB and a DVD-recorder. However, the power consumption is 2 times higher than that of the Asus EeeBox and is about 32 W, but this is due to the use of drives that are used in PCs and Intel 945GC chipset. The processor is also from Intel - Atom N230 . When idle, it shows power consumption of 29 watts. I note that this device is quite noisy, the noise level at rest MSI Wind CS 110 showed 1.3 sleep. But even in spite of this, the nettop pleases with its hard disk capacity and price.
In conclusion, I will say that these devices will certainly occupy their niche in the market and will be popular, but the demand for such devices is lower than that of netbooks. My opinion, on the basis of such a device, you can organize a system of " smart home " with not so much cost.
Following the logic of the word "nettop" was formed as a result of the merger of the concepts of "netbook" and "desktop". Although the power of these devices is enough for everyday routine work, such as Internet surfing, watching movies, working with documents, but they are not suitable for solving more complex tasks that require sufficient system resources, such as processing photos in Photoshop or watching HD video. That is why to replace the standard desktop computer, at the moment they are not able to.
In favor of the nettop certainly plays a price that so far ranges from $ 300 to $ 700. But here it is worth noting the fact that in this price category there are quite powerful personal computers. But even in spite of this, the purchase of a nettop can be considered completely expedient.
Problem of choice
If the user is faced with the choice of what is best to purchase, then you should figure out the purpose of using the device. Netbooks are good because they are mobile, have several wireless interfaces, so there is always the opportunity to go online, nowadays in large cities wi-fi is present in almost every cafe / restaurant. But the problem of netbooks also lies in their small size. The keyboard on them is not very convenient, although to me, as a netbook user, the keyboard seemed quite decent, as for such a class of devices, but a full-fledged keyboard is much more convenient than a netbook. The second drawback of netbooks is the size of the display. Small screens make painful analysis of small parts on the screen. Nettops, in turn, are equipped with sufficiently capacious hard drives, sometimes even DVD-recorders, but the whole point is that nettops provide the user with the opportunity to choose the keyboard and monitor according to their needs.
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The advantages of a nettop over a desktop PC
Nettops have advantages over the PC, since practically everyone has a quite reasonable question: why take a computer that is less productive for the same money? The answer is simple - nettops are superior to PCs in that they are quieter, and sometimes they don’t make any noise at all, consume less electric power, and, most importantly, take up less space. Nettop can easily be placed on a table or behind a monitor, moreover, designers have worked well on the exterior and most of such devices can easily become quite a good addition to the interior.
Nettop leaders
Those at the moment are already several models. I will consider the most popular nettop - Asus EeeBox B202 and MSI Wind CS 110 .
Asus Nettop: EeeBox
No need to go far in history to remember how Asus brought the release of the netbook EeePc. For the company it was a big step forward. The fate of the nettop from Asus is, most likely, the same fate.EeeBox is equipped with an Intel Atom N270 processor with a clock speed of 1.6 GHz, the same as in netbooks. This nettop is good primarily because its price is $ 370 and has very compact dimensions (only 223x178x26 mm), and also has a very good design.
The nettop hard drive has a capacity of 160 gigabytes and is made in a 2.5-inch form factor. The amount of RAM is not very much, but it is quite enough to perform routine tasks, and is 1 gigabyte. The pre-installed OS is Windows XP. There are 4 USB ports, 802.11n WLAN, gigabyte Ethernet, card reader, audio inputs and outputs, and there is even a DVI port. Such isoilism can hardly boast of another nettop. During operation, nettop power consumption does not exceed 15 W , and the device is absolutely silent . It is this little box nettop leader and so far out of competition.
MSI nettop
However, there is another model nettop, which I would like to consider in more detail. This is MSI Wind CS 110 . Suffice it to recall the fact that MSI Wind series netbooks have gained great popularity, because of their performance and maximum proximity to full-fledged laptops.MSI Wind CS110 can be called the most budget nettop, since its price is really the lowest among other devices of this class and is $ 310. The size of this device is also not large: 300x65x240 mm. The model has a hard disk capacity of 320 GB and a DVD-recorder. However, the power consumption is 2 times higher than that of the Asus EeeBox and is about 32 W, but this is due to the use of drives that are used in PCs and Intel 945GC chipset. The processor is also from Intel - Atom N230 . When idle, it shows power consumption of 29 watts. I note that this device is quite noisy, the noise level at rest MSI Wind CS 110 showed 1.3 sleep. But even in spite of this, the nettop pleases with its hard disk capacity and price.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I will say that these devices will certainly occupy their niche in the market and will be popular, but the demand for such devices is lower than that of netbooks. My opinion, on the basis of such a device, you can organize a system of " smart home " with not so much cost.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/56442/
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