Aspire AO532h netbook performance

Hello,
I am considering purchasing an Aspire AO532h netbook to use essentially as an MP3 player, since I think a netbook might be more versatile than an iPod touch (even though they can do many of the same things). I feel the netbook would be a bit more convenient for email and web browsing (in addition to music) than the iPod. Anyway, I was wondering what your experience is with playing music on these things assuming the use of Media Player or iTunes. Is this machine (or similar ones) capable of playing music without the occasional CPU spike (and accompanying skipping) that sometimes occurs with my older Dell laptop? This assumes that when listening to music, it would be pretty much dedicated to that task, so I wouldn't be trying to do a million things at the same time. I am willing to play around with the Windows config to disable any unnecessary background tasks as well. I'm just curious as the the real capabilities of these machines, since someone mentioned that the Atom processors don't really have that much power beyond simple browsing and email apps.

Thanks very much for your shared wisdom.
Eric

 

It will be more than enough for MP3 use, especially if that it the only task it will need to perform. Just like any computer, when you open multiple programs, and are tasking the CPU, you will likely have skips if music is playing in the background.
One trick is the set the priority of the music player to at least "above normal" in the task manager. This will tell windows that this program has a higher priority than others and you likely not here a skip even when checking email and such.

If you decide to get one of the new ones, please let me know if the AO532h has a "crystal HD" decoded in the device manager. Also I wish I could find some pictures of the underside of this thing.

Thanks,
MM

 

I am typing on an AO532h right now. There is no Crystal HD installed.

I will try to get a pic of the underside, but can tell you that there are 2 access panels. one for the single ram slot and another which covers the hard drive and TWO PCIe(one empty, one wireless card).

 

As I mentioned in the previous post Crystal HD was no available on the basic $299 model I purchased, but here are a few shots of the underside for you to view. I hope they cover for you the four things that I found useful.
The small bottom left panel covers a single dimm slot while the larger panel door uses 3 screws to cover the Hard Disk ans two PCI-e slots with one holding the Atheros card and the other vacant.

 

it looks so nice!

 

I installed a Broadcom Crystal HD BCM70012 card in my ao532h. Pretty easy. Had to remove the wifi card first, iirc, then shove in the Crystal, then put the wifi back in. Plenty of room, but the wire layout and design are such that the Crystal as to go in first.

Broadcom just updated the driver a few days ago but it's still funky with Hulu (probably as much Flash 10.1 Beta 2's fault as Broadcom - if anything Broadcom seems to be trying harder than Adobe). I ran a sample HD clip that came with another computer and it uses the Crystal under Windows Media Player for superb results.

The ao532h is a nice machine. I like the fact that pageup/pagedown are dedicated keys.

 

I have the 532h and it's a great machine. I heard it even has a Bluetooth port in addition to the mini-pcie. You have to take the unit apart to install the Bluetooth. I already ordered my Crystal HD. I'm waiting for it to come in.

 

LOLs it comes from Endor

 

Not to go too OT, but ... BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm sooo getting me one of these Jedi-books. Today!

 

I just ordered the bluetooth module and the Broadcom Crystal HD Card. It will take several days to arrive, but when I'll put everything together I will post the results. By the way Flash 10.01 Beta 3 is out and offers support for the Broadcom HD card.

 

Stuff works surprisingly well on the ao532h, as I was reminded last night when I pulled out an MSI Wind Eco 110 netbook with the z520 chipset to play with. First, I couldn't get the microphone to work properly under Skype with the 110 - even after running diagnostics and making sure the built-in microphone was one. Perhaps I had a defective internal microphone, but it was frustrating. Second, beta 3 Flash is supposed to support the GMA 500 chip BUT STILL DOESN"T totally messed up Hulu. Can't blame the Eco 110 for that, but then I decided 1) maybe I need to add another gig and 2) maybe I should just add a Crystal card (which are no longer available on eBay, BTW - BCM 70012 stock must be sold out, I bet the BCM 70015 appears soon). BUT no easy access panels on the back of the MSI. And no clever snap off back like on the HP Mini 210. I had to unscrew the ENTIRE back panel to gain access. And guess what? No empty PCIe mini slot. Guess that blows out the Crystal upgrade.

I was lucky I started buying Aspires instead of MSI's. Nothing wrong with MSI for the average user who doesn't plan to upgrade...but Acer is MUCH friendlier to people like us who like to tinker. The ao532h is pretty nice. No sound problems, has an empty slot for a Crystal card.

Plus they still offer WinXP on some versions. That's what I got!

 

I downloaded beta 3 yesterday, mixed results. Youtube will run through the Crystal HD card when using Google Chrome, but from IE it does not work. I installed both Flash components (including the ActiveX one for IE).

 

There not out of stock...
http://cgi.ebay.ca/HP-Mini-1000-110...emQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item5190901104

 

Hi!
I installed BCM970012 in its AO532h, installed driver 3.1.8, but I have a problem.
The Windows 7: When I play video h264 in MPC-HC (1.3.1705) picture jerks and freezes. With Adobe Flash Player (10.1) acceleration is not worked.
In Windows XP: all excellent, the acceleration works in MPC-HC and the Flash Player too.

For example:
When playing a 720p (Pixar - For The Birds) CPU load with the acceleration of 8-17% and 40-55% without accelerating. When playing a 1080p (Admiral) loading with acceleration up to 28%, without accelerating - slide show and about 70%. When playing video of "Scooter" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlpNp2HB ... re=popular, in version 720p loading with acceleration up to 65% and excellent reproduction of smooth, without acceleration - slide show and load to 100%.

What is the problem - in the drivers or in the system Win7 ?

PS: in the directory c:\program files\broadcom ... a utility DTS_INFO, which shows the status of the accelerator.

 

Yeah, I have the same problem. Just installed the Broadcom Crystal HD card and videos play worst than without it under windows 7 ultimate. I don't know under XP, I just don't want to go back 10 years on my OS, but really is a disappoint see the broadcom don't be able to play anything besides flash movies. I checked with all drivers version from 2.0.0 to 3.1.8. Simply doesn't worth the space it takes on my netbook. I will try under linux, but mostly is gonna be take out and keep on the drawer...

 

Well after consulting some engineers, seems that using windows 7 and the N450 processor is enough for watching those HD videos, the Broadcom Crystal HD card is useless in this case, because WMP 12 and windows 7 are already designed to work with the 3150 video chip included with the N450. Only if you use XP or other system (Linux, MacOS X ?) is Broadcom card useful.
The card was designed with the N270 and N280 processors family in mind, and as for the N4XX family is useless, specially if you are using windows 7.
So if you have a 532h (N450 cpu) and windows 7, the Broadcom card is not necessary. The OS is already enhanced to use the new cpus and graphics chipsets.
As for windows XP it is working great as some people report, because xp is not optimized to use the N450 and the 3150 chipset.

I hope this clarifies all and helps you to take a decision if to buy the Broadcom Crystal Card.

Regards!

 

My understanding is that the GMA 3150 has hardware acceleration for MPEG-2 (DVD coding) but not for H.264 (MPEG-4) which is the current streaming video codec of choice for Hulu, YouTube etc. So the Broadcom Crystal HA card does have a lot to add.

Adobe, certainly, is writing their release notes and on the forum as though the Broadcom is supported. BUT they report that the BCM70015 is works better than the BCM70012 most of us picked up from Hong Kong vendors via E-Bay.

That having been said, I also get better results when I run 10 not 10.1. It is very disappointing to me how long 10.1 is taking to develop.

And oh yeah, Adobe recently posted that there are a jillion different things Flash is expected to do, besides decode the video stream, which is why it will always be slower than a pure media player like VLC or WMP. They also posted that some content providers ask the desktop to ping back to the content provider too often, which puts a strain on Atom powered machines.

Finally, one commentator at another website noted that Adobe got spoiled by ever more powerful desktops and laptops, by consumers willing to upgrade their systems purely to run streaming video, so they never wrote or designed their Flash program for the upstart netbook community. There is nothing so inherently weak about the Atom that it can handle streaming video, it's just that Adobe came to expect Core Duo's and Core 2 Duos....

 

The problem is that the last driver 3.1.8 breaks the optimization under WMP and MPC-H for the codec you said. And after trying to watch some flash movies at YouTube at 480, they play the same with or without the Broadcom Card, using flash version 10.1 beta 3 or even beta 1. At 720 you start to see a noticeable difference using the Broadcom card, but for a 1024x600 screen, for me with 480 is enough. It is not the card being useless, but drivers and software not taken advantage of it, and the 3150 does his job quite well for watching most movies formats I use. Maybe in the future things will change, but right now for me the Broadcom card is not a must.

Regards!

 

Thanks, if you have time, a short list please of the movie formats and players that work well under the GMA 3150.

I have generally found that VLC will play DVD's I have compressed via Handbrake or DVD Shrink fairly well.