MSI Wind U230: One Last Hurrah for the AMD Athlon Neo X2 Congo
by Dustin Sklavos on August 4, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- AMD
- MSI
- U230
- Athlon Neo X2
MSI has opted to outfit the Wind U230 with a hot AMD processor near the end of its life, but a processor that nonetheless at least has some legs to it. What we want to look at is the value angle. Does the Wind U230's last generation technology at least offer a decent value for the price?
Well, there are a lot of drawbacks. The 18-watt TDP of the AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 is ungainly for a notebook this size and MSI's engineering doesn't seem to manage it quite as well as we might hope. What results is a lot of heat and not much battery life, and one of the real bummers is discovering that somewhere along the line, no one seemed to care. MSI touts a four hour battery life for the U230 like it's a major benefit, but four hours of running time is at the high end of the curve for the mainstream notebook and dismal for an ultraportable; where exactly do we fit the U230 in? Vivek seemed to think six hours was a reasonable expectation in his review of the Acer Ferrari One and that's a fair assessment.
While performance of the L335 is certainly a far cry ahead of the Atom and makes the machine feel more flexible and responsive - like a full-on, fully capable computer - that wattage is onerous, and it's utterly uncompetitive with Intel's CULV platform, to say nothing of the low-voltage Arrandale chips that are wending their way into the market. What you really wind up paying for is the Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics part, which brings a healthier and more capable driver ecosystem to the table, especially compared to the abysmal GMA 3150 Intel opted to saddle modern Atom processors with.
So what do you get for a touch under five bills? In that respect there's a lot to like in the Wind U230. The 1.6 GHz dual core processor, capacity for 4GB of DDR2, and Radeon HD 3200 IGP combine to form a capable if uninspiring performance profile. You're not going to be running any state of the art games on it, but it's definitely fast enough for the odd jaunt through World of Warcraft or, more importantly for some of us nerds, it plays Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers - a game truly destined for killing time on ultraportables - quite adequately. MSI also outfits the notebook with all the connectivity you could ask for: gigabit ethernet, wireless-n, and Bluetooth are all available here.
And finally, there are the screen and keyboard. Moving to a twelve inch form factor means vastly improved ergonomics with the keyboard and a substantially less cramped screen, and in each of these cases MSI makes the best of the added real estate. The screen is attractive and easy to use, and the keyboard is one of the better ones we've tested.
It's going to come down to a matter of compromise. A visit to NewEgg shows the Wind U230 is priced about where it ought to be at $479, being neither a mind-blowing deal nor an utter rip-off. If Atom and Ion aren't going to cut it for you as far as performance is concerned, are you willing to deal with a warmer, noisier notebook with substantially lower battery life? It's a compromise most probably won't be willing to make, but it's also not a homerun in favor of Atom and Ion machines either. The tweak-happy user willing to muddle through a couple of days of RMClock and IntelBurnTest may be able to largely mitigate the drawbacks of the U230, but even despite them, it remains an excellent option for users who need a little more notebook than netbook.
The chassis and design elements are about right, but what MSI needs to do now is work on the internals a bit more. Congo is obviously on the way out, and MSI has said that the L335 model will be discontinued rather quickly now. Oddly, the cheaper but substantially less powerful MV-40 equipped model may stick around a bit longer, but with half the processor performance we're less keen on that configuration. What we'd really like to see is an update to AMD's Nile platform, with a substantial boost in battery life. The K325/K625/K665 drop the TDP 3W, and if voltages are tweaked for better idle power draw, such a laptop might be a winner. Early reports of the Dell Inspiron M301z indicate idle battery life of over 5.5 hours, and that's with a 44Wh battery. (Sadly, the M301z appears to be a UK/Europe SKU only at present, as we cannot configure one in the US.) Just imagine what the U230 could do with the new CPU and its 58Wh battery. Hopefully MSI will help us find out.
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arthur449 - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
I must say, that keyboard layout *is* quite nice. I'd love to see that on more ultraportable laptops.jeremyshaw - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
I agree, however, it's called "one last hurrah" for a good reason. Even though I am not a vendor, I am speculating the low voltage Nile K10.5 CPU aren't in mass numbers, yet. We now AMD has made one massive push into this market, with over 100 new laptop designs produced, but I have yet to see their delivery numbers truely slide into view.JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
What I don't get is why Dell seems to have the most compelling Nile offering on the planet, and then they go and make a UK/Europe part! You can get a nicely equipped model for £579, but that's with VAT (17.5%) and shipping, and prices in the UK tend to be higher anyway. Seems like the US price should be able to get down to ~$600, which should be pretty good for the K625 model.futurepastnow - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
I suspect the cheaper model with MV-40 will still handily outperform any Atom netbook.JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
That's like beating a 5-year-old in an arm wrestling match. :pI've used an MV-40 notebook (also from MSI, only with an HD 4330), and while faster than Atom it's still sluggish at far too many tasks. The 4330 was a waste, really.
anactoraaron - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Expecially considering you can drop $500 on an ASUS UL-50 refurb with 210M and Optimus.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
I mean, yeah, it's a refurb... but if I was spending $500 on almost outdated tech this is the route I would go...
Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
This review is pointless, and it is obvious that reviews of old AMD products are placed on this site merely as filler. Why even bother? Change name to IntelTech.maniac5999 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Actually, I've owned a U230 for about 6 months. (bought it at the same price it is today) and while I do agree that it is a little unfair to review a product right at the end of it's product cycle, Anandtech can only review products that are sent to them. (alrhough I'm still waiting for the K10.5 Toshiba review that they promised they'd have up in a week, when they reviewed the old M600 one a month ago)Personally I think that the review is pretty much spot on, It's a great machine with bad battery life. I use my notebook for basic internet surfing and document creation, as well as time-killing with games. Civ IV and WoW run great on it, and it can even struggle through Starcraft 2. Something SLIGHTLY more powerful (both CPU and GPU) with double the battery life in the same case would be ideal. (to be honest, the U230 is very small for a 12" notebook, most 12" notebooks are at least 1/2" larger on every size.
Because of this I'm really looking foward to Bobcat. Intel can't make a decent GPU to save their life (Look how old the 3200 is and how it's STILL at as good as intel's top of the line desktop IGP) and Nvidia seems to only want to make discrete graphics for netbooks in this size range. Unless Nvidia releases Ion 2 for 12" i series CULVs, AMD's still going to be the only game in town. (Disagree? point me at any other 12" laptop that'll play Starcraft 2)
maniac5999 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
EDIT: No, the Alienware M11 doesn't count, it's a 14" laptop with an 11" screen. 4.5lbs is HEAVYJarredWalton - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I went on vacation, the A665D has driver concerns, and I was hoping to get them sorted out while traveling. Sadly, that has not happened and the result is that the Toshiba review will be up soon but it will not be particularly positive. The Danube platform appears to have potential, but Toshiba's implementation makes some real questionable moves.Besides that, these "old system" reviews are not a disservice to AMD. Here we have a laptop that we generally like, and it can certainly compete. We conclude with a few pointers on what the next update needs to offer to truly impress. Manufacturers do read these sorts of articles, so hopefully we can get both a Nile update of U230 (sooner rather than later), and if the planets align properly Dell might even try selling M301z in the US.
AMD's got a real problem with manufacturers not trying to promote their product. Nearly all the big names now have AMD-based notebooks and laptops, but so many are "hidden" without any push to educate the consumer. And many feel half-baked and shoved out without fully optimizing performance. I would think MSI could have done voltage tweaks of the CPU on their own, which would have added 30 minutes to the battery life at least. The MSI GX640 practically doubled its battery life with a BIOS update. Can the same be done with the U230? Probably not a doubling of battery life, but it can certainly be improved. So U230 + BIOS Optimizations + Nile may finally give us the AMD-based ultraportable we've been waiting for.