[geeks] PC-BIOS over serial

[nate at portents.com]

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:06:09 -0400, Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
wrote:
> Speaking of Atoms ...  I'd like to swap out the kids' aging Windows
> boxen and CRTs for low-power machines and LCDs when we have budget -
> which I'm hoping will be soon.  Like, say, Atom hardware.
> 
> Anyone happen to know how well typical Atom machines do for
> low-to-midrange (i.e, nowhere near the bleeding edge) gaming?  Assume
> that the most demanding games any of the three are likely to be playing
> are Civ4 or HALO.

Most Atom boards have weak Intel integrated graphics that will barely play
even older games.  The best boards will have NVIDIA GeForce 'Ion'
(9300-class) graphics, which will just eek out playable framerates (above
20fps in some cases), but are to some extent also held back by Atom's CPU
performance.  Atom CPUs are not Out-of-Order CPUs (think back to
pre-Pentium Pro architecture x86).  Those Atom Ion boards are also not
cheap, between $145-180:

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500036>

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500052>

For a lot of reasons I think you'd be better off with a MicroATX AMD 890GX
motherboard (Radeon HD 4290 onboard graphics):

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=22&Description=&Type=&N=100007625&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=719%3A55462&PropertyCodeValue=757%3A7619>

Then add a reasonable low-end AMD CPU.  For $58 you can get a dual-core
2.9Ghz CPU (Out-of-Order too, so even faster than an in-order CPU would be
at those speeds) that has a max thermal envelope of 65W:

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687>

So a motherboard + CPU combo like that would greatly outperform any Atom
motherboard for less money, and be more upgradable and usable long-term as
well.

- Nate