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Will dual core improve internet speed on netbook?

sezchwarn

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Posted May 23, 2011 at 11:58AM

Hi,

I have just bought a Toshiba NB305 which has a single Atom 470 processor. The internet seems to be quite laggy. I'm going to change the netbook anyway to an Asus 1015 because I'd prefer the matte screen but am wondering if anybody has a better idea of how much upgrading to the new Atom 570 (which is incuded in the new 1015px) will have an effect on internet speed..

I'm not sure about getting the 1015px because I've read for single tasking that the extra processor doesn't help much, additionally, it's £50 more than the standard 1015p and has worse battery life.

So, can anyone enlighten me on this topic please? Do others experience slow internet speeds on their netbooks or is it just me?

Thanks to all who give advice.

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Woolwell

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Posted May 23, 2011 at 1:30PM

Without knowing how you are connecting it is difficult to comment. I doubt that the processor will make much difference to browsing speed.

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sezchwarn

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Posted May 23, 2011 at 2:06PM

I am connecting mainly via a 3g dongle, occasionally wirelessly.

I am wondering whether netbooks are generally expected to perform as well as laptops with non- intensive tasks such as internet web page rendering- which would therefore indicate that an upgraded processor would be little help for such a task- or whether there is expected to be a noticeable difference between laptop and netbook, which would indicate that an upgraded processor would close the gap between the two somewhat..

It's difficult to tell but it seems that my netbook struggles a little with multitab browsing.

The key question i guess is this: When you are waiting for a page to load, does the time depend soley on the internet connection?

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woodchip

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Posted May 23, 2011 at 4:02PM

I use a Samsung nc10 and it only as the small atom CPU but does not run slow it seems as fast as my HP Laptop with a Centrino 2.13Ghz CPU. download speed is not much slower than the above, Internet speed depends on the Network card that's in it mostly, but cpu can have a small effect

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sezchwarn

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Posted May 25, 2011 at 5:05PM

Ok, so I just tested mmy netbook vs my friends macbook using the exact same connection and browser. The macbook is significantly faster for browsing, sometimes loading pages in half the time. The literature on the internet strongly asserts that this shouldn't be the case, that netbooks are more than powerful enough to browse the internet. How wrong can they be? What's wrong with the world??? Amongst all the computer geeks out there, can noone seriously say with confidence what the limiting/ siginficant factors are?

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chub_tor

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Posted May 25, 2011 at 5:25PM

Your internet speed, and the speed in which you load websites is completely up to your internet connection. However, if the website requires third-party programs to be utilized (ex: Java, Flash Player, etc.) than the ease and speed in which those programs are initiated is dependent on the speed of your processor, as well as the amount of RAM memory you have available. Also the processor helps browser add ons, which in turn helps the content to load. So answer your question the speed of the processor can help pages to load quicker but that depends on their content, equally the amount of RAM you have will also assist in page rendering.

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Woolwell

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Posted May 25, 2011 at 6:07PM

How much ram does the macbook have? Which browser was the test done with?

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chub_tor

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Posted May 25, 2011 at 6:30PM

sezchwarn you should also be aware that if your friend with the Macbook had previously visited a website in all probability many of the images on that page will be stored in temporary internet files. These allow pages to load faster as they have already been downloaded. You however might be visiting that webpage for the first time so your machine has to download and store all the images so that it can access them later. You might not be comparing like with like and as Woolwell says the macbook may also have more RAM as well as a faster processor.

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SparkyJack

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Posted May 25, 2011 at 7:56PM

It is the Internet service that need to improve. not your computer. Change your provider. Bear in mind that all providers are limted by the density of users in a given area,the exchange equipment is limited to how many calls it can pass- this is called -contention ratio- The cheaper the ISP- the more data it will try to pass at a given time - therefore the slower your connection will be.

One almost certain way to attain higher 'speed' is to set the alarm for 3am and do your surfing when every other sane person is tucked up in bed.

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woodchip

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Posted May 25, 2011 at 8:24PM

Browser plays a large part in the speed also what plug ins it uses, mine checks Web pages and tops redirection links blocked etc all these can slow you Netbook down

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wee eddie

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Posted May 25, 2011 at 10:11PM

I'm hate to say this but you are comparing a Macbook, even the oldest of which are well equipped, with a Netbook which is designed to be cheap and cheerful.

It's unfair on your Netbook to put it up against such competition.

If you buy one with a more powerful processor, it will still not be able to process the information it receives at anything like the speed of the Mac.

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