Dell Inspiron 11 3147 performance/gaming? (N3530)

[Admiral Naismith]

Hello,

 

Can anyone find the performance of the N3530, or the Dell Inspiron 11 3147 (contains the same CPU),

 

I'd like to play older games like TF2, CS:S, Simcity 4, etc. with a solid 30-50FPS or more (low settings ofc). I can't find many benchmarks that would be presentative of low-demanding games such as these. From the few I've seen it seems like it would be capable.

 

How would it be with a fresh install w/ Linux Mint?

[Vendetta]

Uhm could you tell us what cpu/ram and gpu is in the system so we don't have to look up generic models that can vary depending on retailer?

[Kherm]

I have that laptop, the Intel HD graphics aren't gonna cut it. However, the 3148 might do better

[Admiral Naismith]

Uhm could you tell us what cpu/ram and gpu is in the system so we don't have to look up generic models that can vary depending on retailer?

The 3147 is the model...

 

CPU+Intergrated GPU: N3530 w/ "Intel HD Graphics" which I believe was named Bay Trail.

4gb of ram

Generic 500gb HDD

 

Not much to put here...

[Vendetta]

The 3147 is the model...

 

CPU+Intergrated GPU: N3530 w/ "Intel HD Graphics" which I believe was named Bay Trail.

4gb of ram

Generic 500gb HDD

 

Not much to put here...

Ah sorry I completely forgot about that line of intel cpu's, literally never hear about them

 

Read up on the cpu here:http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Pentium-N3530-Notebook-Processor.112091.0.html

 

What would really really really help the performance would be to upgrade the ram in the system to proper gaming speed laptop ram so like a set of 1866 ripjaws or something.

 

That being said I'm pretty sure you could get by on cs:s at 1280x720 and low settings, and if you can get by on that you're good with tf2. simcity 4 on the other hand I don't think will run very well at all. Looks like you'd be down into the low teens in fps which would make menu navigation a nightmare.

[BobbyG2]

I would recommend an AMD APU if you can't afford a laptop with a dedicated card. If you can wait, I'd recommend waiting until Carrizo starts rolling out.

[miribus]

This is probably late but, my gf and I have this laptop.  First, I love it, but there are things to get out of the way.  If you had Atom before, forget about it.  The Bay Trail is completely different and far superior in every way.  This little so-called "Pentium" chip is impressive and I'll go over why in a second but here are the details first.

 

Alright, so, gaming.  It runs L4D2 at 720p with some of the texture settings to high, some shadows off, etc.  It looks nice, probably about as good as the 360, probably better.  I didn't run fraps but I'm a gamer with a nice desktop so I just go with my eyes and it was fine, even during horde events.  If you do find it lags ultimately there is room to move on the settings but I played through the 1st level of Dead Center and it was fine.  Grab a controller and put it in tent mode.

Rift runs ok but a bit ugly.  The telltale games including up to the Walking Dead, BTTF, and Wolf Among us so far.  Understand that what you're sacrificing for the most part is maybe muddier textures and jagged lines but performance was fine in all of the above.  What you're going to get is the experience of the xbox360 version of the game rather than the 4-way crossfire version .  Look, it's integrated graphics, but Intel has really come a long way in re-defining what that means at under 8 watts.

 

As a rule of thumb I'd guess anything from 2010  and previous would be fine, and probably more modern games than you think if you're willing to put in the effort and understand your limitations.  This thing is about convenience and on-the-go PC gaming.  I'm sure that you can play the games you mention on the bus.  If you wanted to rediscover your library I'd imagine it could play Oblivion or FEAR just fine too.  I would say that anything that requires an HD3K or Nvidia equivalent should be playable.  We are on the stock 4GB ram, HDD, and even anti-virus on it.  I don't bother tuning my stuff unless I need to and so far no complaints.  You'll be impressed by this Atom.  The mouse and touchscreen can be glitchy after resuming or re-opening the lid, but just do it again and it usually fixes itself and could just as well be a windows problem.

 

So, this Bay Trail is quite good for what it is.  I would estimate the performance to be on par with the 1st generation low-power mobile i3s.  .  All this at about 7.5W!  That is tremendous.  Whether you want to replace the HDD with an SSD is  up to you.  I have not, I've had it for about 6 months and the HDD has been fine.  Sure it could be faster but I'm not losing my mind.  I'm almost 40 and I'm just used to being patient with computers to that degree I guess .   The screen is limited in resolution but the picture quality is great.  You can always pinch most applications for better screen space and in a game it really doesn't matter beacuse 720p was going to be your limit anyway.  The fact that you can't output 1080p through the HDMI is weird.  For some reason I'm too lazy to figure out just yet, the HDMI port only outputs 1366x768 as well.  Its probably the driver but for now it hasn't mattered.  We have other hardware anyway so a 2nd screen isn't really needed.  The battery life advertised is not remotely right, in real usage it's probably 4-5ish but it charges very rapidly even under heavy use.  A game will bring it to about 3hrs max but you should be able to get through a few movies on one charge.

 

Finally, the construction.  It is well made, and feels very solid.  The PSU is light and not super hot.  The lower half disassembles very easy with a few philips screws and a fingernail.  From there you can replace the HDD, Wifi or RAM.  You're limited to 8GB max @ 1333MHz so your Ripjaws won't matter.  The best part is that if you ever break your power connector it just takes a screwdriver and a thumb to replace it.  Just order a new part and install it, no soldering required.  Wireless card can also be changed.  The battery can be replaced as well.  I imagine the LCD panel end is glued together, so I haven't done anything with that.

 

We own both this and it's bigger brother the i5 version, which is 2" larger and shares most specs with the Surface Pro 3, but I got it at 1/2 the cost on sale.  The SP3 is technically superior in a few really cool areas but the complete lack of at that cost bothered me too much.  Ultimately I gave up the stylus and a little bit of screen size and resolution.  The construction is the exact same as the i11 except 13" and it comes with a passive stylus, you can buy active ones but it doesn't support palm recognition.  The backlit keyboard is welcome and really annoying that it is missing on the 11.  I like that the trackpads aren't uber sensitive either.  Under load both are very quiet with one well-placed vent, but the atom even more so.  They both can easily browse the web and update facebook on one screen and watch netflix out of the HDMI port at 1080P (or 720 for the atom) & run paint.net and more than capable of Steam in-home streaming.  They keyboard size is identical to both and is roomy.  The buttons have a nice satisfying click to them.  I type quickly and find it has enough room to type comfortably.

 

If not this model, when shopping for atom, or pentium, or whatever, try to get the quad-core and ensure the memory can be upgraded at some point, it is worth it.  I was skeptical of the 'atom' myself at first because of the previous versions but these are very different.

[miribus]

In case you're wondering, objectively with most computing tasks the i5 and the Pentium are indistinguishable, from a gaming perspective the performance is similar (the i5 is a low-power SoC here at only 15W itself) so it isn't a gaming beast either but I played both ME2 and BIoshock2 in 720p with solid (again x360 class) detail and never had a slideshow.  It is just a somewhat larger screen, backlit keyboard, and better single core performance.  YMMV, some strategy games may be a bit of a slog, and some older games especially.  But the in-between games that at least use a dual-core and some DX10 tech are a good sweet-spot.. again 2009-11.  Just Cause, probably even Assassin's Creed might be playable at 720p, I wouldn't be surprised.