HP 2133 Mini-Note

Vista Service Pack 1 and XP Service Pack 3 with updated drivers Mini-Note Benchmarks

About a week and a half ago VIA released new drivers for the CN896 chipset and Chrome9 integrated graphics. A lot of users on the forums said that these drivers provided a noticeable boost in Vista, so I decided to put them to the test to see if there really is a difference. I didn’t feel it was necessary to test the all the different clockspeeds as I did in the previous benchmarking because I’ve yet to find a way to throttle the CPU to 1200Mhz in XP. That, and most people are interested in the max values anyways. Besides the new drivers I have Vista’s Service Pack 1 and XP’s Service Pack 3 installed.

All the tests are done using their default settings on a stock KX870AT Mini-Note which has a 1.6Ghz VIA C7-M processor, 2 GB DDR2 667 RAM, and a 120GB 7200 RPM HD.

So from the table we can see that the updated Vista is pretty much on par with the old XP setup. Which from my usage I would say is pretty much true. Vista still takes quite a long time to boot though.

Strangely the 3DMark03 scores for the updated XP install were slightly worse and I’m not sure why. I usually only run each test three times and take the best, but I ran this one five times because it kept coming back as lower than the previous testing.

Video Playback
Video playback was improved quite a bit on each OS. In Vista Youtube plays great small or full screen with no dropped frames. If you open another web page it will drop a few then though. Small screen Hulu improved quite a bit and was actually watchable after the first 3 or 4 seconds. Full screen was still pretty bad though. Basically where XP was before its updates is where Vista now is with its updates.

Over on XP, Youtube plays perfect full or small screen and isn’t really affected much by pulling up another site in a new window. Like in Vista, Hulu is much improved as well. Small screen is almost perfect, and full screen is better but not really watchable.

So if you haven’t upgraded yet, get the new Service Pack for whichever OS your on and the current drivers:

Update: Some users are reporting the driver for HP Mobile Data Protection Sensor (or 3D Drive Guard) is getting uninstalled and they can’t re-install it. If have been affected by that please post your model number and OS. Thanks!

For XP
CN896 Chipset Drivers
Chrome9 Drivers

For Vista
CN896 Chipset Drivers
Chrome9 Drivers

If you’re wanting a little more info on the previous tests check these out:
Mini-Note Performance Tests with XP
HP Mini-Note XP Movie Playback
HP 2133 Mini-Note Vista Movie Playback

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Mini-Note Performance Tests with Windows XP

I know everyone has been really curious to see the performance difference of XP on the Mini-Note, so without further ado here are the results:

Computer Details

Mini-Note #1 = 800Mhz, Vista Business
Mini-Note #2 = 1200Mhz, Vista Business
Mini-Note #3 = 1600Mhz, Vista Business
Mini-Note #4 = 800Mhz, XP Pro SP2
Mini-Note #5 = 1200Mhz, XP Pro SP2
Mini-Note #6 = 1600Mhz, XP Pro SP2
Desktop #1 = 1800Mhz AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (1800Ghz), 1GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 6200, Windows Media Center SP2
Desktop #2 = 1867Mhz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 7600GT, Windows Media Center SP2

Note, that all the Mini-Notes are actually the VIA C7-M 1.6Ghz model underclocked with the power management settings, and have 2GB DDR667 RAM, 120GB 7200RPM HD.

The 1.2Ghz benchmarks using XP are missing because I haven’t found a way to throttle the CPU in XP to 1.3Ghz. The power options only let me have 800Mhz or 1600Mhz.

I didn’t realize there was a newer version of 3DMark when I ran the benchmarks on Vista. I’ll try and get the Vista image restored this weekend and try 3DMark06.

Benchmark Tests

Video Encoding

See the Mini-Note Vista Video Encoding Benchmarks post for full details on the encoding test.

Summary

As I said in First Impressions of XP on the Mini-Note, the 2133’s performance is noticeably better with XP and these benchmarks really prove that.

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HP Mini-Note XP Movie Playback

Web Videos

I again tried Hulu, YouTube, Metacafe and Break to test Mini-Note’s Flash movie playback in XP. I’m happy to report they’re all much better. YouTube, Metacafe and Break all play perfect or near-perfect in full or screen modes. In small screen Hulu still plays choppy, but it’s watchable if you really want to see something. Hulu’s full screen mode is still pretty bad.

AVI Videos

There really weren’t any major issues with AVI playback in Vista, but it does playback smoother while multitasking in XP now. With the video size at 100% there were hardly any dropped frames while surfing. At 200% it started dropping some more, but you’re not likely to notice while multitasking.

Quick Time Videos

The SD video trailers still played great in XP, and the 480p only dropped a few frames here or there. You still need to wait for it download entirely for best performance though. Unfortunately the 720p and 1080p were still pretty bad with QuickTime.

At Peach1200’s suggestion I tried the K-Lite codes and Media Player classic with the high-def trailers. It was 100 times better using those. The 480p and 720p trailers played flawlessly. The 1080p trailer would barely play at all though. (Get K-Lite Mega Pack w/Media Player Classic)

I also tried web surfing while watching the Iron Man 720p full-size in MPC which did cause it to get a little choppy. I would say it’s a little worse than the Superbad AVI at 200% while browsing.

DVD Playback

This time around I tried PowerDVD 6 as well as PowerDVD 8 to try out some DVDs with. This time around playback was perfect - no skipping or choppiness. (by the way, PDVD6 Isn’t compatible w/Vista)

While surfing DVD playback was heavily affected by it. The audio wouldn’t drop but playback would freeze for a few seconds from time to time and plenty of dropped frames.

Summary

As expected the Mini-Note’s performance is much better with XP on it instead of Vista. The processor is much more capable without a bloated OS slowing it down. Check out the video of it in action.

For details about the AVI files used or to see the Vista results take a look at the HP 2133 Mini-Note Vista Movie Playback Test.

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More Mini-Note Performance Tests

Hi everyone, I have some more fun performance/benchmark tests of the Mini-Note running Vista. This should give you an idea of how well it can (or can’t) run.

Computer Details

Mini-Note #1 = VIA C7-M 800Mhz, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Chrome 9 Graphics, Vista Business
Mini-Note #2 = VIA C7-M 1200Mhz, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Chrome 9 Graphics, Vista Business
Mini-Note #3 = VIA C7-M 1600Mhz, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Chrome 9 Graphics, Vista Business
Desktop #1 = 1800Mhz AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (1800Ghz), 1GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 6200, Windows Media Center
Desktop #2 = 1867Mhz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM HD, Nvidia 7600GT, Windows Media Center

Note, that all the Mini-Notes are actually the 1.6Ghz model underclocked with the power management settings. Also I messed up and somehow ended up with 3DMark03 instead of 3DMark06. I will have this updated ASAP.

Benchmark Tests

Video Encoding

See the Mini-Note Vista Video Encoding Benchmarks post for full details.

I’ll be installing XP on my Mini-Note tonight and I’ll those numbers up soon so we can the difference. Should be really interesting.

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