Pre-installed Software and Performance
While I'm not a huge fan of running Windows Vista on notebooks, I will say that this particular install surprised me. Once the system booted up, it felt incredibly zippy and after using it for a while I didn't run into any nuisances. With Windows 7 now available, I suspect most users will take advantage of the free upgrade and perhaps Averatec will offer the system with a Windows 7 configuration right out of the box in the near future.
I was glad to find the N3400 came with a very lean software bundle. A trial of Norton Antivirus was installed, which I chose to remove and load my favorite free antivirus suite instead. The only other notable software was a game set from WildTangent. Averatec earns points here for not cluttering up the system with useless junk apps, unlike many top tier manufacturers that seem to enjoy the practice.
Below we have included a set of benchmark numbers and graphs from several tests that were run on the N3400 to give you an idea of how its processor, hard drive and memory system perform under load. (Click to view full versions)
