The folks at Japanese site PC Watch snagged themselves a pre-release MSI Wind desktop PC. While this computer isn’t exactly identical to the upcoming Wind laptop, it does feature the same low-power Intel Atom CPU, integrated graphics, and 1GB of RAM. So when PC Watch decided to match the Wind PC up against the Asus Eee PC 900 and the Asus Eee PC 701, it wasn’t an entirely unfair comparison to make.

That said, I’ve never really placed too much stock in benchmarks. I’m much more concerned with real world performance. Which computer feels more responsive when doing basic tasks like surfing the web, manipulating office documents, or watching videos.

Still, if you’re a benchmark kind of person, you might want to know that the MSI Wind seems to blow away both Eee PC models in some areas, while underpforming in others. So while the Intel Atom has gotten a lot of hype, it’s important to remember that it’s designed first and foremost to be a low power processor. It should deliver decent performance, and when performing some tasks, it will be speedier than a Celeron-M processor. But that’s not really saying much, now is it?

If you asked me if I’d rather have an Atom or Celeron chip in my laptop, I’d definitely say Atom. But don’t expect the next generation of low-cost ultraportable laptops to be significantly zippier than the current generation. If you want performance, you’re going to want to shell out a few extra bucks for a PC that costs more than $800.

[via Small Laptops]