Yet another Ion-powered netbook is now on sale – this time it’s Samsung’s N510-4B and Newegg.com has it listed at $599.99. It’s a solid performer, but what are you getting for just South of $600?

• Intel Atom N280 at 1.66GHz
• 2GB DDR2 memory
• 250GB SATA-II hard drive
• 802.11 b/g/n wireless
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 11.6″ 1366×768 LCD display
• 6 cell, 5900 mAh battery
• Windows 7 Home Premium

As Netbook choice points out, the unit is currently shipping with NVidia’s ION LE chipset (contrary to what we were originally told). It’s still a solid performer, and an excellent option for those of you in the market for a slightly larger (and more powerful) netbook.

In terms of form factor, there’s no denying that the AOpen XC Mini (Google Translate link) is pretty similar to other nettops currently available with an optical drive. The XC, however, is hiding some serious horsepower beneath its glossy black shell.

The 18CM x 16CM x 6CM XC barebones unit supports Intel’s Mobile Core 2 Duo (Penryn) processors. That gives the XC a serious edge in the horsepower department, though it’s going to set you back a few more bucks than a similar Atom-powered device.

Still, if you’re after a set-top box that can provide a reasonably good gaming experience, this is certainly an excellent option. The XC has room for a 2.5″ SATA drive, gigabit LAN, 6 USB 2.0 ports, NVidia ION graphics, and also features HDMI output and an eSATA port at the back.

AOpen shows impressive benchmarks using an Intel P7450 on their site – a 3D Mark 03 score of 2023 and Windows 7 experience index of 4.7 overall (4.7 on the CPU and 5.4 for 3D graphics).

So where do you see the XC Mini fitting in? Entry level gaming, or high-end nettop? Maybe it’s a little of both.

Right, so apparently Intel is not putting and end to  NVIDIA’s plans to bundle a GeForce 9400M GPU with the Intel Atom CPU and sell the chipset to netbook and laptop makers.

The other day DigiTimes reported that Intel refused to sell the Atom processor separately from the Intel 945GSE and 945GC chipsets, which would have made it difficult for NVIDIA to move ahead with the ION platform. But the folks at InternetNews received word from Intel that the company is plenty happy to sell the Atom CPU as a standalone processor.

NVIDIA says its ION platform would seriously boost the graphics performance of low cost mini-laptops without taking a serious hit on battery life or the price of netbooks.