Intel Atom 230 vs Intel Atom Z530 vs Intel Atom Z560

Intel Atom 230

The Intel Atom 230 is a small and cheap CPU for small desktops (Nettops). It is similar to the Atom N270, but lacks Speedstep and features a higher TDP.

Due to the "in-order" Architecture of the Atom series, the 230 is slower than similar clocked Core 2 Duo processors and only suited for low demanding tasks. The Atom 230 support Hyperthreading.

Intel Atom Z530

The Intel Atom Z530 is a power saving netbook / MID single-core processor. Compared to the Atom N270, the Z530 supports Virtualization in hardware and got the Idle States and Demand Based Switching functions.

The Atom core was designed for a low power consumption and cheap production. The downside is the relative low performance per Watt (due to the in-order execution) compared to similar clocked Celeron processors, e.g.. Still the integrated Hyper-Threading (the operating system sees the CPU as a dual core CPU) decreases the penalty of the in-order execution a bit.

The performance of the Z530 is only compareable to a 1.2 GHz clocked Celeron M and therfore only sufficient for non demanding applications like Office or web surfing. HD videos, advanced photo editing, video cutting may not run fluently. 

Intel Atom Z560

The Intel Atom Z560 is a relatively high clocked Atom processor of the power efficient Z-series. It is specified at a much lower TDP than the similar N-series and offers hardware virtualization (VT-x). Due to the in-order execution, the performance per clock-rate is not as good as Celeron or Core 2 Duo processors. The missing Intel 64 Instructions wont allow a user to install a 64 Bit operating system on the Z550.