| Netbooks
Posted: 7/12/2009 10:20:38 AM | | i was curious what people think of these small computers. they look cute but would you buy one? they also seem quite tiny. i think they are mainly used for internet and email access. they have no CD/DVD drives. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/12/2009 10:54:20 AM | | I think they would be good if you we're traveling a lot & don't need it for anything else but basic web stuffs. However thats not me, I'd rather buy an iPhone <-not gonna happen anytime soon. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/12/2009 10:58:11 AM | | Yeah the lack of cd/dvd drive would be pretty annoying to me to say the least for the myriad of obvious reasons... | |
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- don
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Joined: 4/23/2009
Msg: 4 | |
| Netbooks
Posted: 7/12/2009 12:50:02 PM | IMO:
For the average user, I think a netbook is really all you need.
Some netbooks today have a lot of storage (160gb+) & can hold a lot of memory & can do pretty much anything the average desktop can do, minus the internal cd/dvd drive
I don't mess with cd's/dvd's much anymore (unless installing an OS)
and I have an external cd/dvd drive that connects w/USB cable for when I need it (not often)
Flash drives are so cheap now and reusable why bother with cd's/dvd's
(I just bought a reusable 4GB Flash Drive for $9.00 & dvds=4.7GB)
*Just make sure the memory/ram can be upgraded to more than 1GB when choosing a netbook | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/12/2009 4:21:10 PM | | What is a good brand netbook for around $400? I need something to browse the internet online and take notes in class. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/12/2009 6:41:51 PM | I've been using an Acer Aspire One for about six months and love it - they used to go for around $350. The keyboard is slightly smaller than normal, but that took no adjustment for me. It has no fan and has never overheated, yet it boots up faster than my desktop and runs reasonably fast for mundane applications such as word processing and email.
My desktop with 21-inch screen is crucial for research and workstation applications. But for email and POF and such, nothing beats having a small, light, COOL running little machine sitting on my lap while I watch TV. And for travel, it's wonderful to have something smaller than a book to drop into my brief bag. I will never again want a 15-inch clunker laptop that burns my knees, consumes a battery in an hour, and requires its own heavy-duty luggage to carry on an airplane.
Re. CD -- I did recently use the one on my desktop machine to install some old topo maps that I bought on sale, but excepting that, I can't remember when is the last time I used one. Absolutely everything that I've installed on any of my computers for the past few years has been downloaded from online sources. I do have an external read/write CD player, but have never used it with this machine. It has two slots for SD cards and three slots for USB devices, so transferring files has been easy.
In case anyone is interested, I'm using a RocketFish wireless mouse with it. It folds flat to carry in your pocket; the USB plug stores inside of it. | |
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- don
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Joined: 4/23/2009
Msg: 7 | |
| Netbooks
Posted: 7/13/2009 12:55:18 AM |
What is a good brand netbook for around $400? I need something to browse the internet online and take notes in class.
If I could do it over again, I'd get the MSI Wind or an Asus
I currently have 2 dell netbooks and they're good but I think the MSI Wind or an Asus would have been better | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/13/2009 5:04:11 PM | | Well it depends on your needs. The ASUS 1000he has a faster cpu and 9.5 battery hours. If you travel then it's perfect. The 280 Atom can be overclocked to 2ghz which should be enough except heavy gaming and video editing. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/13/2009 9:16:08 PM | I have one and I find it very limiting. It has it's uses, I can browse web or write email/check news/type quick work document/view pdf, but the screen resolution is simply too small for anything serious.
But then again, I'm typically a power user, when I'm working on photographs or remuxing mkv's I often wish I had more than just two 24" monitors. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/14/2009 2:01:06 AM | I was going out on business, and needed internet access on my travels (Since ihave a custom built PC at home i dont own a laptop) so i borrowed one of the spare netbooks from work
Elonex notebook, 10 inch screen, 512mb ram 1.6ghz zeon cpu. Wifi etc - was simple and efficient for getting emails, doing quotes etc while i was travelling (You can pick these up for about 220 quid new with ubuntu/windows xp pro new, or cheaper second hand)
Also in the past we've had stock of things like the acer one, EEE's and the best of them all have been the dell Mini 9's
Netbooks are great if your a business man on the move and simple need to collect emails as you go. The lack of any kind of optical drive makes it pretty useless for anything else unless you have a USB (I think the dells have their own portable optical drive too)
Extremely portable with the average battery life on them lasting about 2/3 hours
Only problems with certain models are the hard drives.
The dell mini 9s have an 8GB solid state drive just, and by the time your page file and system recovery files are on it, your constantly running out of space which is why i'd recommend the acer or the elonex due to them having the standard 80 GB drives
Also if your a UK customer, and are looking to buy these, gimme a shout - im an IT Technician/sales account manager for an IT reseller and could probably beat any prices on the internet | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/14/2009 4:13:03 PM | | I have an HP Mini-Note. It's ok, but takes forever to boot as it has 1gig of ram and Windows vista home basic. I suggest buying a mini with XP. Much faster. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/14/2009 9:27:13 PM | | I could see getting one for a family member or friend that just wants a basic web browsing/office work situations assuming they are OK with the screen and keyboard size. They aren't good for me because the screen and keyboard are both too small given I spend over 8 hours on a regular size keyboard and a pair of medium sized monitors(17"). There is some question for whether or not netbooks are cannibalizing laptop sales and there is a potential question of whether something like the Voodoo Envy 133 is a netbook or merely a luxury mini-notebook. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/14/2009 9:45:44 PM | The Envy is a luxury notebook. It's a "mini-notebook" by todays standards since pretty much 15.4" is about as small as you find in a screen and pretty much the standard size.
In order for something to be classified as a netbook...the screen has to be less than 10 inches and have less than 2 gigs of RAM...this is a very loose definition...no one's standardized it. What mostly sets them off is their hardware configuration..specifically the CPU. They're pretty much standard x86 cpu's and probably support most of the modern instruction sets....they draw even less power than the mobile CPU's used in laptops and that leads to a very long battery life at the expense of number-crunching ability.
The netbook is a neat concept....but..honestly...for real portability..i'm waiting for that device that's about the size of a Nintendo DS that runs a full Linux desktop with keyboard and some kind of pointing device. I can't quite fit a netbook in my pocket. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/15/2009 8:03:31 AM | | Where do you guys buy your netbooks from? | |
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- don
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Joined: 4/23/2009
Msg: 15 | |
| Netbooks
Posted: 7/15/2009 8:35:26 AM | http://www.google.com/products
Search: "Asus" or "MSI Wind" or"netbook" "Whatever you're looking for"
Tons of them for under $400
*The majority of netbooks come with 1GB RAM, make sure they are capable at least 2GB RAM
(If you buy one with 1GB RAM and you decide to add more,
www.crucial.com is an excellent place to get high quality RAM at a low price) | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/15/2009 11:19:23 AM | Like commercial software, high powered computers have their uses, but day to day computing like internet and productivity software and movies and music don't need to be done on these turbocharged mutant machines. All of this pof stuff, facebook, internet banking, U-tube, watching movies, all the stuff that regular people do with computers can be done perfectly well using a netbook. Just plug your 52 inch plasma screen into the netbook, get an external mouse and you won't even be able to tell the difference.
Crappy commercial operating systems like windows are equally pointless. It is like people who drive Humvees to drop their kids off at daycare. It is total overkill. | |
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- don
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Joined: 4/23/2009
Msg: 17 | |
| Netbooks
Posted: 7/15/2009 5:07:01 PM |
Like commercial software, high powered computers have their uses, but day to day computing like internet and productivity software and movies and music don't need to be done on these turbocharged mutant machines. All of this pof stuff, facebook, internet banking, U-tube, watching movies, all the stuff that regular people do with computers can be done perfectly well using a netbook. Just plug your 52 inch plasma screen into the netbook, get an external mouse and you won't even be able to tell the difference.
Crappy commercial operating systems like windows are equally pointless. It is like people who drive Humvees to drop their kids off at daycare. It is total overkill.
LOL.....
Well Put!  | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/15/2009 8:08:54 PM | I wish I could plug my cell phone into a monitor!! Well I know I can buy a netbook from ANY website but I'm looking for a reputable one so I'm curious to know where everyone has bought theirs from. I've been to Best buy, Brandsmart(nothing wowed me) and I was looking on ebay but I have maybe 1 month before I'm ready to buy it. So I want to research as many options as possible.
Unfortunately, It takes me months to shop for a computer or cell phone...except Apple products :D | |
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- don
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Joined: 4/23/2009
Msg: 19 | |
| Netbooks
Posted: 7/15/2009 8:44:37 PM | Here are a few:
>newegg.com (IMO: great site for tech stuff)
>dell.com (dell outlet has refurbished ones that can come w/full warranty)
*Google product search will give customer reviews of the product & vendor/distributor (1-5 stars)
here are a few i haven't tried but are highly rated:
>Consumer Depot: [4.3 / 5 Stars]Based on 4,355 reviews
> ProVantage: Average rating [4.3 / 5 Stars] Based on 1,823 reviews
> ZipZoomFly: Average rating [4.4 / 5 Stars] Based on 18,252 reviews
--Not sure if Bing can match that ;-) | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/15/2009 11:01:31 PM | | Thank you so much -don. Umm yeah that Bing website looks lame. | |
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- don
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Joined: 4/23/2009
Msg: 21 | |
| Netbooks
Posted: 7/16/2009 2:45:17 AM | _____________________________________________________________________________
Ok...ok...yeah, I guess i'm overdoing the whole 'bing' thing huh... ...lol | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/18/2009 7:26:33 PM | I plan on getting a netbook soon and as soon as it gets home and powered on, it is getting wiped (after making restore disks, if any) and getting Ubuntu SE installed on it.  | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/20/2009 6:52:28 AM | Am very happy with my Samsung NC10, $450 when I bought it five months ago, now runs around $380 on Amazon.com I think. It runs faster than my 4 year old Pentium 4 desktop, and actually boots a little faster than my brother's dual-core Dell laptop. Love that it uses Windows XP not that Vista garbage. The keyboard is excellent, that's the main reason I chose it over the Asus which is a little cheaper. Whenever I want a bigger display I just plug it into a desktop monitor.
Mainly it's the small size, light weight and long battery life (I get 6-8 hours depending on if I'm using the wireless or not) that sold me. Haven't missed the CD/DVD drive at all, but you can get a tiny slim external CD/DVD burner for about $50 at Amazon or newegg.com
You can get an Acer or Asus netbook for as little as $250-300, just check sites like dealnews.com and techbargains.com for links to the sales. The major computer makers are very worried about netbooks because they're taking away a lot of buyers who'd normally buy a traditional laptop. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/20/2009 1:59:42 PM | | Fujitsu, Asus, Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba all make a solid product. I have seen too many broken Acer note and netbooks. MSI makes quality stuff but they aren't really that mature of a manufacturer in the US yet for me to trust them I would want to see how they do over the next years. | |
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| Netbooks
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:06:38 AM | My Personal choice is the HP 2140.
I would buy it on alluminium case build quality alone, put it against the MSI or Acer equiverlant and you'll see why. | |
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