I almost bought a Dell mini 9, but for the same price I was able to get the more powerfully Dell Vostro A860 that I am posting with It runs my favorite game (rigs of rods, free game, get it) at decent frame-rates. I put a copy of rigs of rods onto a net book display unit in a local best buy when no one was looking, and it got about 2fps as opposed to my 40fps However, I am stuck with vista not only that, but one of the parts in my pc doesn't have winXP drivers made
I'm not really looking for a gaming laptop. If I wanted to use a laptop I would just take my wife's laptop with me. =) I'm more just looking for some really small and light I can take with me on my vacation. =)
I have an Advent N4213, which is Win XP so can't give any real insight in using it with Linux OS. However as a piece of hardware I find a netbook so much more practical than lugging my iBook around. Build quality is surprisingly good considering that Advent don't have a brilliant track record. The screen is crisp, bright and far removed from what I was expecting in terms of quality. Again, it seems a nice screen. I struggle sometimes with the keyboard - it's fiddly as hell, but it is responsive enough and having used an Acer I think the Advent has a better feel to it. I just need to get used to another keyboard layout. I've had to correct a few documents before firing them off. Whereas previously on the train to London I'd have to get up 5 mins early and dick about getting my laptop ready to go, the netbook is so compact and light that it just slips into my bag in it's little sleeping bag (Aww!) as I get up to leave. Better still, it no longer matters how fat the passenger next to me is as he elbows me and gets in the way of my screen, spreading his packed lunch, coat, newspapers and endless cups of tea that invariably encroach on my side of the table. The netbook just tucks into a corner neatly and can be quickly stuffed away if someone gets a bit nosey.
I have an EEEPC 701, the 7" model and it's the ideal travel companion, quick browsing,IM,storing pictures and such. Maxed out the ram to 2 gigs and windows xp runs like a dream and with the right codec pack/player 720p content is also do-able fullscreen.
Here's my Eee PC setup Ram - 2gigs http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231147 Eee PC 900HA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220441&Tpk=900ha Without shipping, thats about $350. $350 for a little laptop with 160 gigs of hard drive space, 2 gigs of Ram... I'm not sure how fast the processor is compared to the Aspire one, but its never really been an issue for me to be honest. Oh, and speaking of the keyboard, I've heard that the 900ha has a bigger keyboard than the rest, and bigger lettering on the keys, etc. And sadly enough, my Eee PC is the second best computer in my house. It even puts my old HP to shame!:lol: Even without the 2 gig upgrade, I think it can do what you want it to. But its your money, so get what you think is best. EDIT: Oh, and it comes with XP
Mr. Casual: The Aspire One has a bigger keyboard. A coworker put his Eee PC on top of my Aspire One; the Aspire One is a bit wider, permitting for larger keys. The touchpad suffers a bit, though. The processor and other hardware is identical, though, with the exception of the RAM setup.
hehe, speaking of netbooks, My isp provider sent me an email giving me a coupon to get a dell 9 for $400 canadian (lol, dell special is for $409). Still think i'm leaning twards the aspire but I am not sure when i'll get a sec to run out and try one out.
So which one offers the best performance, figuring at least a gig of ram, if not 2, for under 450$? To me, they all blend together. I was thinking of buying the Wind for OSX, but Windows honestly works fine as well.
They're all the same under the hood. The Wind is pretty nice because it has a 10 inch screen and decent keyboard. If I were recommending them to anyone, I'd say get the Wind or Aspire One. I've seen a lot of them in person, including the Dell Mini 9, Mini 12 (DON'T buy this), Lenovo S10 (nice, but you don't get enough for your money), Aspire One (seen a lot of these lately), and the Eee PC 701 and 901. I haven't seen the Wind, but most people seem to like them. My coworker is getting one soon, so it'll be interesting to see how it is.
The wind is a very nice system. I have a MSI Wind U100/3 cell and i can honestly say its one of the nicer netbooks i've owned. The 10 inch screen is really quite nice, its small, not much larger than the acer aspire, but the 10 inch screen is kinda bridges the gap between a netbook and a normal laptop. Plus, it makes a killer Hackintosh! The Acer aspire is still one of my favourites though. Despite the acer label, it has a really nice build to it, it feels quite nice for the price. I'm in the minority, but i like the trackpad and button layout, its convienent as my thumbs naturally rest where the trackpad buttons are on the aspire one. I've worked with alot of large files (indesign layouts, illustrator) and it handles them really well. I was working on some css stuff today, and it was pefectly comfortable with having half the screen for code, and half the screen as a preview window. Even though i like the trackpad, buy yourself a wireless mouse! Ryan
Yeah, I don't really understand the hate for the Aspire One touchpad. Maybe it's because I use tap-to-click, but the button placement isn't a big deal to me. It's small, sure, but in order to make a larger touchpad they'd have to take space away from the keyboard or add additional height, which I would've found far more irritating. My only problem with the touchpad is the fact that it's "smooth." Mine wore down considerably after a few weeks of use, and sometimes there's too much friction between my fingertip and the trackpad to be comfortable. I'm considering taking a fine grit sandpaper to it. Like Ryan said, though, you still want to get a USB mouse.
I am looking at a Netbook, but one of my conditions is the warranty, specificially international cover and the two brands that you find most often Acer and Asus have fairly poor international cover. Asus don't really offer it (you have to purchase it...) and Acer have a limited traveller warrenty (which means it only covered for a maximum of three months in one country outside the country the machine was purchased). MSI, Toshiba and Samsung all offer limited international warranties outside the country purchased but it does mean your computer will be repaired but you have to pay for shipping to the repair centre. Dell and HP offer better international warrenties as they will arrange a courier to pick up the unit and repair it, however these two are generally more expensive then most others. Still I can't find a MSI or Samsung notebook locally, the Toshiba is out of stock everywhere, the Dell is crap, the HP too expensive so it looks like the Asus 900HD is my best bet...
This is purely anecdotal, but I saw my first busted netbook today, and it was an HP Mini-Note. The hard drive/SSD (couldn't tell which one it was) would only show up in the boot menu half of the time, and wouldn't show up in Knoppix or DSL. I just told the guy to send it back. It was barely used; still had the protective plastic cover on top.
So I got my Wind and I'm quite happy, 3-cell isn't as bad as I thought and the BIOS allows you to overclock a little which helps.
If I were to get one, I'd wait for nVidia's ION platform netbooks to come out. If I want to play .h264 video files without a hitch, play some DX9 generation games, etc. Then that's the way to go.
I run an Asus Eee pc 1000H, upgraded to 320g, running Ubuntu. Battery lasts about 3 to 5 hours. The memory and HD can be accessed without taking the whole netbook apart, and has blue tooth built in. Great for headsets or wiimotes for classic gaming.
Hey, just a question, how long does the 3-cell battery actually last? Because I'm selling those netbooks here and I'm often asked about battery life, but the info about it I found in the interwebs goes from 1.5 to 3 hrs, and the MSI website doesn't give any other info about battery life than "3-cell battery"...
Mine gets roughly on average 2 hours and 20 minutes, thats wifi on, screen at 60% with light tasks, ie firefox, finder, fetch etc.... Ryan
