Netbooks?

**snowmanwithahat** · 10-10-09, 02:33 AM

So I'm curious... what's your opinion on them?

I was pretty upset when I read a post on tomshardware about a bad experience with them... personally I love mine though. Performance / price really is as expected but 10 hours of battery life even with it running on windows 7... just godly.

Anyone else own one?

Also... it's an Asus Eee 1005ha - with the N280 Intel Atom and 2gb of Gskill DDR2-667 memory... the 1gb was still cutting it but it'd hit 90% memory usage under full load... not something I wanted to deal with when the upgrade can just cost $20

**bob saget** · 10-10-09, 02:41 AM

The deal with netbooks is portability. Thats all. Normal office tasks and portability.

**snowmanwithahat** · 10-10-09, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bob saget

The deal with netbooks is portability. Thats all. Normal office tasks and portability.

Right... which is what all users should expect... I shudder to think that someone would buy it for a full-time computer (I do know some people that have made that decision...)

I just can't imagine beating the $300-400 price-point with something that can last as long away from the wall.

CaptNKILL · 10-10-09, 02:54 AM

I think its an interesting idea but I don't think I'd have much use for one personally.

If they were available in the $200 range without having horrible specs I'd consider getting one, but I think for what they are you're pretty much paying for something that performs like a computer from 2002 with a tiny keyboard, no optical drive, tiny screen and no interesting features over standard laptops (touch screen, buttons suitable for gaming, integrated GPS, etc...).

Good battery life is nice... but unless you spend a lot of time traveling and can find something worth while to do on a system that small (I can't imagine gaming with a 2" touch pad and or typing documents with a keyboard the size of my hand) I don't see a lot of reason for them.

I still think they're neat, just because they're so small, efficient and portable, but they just don't really do anything that makes them worth the money to me. I can get a significantly faster system for $400-$500 with a much larger screen, an optical drive and expansion slots and all I have to do is plug it in more often.

Now if I could get an ION based netbook with a dual core Atom, 2Gb of memory, an SSD, built in GPS and a rotating tablet-PC style touch screen... I'd definitely spend $400-$500 on one.

Never going to happen though.

EDIT: Interesting... I didn't realize Asus had something similar to this...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GCR04Y

The Eee PC Touch is basically a low end netbook with a rotating touch screen. Pretty neat but the specs are just too low for the price.

**a12ctic** · 10-10-09, 07:42 AM

Netbooks will be phased out with products like the Dell Inspiron 11z and MSI x600/x400 CULV/Neo based products. This should make them perform more along the lines of a standard laptop.

**mullet** · 10-10-09, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a12ctic

Netbooks will be phased out with products like the Dell Inspiron 11z and MSI x600/x400 CULV/Neo based products. This should make them perform more along the lines of a standard laptop.

You are high.

**snowmanwithahat** · 10-10-09, 09:46 AM

Capn.... I was unaware of that product too... it's pretty sweet

it looks like I'm the only one who had picked one up on these forums... not surprising considering how perfomance oriented this place is and how... bad they are at anything more than file encryption.

**Maverick123w** · 10-10-09, 10:36 AM

I actually just bought that same netbook for my wife(asus 1005ha), though mine has the n270. It's for her birthday so I have to wait a week to give it to her, but I decided to open it up last night and start to set it up for her and I was pleasantly surprised with how well the little thing runs!

It booted up very quickly and seemed to perform very well. I could watch youtube videos in standard def just fine, though hd was choppy, and it was just all around snappy.

How does it run windows 7? I may put 7 on it for her sometime in the future.

Edit**

BTW did swapping out the 1gig with a 2 really make that big of a difference?

10-10-09, 11:03 AM

I have an Asus eePC and its great. Super lightweight, good battery life, plenty of performance for office apps and surfing the web. No optical drive, and can't really game on it are the only drawbacks.

**mullet** · 10-10-09, 01:16 PM

I really would like a netbook. I just saw this in my Popular Science mag. What do you guys think about it? It runs Android.
http://www.archos.com/products/imt/a...n&p=guidedtour

**snowmanwithahat** · 10-10-09, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maverick123w

I actually just bought that same netbook for my wife(asus 1005ha), though mine has the n270. It's for her birthday so I have to wait a week to give it to her, but I decided to open it up last night and start to set it up for her and I was pleasantly surprised with how well the little thing runs!

It booted up very quickly and seemed to perform very well. I could watch youtube videos in standard def just fine, though hd was choppy, and it was just all around snappy.

How does it run windows 7? I may put 7 on it for her sometime in the future.

Edit**

BTW did swapping out the 1gig with a 2 really make that big of a difference?

With windows 7 I was coming close to using all the memory. I wouldn't recommend jumping up to 2 with XP really because it just doens't need it... even in windows 7 I have yet to break the 1gb barrier but I have come very very close (950 MB) while doing homework which involved writing a .pdf, reading one, multiple IE sessions and Microsoft Visio being used...

I wouldn't say you'd need 2gb to make it effective even with Windows 7.

Also notes on installing it... it's super easy. The hardest part was getting the bootloader to load stuff right afterwards... I technically have 3 partitions to boot from ( 7 / Linux / 1005ha recovery partition)... I had to reload the GRUB bootloader but that's completely independant of windows 7... also installing from a usb thumb drive is really fast

The battery life went down ever so slightly... but not enough to notice, you have to run benchmarks to see the battery difference lol.

Thunderbolt56 · 10-12-09, 11:26 AM

I thought about getting one for me here @ work for personal use where I really only surf and do some email stuff, then akin to CaptnKill, decided my 15.4" 2004 laptop would still do that job just fine.

Currently, I'm considering one for my wife as well. She complains all the time about using her slow-ass pc to pay the bills, check her email, etc,. She used to use my laptop, but I'm confiscating that back and am thinking of a netbook.

10-10-09, 02:33 AM	#1
snowmanwithahat Snowy Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 973	Netbooks? So I'm curious... what's your opinion on them? I was pretty upset when I read a post on tomshardware about a bad experience with them... personally I love mine though. Performance / price really is as expected but 10 hours of battery life even with it running on windows 7... just godly. Anyone else own one? Also... it's an Asus Eee 1005ha - with the N280 Intel Atom and 2gb of Gskill DDR2-667 memory... the 1gb was still cutting it but it'd hit 90% memory usage under full load... not something I wanted to deal with when the upgrade can just cost $20 __________________ ---Gaming Rig--- Q6600 3.4ghz (378x9) - 1.5v Gigabyte EP45-UD3P 8gb (4x2gb) OCZ Gold DDR2-800 (5-4-4-12) MSI+ASUS GTX 470 SLI Dell u3011 IPS Display HP 22" Auxiliary Monitor 256gb Western Digital Silicon Edge Blue SSD 5x2tb RAID-5 Array 750W PC P&C PSU Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit & Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit ---Gaming Laptop--- ASUS G53JW Core i7 740QM 16gb DDR3 Nvidia GTX 460m 1tb WD HDD 120gb Corsair SSD Join the NvNews Folding @ Home Team

10-10-09, 02:41 AM	#2
bob saget Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Vancouver, originally Russia Posts: 23,133	Re: Netbooks? The deal with netbooks is portability. Thats all. Normal office tasks and portability.

10-10-09, 02:54 AM	#4
CaptNKILL CUBE Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: PA, USA Posts: 18,844	Re: Netbooks? I think its an interesting idea but I don't think I'd have much use for one personally. If they were available in the $200 range without having horrible specs I'd consider getting one, but I think for what they are you're pretty much paying for something that performs like a computer from 2002 with a tiny keyboard, no optical drive, tiny screen and no interesting features over standard laptops (touch screen, buttons suitable for gaming, integrated GPS, etc...). Good battery life is nice... but unless you spend a lot of time traveling and can find something worth while to do on a system that small (I can't imagine gaming with a 2" touch pad and or typing documents with a keyboard the size of my hand) I don't see a lot of reason for them. I still think they're neat, just because they're so small, efficient and portable, but they just don't really do anything that makes them worth the money to me. I can get a significantly faster system for $400-$500 with a much larger screen, an optical drive and expansion slots and all I have to do is plug it in more often. Now if I could get an ION based netbook with a dual core Atom, 2Gb of memory, an SSD, built in GPS and a rotating tablet-PC style touch screen... I'd definitely spend $400-$500 on one. Never going to happen though. EDIT: Interesting... I didn't realize Asus had something similar to this... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GCR04Y The Eee PC Touch is basically a low end netbook with a rotating touch screen. Pretty neat but the specs are just too low for the price. __________________ ---- Primary Rig ---- CoolerMaster 690 II Advance - Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 4.0Ghz + Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 6GB DDR2 @ 942Mhz 5-5-5-20 1.9v (2x1Gb Wintec AMPX PC2-8500 & 2x2Gb G.Skill PC2-6400) - EVGA Geforce GTX 470 @ 750/1500/1850 (1.050v) Sparkle Geforce GTS 250 1Gb Low-Profile (Physx) - Crucial RealSSD C300 64Gb SSD - Seagate 7200.12 500Gb SATA - Seagate 7200.10 320Gb SATA ASUS VW266H 25.5" LCD - OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU - ASUS Xonar DX - Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround - Windows 7 Professional x64 ---- HTPC ---- Asus M3A78-EM 780G - AMD Athlon X2 5050e 45W @ 2.6Ghz - 2x2GB Kingston PC2-6400 DDR2 - Sparkle 350W PSU Seagate 7200.10 320Gb SATA - Seagate 7200.10 250Gb SATA - Athenatech A100BB.350 MicroATX Desktop - Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic

10-10-09, 07:42 AM	#5
a12ctic Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Chicago IL Posts: 2,371	Re: Netbooks? Netbooks will be phased out with products like the Dell Inspiron 11z and MSI x600/x400 CULV/Neo based products. This should make them perform more along the lines of a standard laptop. __________________ AMD X2 5050 AMD Radeon HD 4830 AMD 780G 4GB OCZ DDR2 Antec 300 Fedora 11

10-10-09, 09:46 AM	#7
snowmanwithahat Snowy Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 973	Re: Netbooks? Capn.... I was unaware of that product too... it's pretty sweet it looks like I'm the only one who had picked one up on these forums... not surprising considering how perfomance oriented this place is and how... bad they are at anything more than file encryption. __________________ ---Gaming Rig--- Q6600 3.4ghz (378x9) - 1.5v Gigabyte EP45-UD3P 8gb (4x2gb) OCZ Gold DDR2-800 (5-4-4-12) MSI+ASUS GTX 470 SLI Dell u3011 IPS Display HP 22" Auxiliary Monitor 256gb Western Digital Silicon Edge Blue SSD 5x2tb RAID-5 Array 750W PC P&C PSU Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit & Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit ---Gaming Laptop--- ASUS G53JW Core i7 740QM 16gb DDR3 Nvidia GTX 460m 1tb WD HDD 120gb Corsair SSD Join the NvNews Folding @ Home Team

10-10-09, 10:36 AM	#8
Maverick123w Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 1,841	Re: Netbooks? I actually just bought that same netbook for my wife(asus 1005ha), though mine has the n270. It's for her birthday so I have to wait a week to give it to her, but I decided to open it up last night and start to set it up for her and I was pleasantly surprised with how well the little thing runs! It booted up very quickly and seemed to perform very well. I could watch youtube videos in standard def just fine, though hd was choppy, and it was just all around snappy. How does it run windows 7? I may put 7 on it for her sometime in the future. Edit** BTW did swapping out the 1gig with a 2 really make that big of a difference? Last edited by Maverick123w; 10-10-09 at 10:37 AM. Reason: Additional ?

10-10-09, 11:03 AM	#9
methimpikehoses Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Netbooks? I have an Asus eePC and its great. Super lightweight, good battery life, plenty of performance for office apps and surfing the web. No optical drive, and can't really game on it are the only drawbacks.

10-10-09, 01:16 PM	#10
mullet Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 7,998	Re: Netbooks? I really would like a netbook. I just saw this in my Popular Science mag. What do you guys think about it? It runs Android. http://www.archos.com/products/imt/a...n&p=guidedtour __________________ • LIAN-LI PC-A70B • ASUS MAXIMUS V FORMULA (0701) • i7-3770k + NOCTUA\|NH-D14 • Intel 520 240GB SSD • G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB DDR3 1600 • • EVGA GeForce GTX 680 • PCP&C 750 Quad • ASUS 12x BD-ROM • DELL U2412M E-IPS • Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1 • Logitech Z5500 5.1 •

10-12-09, 11:26 AM	#12
Thunderbolt56 Gladiusdoctori Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Daytona Beach Posts: 198	Re: Netbooks? I thought about getting one for me here @ work for personal use where I really only surf and do some email stuff, then akin to CaptnKill, decided my 15.4" 2004 laptop would still do that job just fine. Currently, I'm considering one for my wife as well. She complains all the time about using her slow-ass pc to pay the bills, check her email, etc,. She used to use my laptop, but I'm confiscating that back and am thinking of a netbook. __________________ Core i7 920 @ 3.8ghz w/ Thermalright TRUE copper and dual 120mm fans \| P6T Deluxe V2 \| 6GB Corsair Dominator 1600mhz @ 1523mhz \| WD VRaptor 300GB \| Seagate 500GB 32mb cache \| X-Fi-Titanium Fatal1ty Champion \| XFX GTX285 Black Edition 1GB \| CoolerMaster Stacker 830 silver \| Dell 2707WFP 27" \| Windows Vista HP x64 sp2