Man, I haven't seen much in terms of good deals on Memorial Day sales.

I think I'm going to build a Hackintosh, too, while I'm at it.

5/28/2010 6:51:43 PM

How is the brand MSI? Is it a new player in the field?

I looked at that study about failure rates and saw that ASUS placed 1st, then Toshiba, and then Sony. HP was last. MSI wasn't even in it.

How is it when it comes to reliability? Any surveys or studies which show comparative results?

P.S. How to install MS Office on a netbook? Kinda silly that if someone opts for a netbook they have to also buy an external optical drive.


[Edited on July 3, 2010 at 6:26 PM. Reason : ]

7/3/2010 6:25:08 PM

As in Asus has the least failures? Asus is probably my favorite.

7/3/2010 6:26:14 PM

yup

http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

any comment on my PS? thanks.

7/3/2010 6:28:45 PM

ISO or external drive (USB, optical, whatever). I've seen some downloadable versions of Office stuff from Microsoft that came in EXE format, betas and whatnot.

If you just need to work on Office documents, you could always go with OpenOffice.

7/3/2010 7:07:12 PM

I have 3 options... decide for me TWW:

1) ASUS 1005HA: $350
2) Toshiba NB305: $400
3) ASUS 1008P: $450 (Karim Rashid Collection)

All have the same specs: N450, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, 10.1 inch, Windows 7 Starter

Anybody here have one of those or know someone who has?

Any opinions?

7/4/2010 8:20:02 PM

Quote :

"Karim Rashid Collection"

i don't even know what this is, but why would you spend $100 more for the same brand with the same specs? does it have bling?

7/5/2010 9:24:36 AM

Actually yeah, that one is out. Just has been designed by some designer.

Went to get the 1005HA as I had made up my mind to get that one, but the last display piece was being bought when I reached the showroom Had I gotten there just minutes before, I could have bought it

OK, anybody got anything to say about the Z520 processor? Not as good as the Atom N, right?

There is an ASUS 1201HA that has it. Plus has 2 GB RAM and is a 12 incher. Costs $450.

P.S. Anybody know any bargain sites to order from in the UK like newegg, etc?


[Edited on July 5, 2010 at 7:24 PM. Reason : ]

7/5/2010 6:55:58 PM

haha godddd

as someone who owns one of the first generation netbooks, i'm pretty amazed at the shit they already have out

dual core, gpu, etc.

wtf....

7/5/2010 9:43:04 PM

Yeah for all practical purposes my netbook is just a laptop.

7/5/2010 10:01:28 PM

March of progress. Someone's gotta keep up with Moore's law.

7/5/2010 10:51:06 PM

Selling my Asus 1201n. Still retails for $479. Thinking $375 OBO. It's only a few months old and lightly used. I absolutely love this netbook. I just need to buy a little more powerful laptop for work on the go.

7/21/2010 12:50:46 PM

Oops I completely forgot to come here and post, although this may already be in here.

http://www.target.com/Acer-Aspire-10-1-Netbook-Computer/dp/B0030LTLRO/ref=br_1_1?ie=UTF8&id=Acer%20Aspire%2010%201%20Netbook%20Computer&node=1243621011&searchSize=30&searchView=grid5&searchPage=1&sr=1-1&qid=1279758791&rh=&searchBinNameList=target_com_brand-bin%2Cprice%2Cdisplay_size_derived%2Coperating_system-bin%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ccapacity_name-bin%2Cram_memory_maximum_size_derived&searchRank=pmrank&frombrowse=1

Target has a sale this week on the Acer Aspire One 10.1" netbook, $199, which is significantly reduced.

Most of the Targets were out of them in the first couple days. I"m about to drive to New Bern tomorrow morning and try to snag their last one.

7/21/2010 8:35:23 PM

^ Click below before buying

http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

7/23/2010 8:47:20 PM

When I found out they were sold out, I did some research to see if it was worth hounding them until they got more.

I found out that Acer Aspire Ones are basically the Macbooks of Netbooks--they're kinda pretty but functionally they're pretty much on the bottom rung.

I'm deciding (as I type this) between:

1) ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PE-MU - $329
http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1005PE-MU27-PI-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Battery/dp/B003JZC5NI/ref=pd_cp_pc_3

2) Asus Eee PC 1001P-MU - $289
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00322PYWM?ie=UTF8&tag=l0476-20&link_code=wql&camp=212361&creative=380601

3) Toshiba Mini NB305-N410 - $349
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00303G9FO/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk

I would get the cheaper Asus if I didn't think that the more expensive one was worth the 30-some bucks. You get more HDD space (not THAT important) and a longer battery life--plus 500GB off-site ASUS storage. I'm trying to decide if it's worth the extra money, or in reality, two more hours of battery life (maybe two).

The Toshiba is pretty much the reigning champ of netbooks, not necessarily just on performance but because the ergonomics are considered to just be top notch. I've played with this netbook for a while because my Dad bought one to use for off-site radio broadcasts, and he LOVES it. The thing is, it's more pricey than the other options, and unless the ergonomics bother me enough I can't justify the money.

I would love some TWW input.

7/24/2010 1:56:34 AM

^I think you'd be set with any of those choices. I like the eeePC line personally, but engadget swears up and down by the Toshiba. With 11 hours of battery life you'll be straight either way. Maybe throw in extra RAM and a small solid state drive to get that thing beasly. I've had eeePC's go for ~14 hours on that setup with win7 and/or Ubuntu Remix.

7/24/2010 2:04:43 AM

Functionally? What do you mean? I am typing this on an Acer Aspire One, which component do you believe to be subpar to other netbooks?

7/24/2010 2:06:37 AM

Google's right there.

Every major tech site said their battery life was much lower than it should be, that the keyboard was not very ergonomic, that the build in general was cheap, and that the processor was slow to brutish at best. Hell maybe you faired better but it was enough to steer me towards an ASUS.

Even if an Acer Aspire One isn't the best of the best it's pretty hard to beat $199.

(For the record Target basically went out of stock before I could get one, and I didn't intend to pay full price for one).

7/24/2010 2:51:57 AM

I was personally very happy with my ASUS EeePC while I had it. +1 for them.

7/24/2010 7:41:50 AM

^Any thoughts on the two different ones I posted?


Basically it amounts to "is two extra hours of battery life, a 250GB instead of a 160GB, and 500GB of online storage worth ~40 dollars?"

7/24/2010 4:17:09 PM

And I got the Toshiba.

7/25/2010 11:36:54 PM

^^^^ you should have gone to staples on saturday (when i did)...there were 7 in fuquay, 2 at the one on kildaire, and 1 at the one on maynard/harrison

$205 - $50 off $200 coupon and it cost me a whopping $166 out the door

7/26/2010 7:31:01 AM

I loved my Asus when I had one. Unfortunately I sold my netbook last week for a real laptop so I am out of the netbook world. So long and thanks for all the fish!

7/26/2010 8:48:52 AM

^^I was in Carteret County. And the only realistic drives were to Jacksonville, New Bern, Greenville, and Wilmington--and the closest was still 45 minutes away. But yea, there were still out.


Goddamnit someone say "Good job that Toshiba looks great" so I can stop being a wuss.

(even though I know it's going to be good because my Dad has one and it's a highly reviewed netbook).

(I just need the TWW expertise)

(or whatever you want to call it)

7/28/2010 7:55:35 PM

After much research a few weeks ago, I came to the determination that the Toshiba netbooks are the best looking, best features, and best ergonomic design.

I just haven't been able to convince myself that I could actually do programming on one for extended periods of time while traveling, so I guess for now I'm sticking with my larger laptop.

7/28/2010 8:00:49 PM

^^ ah...well, if it makes you feel any better, the toshiba IS superior and were i in the market for a better performing (and better built) machine, that would have been my first choice...and i had to call all over the place and drive 30 minutes to get the acer i got

but mine's actually different than the SD machine...it's an acer aspire one D250, which has the intel atom N475 (1.83ghz) with 1gb of DDR3 (instead of DDR2)...not sure that there's any significant performance difference, but meh

it was an open box at a staples, i haggled the manager down to $175 + tax, so i'm content since i only got it for my honeymoon so i wouldn't have to take my XPS (which is a beast of a laptop with discrete graphics, but it's freaking heavy, especially for being 13.3")

[Edited on July 30, 2010 at 8:27 AM. Reason : .]

7/30/2010 8:25:48 AM

^The laptop that this Toshiba replaced was an XPS 1530 laptop that, while it served its purpose, ultimately drove me away from the concept of a gaming laptop (and led to the purchase and construction of the beastly thing I am typing at).



So yea, the Toshiba 305-410 I bought is simply amazing, far superior to the ASUS books I was playing with and just totally awesome in general. I'm very glad that I paid the extra ~50 bucks for it, totally worth it. I just finished the deep charge on it and its doing ~11 hours of battery life. Performance is SOLID, it downloaded OpenOffice and my other programs very fast, et cetera.

I back the purchase %100.

7/30/2010 8:24:49 PM

alright, looking for some technical opinions...

as mentioned above, i picked up an acer aspire one 533 netbook, which has the atom N475 (single-core 1.83ghz, 512kb L2) processor and 1gb of DDR3 memory

now, given that it's already running DDR3, i figured it's one of the newer chipsets...i CPU-Z'd it and it says that the southbridge is the intel NM10 and the socket is a 437 FCBGA8 (FCBGA559)

so i'm wondering...how feasible is it to replace the N475 with a D525 (dual-core 1.83ghz, 1mb L2)? they're both 64-bit, both support DDR2/DDR3, both 45nm, both FCBGA559, etc...of course, i realize that just because some things are the same doesn't mean i can simply swap them out...but does anyone know of an easy to way to check? the mainboard in CPU-Z is an "acer AOD260", but that doesn't really help

8/1/2010 4:07:15 PM

it might not be possible at all... some netbook mfrs solder the processors on to their mobos.

8/1/2010 4:23:10 PM

oh, that would be teh suck

i suppose i could always open it up and check...but if it's a moot point in the first place, there's no reason to do so

i mean, for the $166 it cost, i can't complain...but there are new things out there, daggumit, and if i can make this netbook a tiny powerhouse for $50, i'll do it

8/1/2010 4:52:10 PM

It just seems kind of pointless to go through an upgrade process like that--I mean you know what kind of power you were going to get out of a netbook. It doesn't seem like it would be all that practical. Yea yea, I know it's hard to use the term practical when it comes to PC modification, but still.

8/2/2010 12:42:31 AM

Quote :

""

I can't tell, but that looks pretty permanent (not seeing removal clips or anything)

[Edited on August 2, 2010 at 1:38 AM. Reason : actually - that may be the bridge controller]

8/2/2010 1:29:10 AM

^^ well...my company is getting a slew of D525 processors for ~$38/each and i know they have no problem ordering a few more or giving me one, so it's not like it's a big financial investment for me...i'm more than comfortable opening up a netbook and swapping them out

^ yeah, that looks to be the top of the board, and i'm 99% sure that the proc is on the bottom...probably in the back on the left

doesn't mean it's not soldered in there, though

8/2/2010 7:27:14 AM

Personally I'm super uncomfortable opening up a netbook, but I'm used to giant mid-range tower PCs so yea.

If you have great success I might pay you do a similar mod to mine.

8/2/2010 9:54:06 PM

Ok, so my good old Compaq laptop fell off my desk today and busted the screen. I'm typing on it now, but with an external screen.

Seeing as I didnt really plan on spending $500 + this week on a new laptop, and the fact that all I use the computer for is heavy internet use and storing a few pictures a month, wouldnt a netbook fit the bill? I mean, most of the newer net books have better stats than my first Toshiba laptop did 4 years ago. After all, I'm only using it for surfin the net and maybe some youtube.

If so, what is recommended for around the $250 mark? Also, do any of them come with a CD drive?

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6494466&Sku=A50-10138&cm_re=Homepage-_-Spot%2001-_-CatId_17_A50-10138

[Edited on August 29, 2010 at 6:44 PM. Reason : .]

8/29/2010 6:42:16 PM

Not sure about best for that price but pretty much one of the defining characteristics of a netbook is no DVD drive.

8/29/2010 6:47:50 PM

^ I didnt think about that. I dont have a big use for a CD/DVD drive, but it is a nice feature to have...

8/29/2010 6:53:57 PM

External CD/DVD drives aren't too hard to come by, and really unless you need to install some kind some more advanced software it's not too hard to get around. Even if you have basic access to another computer and some kind of USB drive then things are pretty smooth.

For your price range I'd look at some ASUS Eee netbooks, probably the 1005HABs. If you can push yourself to get the Toshiba NB305-N410 series that I posted above, I think you'll be a lot happier. Honestly it seems like there's enough stability between Asus, Toshiba, and even Acer that you can get an affordable netbook from one of those names and probably be good to go.

8/29/2010 11:22:32 PM

So I'm in the market for a netbook, there's a lot more players on the market now and I have no idea what to get. I was looking at the HP's last year, but decided to wait. I was hoping to get an ION based netbook to play some old games and have HD video playback, but really haven't seen a lot of stuff with it yet, even after a year later.

My budget depends on what I can get, but my requirements is basic web, office, email with the occasional video and old gaming. I also like the idea of a 10-13 hour battery life for the newer netbooks.

I haven't found a comprehensible review on netbooks that isn't from 2009. I've only started to see the N550 dual core chips and wouldn't mind it, but not sure if the price is right. I would like to get an upgraded HD screen, but still like the compact 10" size. I terms of budget, $400ish or so.

8/30/2010 12:15:47 PM

here ya go:

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/asus-eee-pc-1215n.aspx

8/31/2010 10:16:21 AM

Oh, neato. Looks good and what I'd like. Any chance they have it in a 10" version with a smaller hard drive and a $400 price tag?

8/31/2010 12:54:08 PM

Back before my MBP I had a Samsung NC10 (10") then moved to the Asus 1201N (version before 1215n) and the advantage of having the 1366 by 768 screen over 1024 by 600 was way more than the disadvantage of having the larger screen. I would spend the extra cash and get the 12" one. What's the point in having all the extra power if you're on a 1024 by 600 screen? 1366 by 768 is the laptop 15" standard. Having it on a 12" is awesome. The 1201n did pretty well with Photoshop so i'm sure the 1215N will do even better.

8/31/2010 1:05:48 PM

don't they have the 1366x768 in a 10" size or am I dreaming?

I mean I like the idea of 11-13 hour battery life, but 5-6 hours is better than my 60 min 17" notebook, which is down to about 20mins since it's 4 yrs old now. lol

Does bestbuy house the 12" asus netbooks so I could physically see the size, I just like the 10" small size to slip into my camelback.

[Edited on August 31, 2010 at 1:18 PM. Reason : ]

8/31/2010 1:08:05 PM

The 11.6" Acer Aspire One has 1366x768. I highly recommend it. Been using it for just under a year now (runnning windows 7 home full) and no problems. Big enough that you don't cramp up while typing, nor squint at the screen; still small enough to feel "ultra-portable".

8/31/2010 1:36:55 PM

^kind of an old netbook with a slower atom processor. I'd go for something newer and faster with an Ion 2.

8/31/2010 1:52:56 PM

I'm liking the 1215n neo, was hoping it was in a 10" package. Still haven't seen any 10" HD lcd options, thought I saw something not to long ago. Maybe I'm getting confused with 12" netbooks.

8/31/2010 5:32:23 PM

I would go with a 11-12" notebook if you plan on using any resolution above 1024x768.

9/1/2010 1:11:35 AM

where's my retina display for a 10" netbook?

9/1/2010 3:10:02 AM

i would be very surprised to find a consumer-available 10" netbook with a 1366x768 resolution...especially for less than $500

generally, netbooks are meant to be cheap and low-powered...you're asking for a "performance" netbook

for what you want, you're probably not going to find anything smaller than 11.6" (and most will probably be 12" or so)...and if you want ION2, you're looking at $500 or so (and still not a high-resolution screen)

you may want to consider an SU-series processor with the 4500MHD, but that will knock your battery life down to 7-10 hours

http://www.jr.com/asus/pe/ASU_UL20AA1/

9/1/2010 8:21:32 AM

Id rather have my ipad

9/1/2010 8:26:37 AM