Netbook Recommendation

M

mj-barton

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 28, 2003
Messages
158
Gents,

With an inordinate number of netbooks flooding the market, I am hesitant to make a selection without any recommendations. I'd like to try and purchase it straight off NewEgg.

Here are the features I'm looking for:
  • Excellent wired and wireless performance
  • 10" screen
  • Maybe CF or maybe a spinning HD (still undecided, your thoughts?)
  • Ability to play movies!!!!! Either from a DVD rip, DVD Rip, Netflix, Hulu, etc. This is very important!
  • DVD drive (see previous)
  • Minimum 2 gigs of ram with an accessible expansion slot.
  • Ability to open the machine (if something breaks) without voiding any warranty.

As far as price goes, lets aim for $400 with a hard cap at $500. It maybe that this isn't reasonable and certain features need to be crossed of the list.

Thanks Gents
-Mike
 
you will see %90 of netbooks are the same

1g of ram
XP home
intel n270
160G HD or 16G storage, 8G SSD and 8G online

really it comes down to what brand or look you want, i do love my Asus 1000HE and cant complain, tossed in 2G of ram and put on windows 7 and runs good.

Minimum 2 gigs of ram with an accessible expansion slot.
Ability to open the machine (if something breaks) without voiding any warranty.
Click to expand...

this will be hard, netbooks werent made to have lots of ram in them, also few companis let you open them, except to change ram or HD.

have you considered the Acer 13' laptop out, ultra-thin?
 
i have an Acer Aspire One D150 and i like it. my only complaints were the small 3 cell battery....the bigger one wasnt available when i got it( i just ordered a 6 cell today even though its pretty pricey) the amount of apgradable ram and the speakers (which i dont really care about anyway). i upgraded it to 2 gb the day after i got it months ago. the newer 250 models come with the 6 cell battery, laptop ram is cheap so upping it to 2 gb is easy. hd, ram and wifi card all have bottom access, as well the vids ive seen online tell me the unit isnt hard to take apart. the last thing i think ill upgrade is the screen. im itching for one of the solderless touchscreen kits.

its not going to perform anything close to a decent wired desktop machine. netbooks are made to be highly portable and easy on power. they do basic functions quite well though. ive watched a few dvd ripped movies without problems, use it to read ebooks, surf the net and provide mp3s to my stereo in the vehicle, as well as some work related stuff i actually purcahsed it for (LOL)

you can buy an external dvd drive if you need one.
 
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you aren't going to find a netbook w/ a dvd drive. You'll have to get an external drive if thats what you want.
look at the hp mini 311(ION w/ hdmi) and the new Dell v13(ULV and pimp form factor).
 
I got the mini 311 from VZW. I'm playing L4D2 and BF1942 on it. The thing is amazing. I love it.
 
mycomputersucks said:
you aren't going to find a netbook w/ a dvd drive. You'll have to get an external drive if thats what you want.
look at the hp mini 311(ION w/ hdmi) and the new Dell v13(ULV and pimp form factor).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I looked at all the Netbooks I could find and didn't see a single one with a built in optical drive. I ended up getting a notebook instead because I wanted everything in one package.
 
The *best* 10.1" netbook would be the ASUS N10J.

It comes with 2GB RAM, and has a 9300GS - dedicated with 256MB of VRAM,

The 9300gs is a lower clocked version of the 9400m present in ION systems, except the 9300gs has dedicated vram, too!
 
jeremyshaw said:
The *best* 10.1" netbook would be the ASUS N10J.

It comes with 2GB RAM, and has a 9300GS - dedicated with 256MB of VRAM,

The 9300gs is a lower clocked version of the 9400m present in ION systems, except the 9300gs has dedicated vram, too!
Click to expand...
Except it's more of a 12" laptop with a 10.1" screen in terms of size and weight. Just look at how big the bezel is. @@
 
the only netbook I would buy is one with at min an ION IGP system.... HD video content is everywhere and the ability to play it is important for every PC.

the HP mini has the ion. there maybe others, but stay away from INTEL IGPS
 
Adidas4275 said:
the only netbook I would buy is one with at min an ION IGP system.... HD video content is everywhere and the ability to play it is important for every PC.

the HP mini has the ion. there maybe others, but stay away from INTEL IGPS
Click to expand...
That's not entirely true.

Sure, the older Intel IGPs like GMA 950 are pretty crappy and ION is much better at 1080p playback.

However, the new 4 series Intel IGP like 4500MHD is excellent for HD playback, even 1080p.

So there's nothing wrong with a CULV processor + 4500MHD. But you should go for Atom + ION if you looking to sacrifice weight, cpu speed, battery life and price just to get a little more FPS in games on a netbook.
 
when i had the choice of going for a CULV+ intel IGP or Nvidia GPU I went nvidia GPU....

105m

I have seen the 4500MHD struggle with high bit rate encodes H.264 but a CULV is much better than an atom CPU....

are the netbooks with CULV CPUs from intel? the AMD neo isnt what i would want either
 
shurcooL said:
Except it's more of a 12" laptop with a 10.1" screen in terms of size and weight. Just look at how big the bezel is. @@
Click to expand...

I have one (n10j-a1).

It's not too bad.

My previous laptop was a Dell M1210, so this was a welcome "sidegrade" for me (since I had Intel Graphics on the Dell).

It comes with it's own custom case, that has just enough space for the charger and the netbook, and a pair of fold-out handles in the case.

I personally, love it (now with the new Flash 10.1 beta, I can view HD flash with no issues whatsoever).
 
I would have sprung for an Acer 1810T (SU4100) or 1410T (SU2300) for the CULV/Celeron Dual. Skip the SU2700 and 3500. The SU7300 gets too pricey. All of which are over your price range, but as a netbook owner... if it can get the same battery life as a netbook, weighs 3 lbs, but outstrips it in processing power, it's rather worth it.

However, I couldn't justify upgrading from a netbook. No resale value, and I don't really deal with HD content.
 
Leman said:
Skip the [SU3500].
Click to expand...
Just curious, but why do you say that?

Personally, I prefer a fast single-core CPU in a netbook, since I would rarely use both cores, yet the 2nd core consumes additional power. See my in-depth reasoning here.
 
N270: 2.5W
330 (dual core): 8W
SU3500: 5.5W @ 1.4GHz
SU2300 (dual core): 10W @ 1.2GHz
SU4100 (dual core): 10W @ 1.3GHz

I guess it depends on what you're using it for. As a student laptop, I'd take the dual cores because I'm using my netbook/laptop as a desktop replacement (a poor one at that, but at least it doesn't game). If I was purely after battery life, I suppose I could go with the SU3500. But I don't trust a single core processor anymore. Once its maxed out, then what? With a dual core, can't you set programs to each core? Doesn't Windows manage that for you anyways? It's the "1.3GHz * 2 = 2.6GHz" thing. 200MHz isn't, I feel, significant enough to go down single core. I appreciate that most applications are single threaded though.

Personally, I'll live with an extra 4.5W, and its definitely worth the 2W over an Atom processor, even if its a dual core with HT. Here's a recent article comparing the SU7300, 330, and N270. http://www.liliputing.com/2009/12/culv-ion-or-dual-core-atom-with-ion.html

On the other hand, maybe it's the e-penis. Your computer sucks unless it has more than 1 core.
 
Leman said:
N270: 2.5W
330 (dual core): 8W
SU3500: 5.5W @ 1.4GHz
SU2300 (dual core): 10W @ 1.2GHz
SU4100 (dual core): 10W @ 1.3GHz

I guess it depends on what you're using it for. As a student laptop, I'd take the dual cores because I'm using my netbook/laptop as a desktop replacement (a poor one at that, but at least it doesn't game). If I was purely after battery life, I suppose I could go with the SU3500. But I don't trust a single core processor anymore. Once its maxed out, then what? With a dual core, can't you set programs to each core? Doesn't Windows manage that for you anyways? It's the "1.3GHz * 2 = 2.6GHz" thing. 200MHz isn't, I feel, significant enough to go down single core. I appreciate that most applications are single threaded though.

Personally, I'll live with an extra 4.5W, and its definitely worth the 2W over an Atom processor, even if its a dual core with HT. Here's a recent article comparing the SU7300, 330, and N270. http://www.liliputing.com/2009/12/culv-ion-or-dual-core-atom-with-ion.html

On the other hand, maybe it's the e-penis. Your computer sucks unless it has more than 1 core.
Click to expand...

the computer sucking or not sucking depends on the program you are running. if it cannot take advantage of both cores then having them is virtually useless. atom processors are not designed to be desktop replacements. they are designed to be power saving small platform cpus which work well in netbooks. you dont need a quadcore to surf the net and take notes or read books. IMO if you wanted a real computer that would game youd be buying a customized desktop anyways not a freaking laptop.
 
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