I've been tossing around the idea of picking up a netbook for awhile now. I've been waiting to see where netbooks go in regards to price (as I want to keep the cost below $300.) I noticed that the EEE PC 901 has now dipped to about $280. The netbook specs look great, expect that it uses two SSD drives. I've read reviews regarding the SSD in the EEE PC series, and they have been mixed. One thing that the reviews don't address is the longevity of the SSD drives and the overall performance in real-world use. Another concern of mine is the availability of mini-PCIe down the road once SSD netbooks are phased out of the marketplace. I was wondering if anyone who has or had a netbook with SSD could share their experience using a netbook with SSD.
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Netbooks & SSD
- Thread starter Teh Lurv
- Start date
Well, personally I can't speak for SSDs on netbooks... But I can tell you why I'm glad I didn't go down that route, even though back in November I was originally adamant about getting an SSD-equipped netbook; since then I've been the proud owner of an Acer Aspire One (8.9", 160GB HD, 6-cell battery)...
Back then the AAO was by far the best choice at $400 (+$30 for a slim BT adapter), though the Samsung NC10 was very appealing at $480 as well. I looked at ASUS' whole line, the MSI Wind, HP's offerings, Lenovo, etc. Fast forward to today and I still think their new 10.2" model is by far the best choice amongst all the netbooks, partly due to pricing. It's hard to beat $350 with free shipping (on Amazon).
ASUS and HP have refreshed their offerings but just can't compete on price (likewise, the NC10 is still $440-ish), though ASUS comes the closest (I think the 1000HE is $375 on Newegg). I still like the AAO keyboard better, though the 1000HE comes with BT and draft-N. Kind of a personal choice I guess. I like the AAO touchpad, which does support certain multi-touch gestures (often touted as an EEE PC-specific feature). The AAOs have a pretty nice community at www.aspireoneuser.com too.
As far as I can tell, contrary to initial reviews, everyone and their mom is getting the same kind of 5,800mAh-rated 6-cell battery with their 10.2" AAOs, that's good for 7 hours or so (same as the ASUS 1000HE and other recent netbooks); as opposed to a lower rated 6-cell like that on the original 8.9" AAOs (mine's good for about 5 hours with WiFi on, 'specially if I watch video or work off an SD card rather than the HD). It's kind of funny if you read the Amazon/Newegg reviews, everyone's surprised they got the "larger battery", but I read most of them and didn't spot a single person saying they got the lower rated battery that was supposedly gonna be included after initial shipments.
Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked, SSDs were a big part of the netbook trend at first, but the number of HD-equipped models soon overtook the number of HD equipped ones... I think part of the reason was simply pricing, SSDs didn't come down in price fast enough to compete with HDs, but part of it is also performance (which is somewhat tied to pricing).
First, as far as anyone could figure (though testing was limited as it depends a lot on usage patterns), the type of cheap SSDs going into these netbooks barely saved any power at all compared to 5,400 RPM drives. Could be bad controllers, or the type of tests, but no one was really milking more battery life out of their SSDs from what I saw. Second, those same cheap SSDs used on netbooks are always slower than your standard 5,400 RPM laptop HD.
So you're basically paying a premium for less space, a slower drive, and the possibility of a more rugged device; whether that pans out depends on how rough you are on it I guess. Kind of a wash 'till SSDs improve significantly if you ask me. Plus most of the HD-equipped models are easier to upgrade with future SATA-based 2.5" SSDs anyway.
When watching movies I've found I can save some on battery life anyway by moving whatever I'm gonna watch to my 16GB SDHC Class 6 card, but I'm still glad I have the 160GB HD so I can have a good chunk of my movie/music collection on it w/o worrying about the OS HD-usage or anything else... 'Sides, it speeds up transfers off my main PC anyway (compared to a typical netbook SSD).
This compromise seems by far the best choice 'till SSDs prices come down low enough so that more powerful SSDs can be used on netbooks. There's a reason why the SSDs that everyone drools over for desktop usage cost nearly 2x more by themselves than any netbook does.
My 2 cents...
Back then the AAO was by far the best choice at $400 (+$30 for a slim BT adapter), though the Samsung NC10 was very appealing at $480 as well. I looked at ASUS' whole line, the MSI Wind, HP's offerings, Lenovo, etc. Fast forward to today and I still think their new 10.2" model is by far the best choice amongst all the netbooks, partly due to pricing. It's hard to beat $350 with free shipping (on Amazon).
ASUS and HP have refreshed their offerings but just can't compete on price (likewise, the NC10 is still $440-ish), though ASUS comes the closest (I think the 1000HE is $375 on Newegg). I still like the AAO keyboard better, though the 1000HE comes with BT and draft-N. Kind of a personal choice I guess. I like the AAO touchpad, which does support certain multi-touch gestures (often touted as an EEE PC-specific feature). The AAOs have a pretty nice community at www.aspireoneuser.com too.
As far as I can tell, contrary to initial reviews, everyone and their mom is getting the same kind of 5,800mAh-rated 6-cell battery with their 10.2" AAOs, that's good for 7 hours or so (same as the ASUS 1000HE and other recent netbooks); as opposed to a lower rated 6-cell like that on the original 8.9" AAOs (mine's good for about 5 hours with WiFi on, 'specially if I watch video or work off an SD card rather than the HD). It's kind of funny if you read the Amazon/Newegg reviews, everyone's surprised they got the "larger battery", but I read most of them and didn't spot a single person saying they got the lower rated battery that was supposedly gonna be included after initial shipments.
Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked, SSDs were a big part of the netbook trend at first, but the number of HD-equipped models soon overtook the number of HD equipped ones... I think part of the reason was simply pricing, SSDs didn't come down in price fast enough to compete with HDs, but part of it is also performance (which is somewhat tied to pricing).
First, as far as anyone could figure (though testing was limited as it depends a lot on usage patterns), the type of cheap SSDs going into these netbooks barely saved any power at all compared to 5,400 RPM drives. Could be bad controllers, or the type of tests, but no one was really milking more battery life out of their SSDs from what I saw. Second, those same cheap SSDs used on netbooks are always slower than your standard 5,400 RPM laptop HD.
So you're basically paying a premium for less space, a slower drive, and the possibility of a more rugged device; whether that pans out depends on how rough you are on it I guess. Kind of a wash 'till SSDs improve significantly if you ask me. Plus most of the HD-equipped models are easier to upgrade with future SATA-based 2.5" SSDs anyway.
When watching movies I've found I can save some on battery life anyway by moving whatever I'm gonna watch to my 16GB SDHC Class 6 card, but I'm still glad I have the 160GB HD so I can have a good chunk of my movie/music collection on it w/o worrying about the OS HD-usage or anything else... 'Sides, it speeds up transfers off my main PC anyway (compared to a typical netbook SSD).
This compromise seems by far the best choice 'till SSDs prices come down low enough so that more powerful SSDs can be used on netbooks. There's a reason why the SSDs that everyone drools over for desktop usage cost nearly 2x more by themselves than any netbook does.
My 2 cents...