Been toying with the idea of getting a netbook or laptop. I mainly want it to surf, check email, maybe watch a video (that's on the hard drive), etc. A bit torn between a netbook or a lower end laptop. With all the traveling back and forth it would be nice to have to transfer files, etc. from home and here too. Best Buy has this Asus Netbook for only $249. this week. Advice/suggesions??
P.S. I'd also like to use it as a secondary computer for the podcast to play audio out of and tie it into my main PC. Can a netbook handle that ok?
I think the problem with a netbook, especially for a guy like you Rico, is that while you say you'll only want it for email, surf, etc, eventually you'll want to do something more and the netbook just won't be able to hack it.
I'm sure to play audio it'll be fine, but personally I think you'd be better off with a lower end laptop for around 100 dollars or so more. Netbooks are a great idea but unless you REALLY need to ultra portability, a 12 or 13" laptop will be much more versatile.
Yeah, I pretty much agree Joe. It's just the cost factor that really was driving me there. But hey, I do have a job now. ;)
A netbook will certainly handle the audio but I think Joe's right. You need to be sure your requirements won't overflow into something more sophisticated.
My netbook's fine for browsing, email and a bit of Google Docs writing but for anything else, I revert to the laptop.
One of the reasons this comes to mind is in my current situation I don't have my TIVO and when I watch TV I can't skip the commercials. So, I usually have a book or magazine nearby for that time but having a laptop or netbook would make those few minutes even easier to handle. Maybe a "scouting" trip to Best Buy is called for.
If all you will do is surf the web, check email, watch videos you should get a netbook, GREAT battery life, tiny, but slow. I downloaded an HD video from Amazon and it lagged a bit but apart from that it is a marvel of modern engineering. But its slow...very slooow
Love my netbook.. I use it for surfing the net mostly and for the price you can't beat it.. if you get a low end lap top you are still very limited to what you can do with it. Now if you were choosing between a nice lap top or a net book then I would say laptop.. but from what you want to do with it.. a netbook would work.
Just don't get a Lenovo Ideapad S10, I have one and it sucks, if the school would allow any netbook for extra money I would personally pay for a better one
Quote from: Geekyfanboy on March 09, 2010, 01:25:27 PM
Love my netbook.. I use it for surfing the net mostly and for the price you can't beat it.. if you get a low end lap top you are still very limited to what you can do with it. Now if you were choosing between a nice lap top or a net book then I would say laptop.. but from what you want to do with it.. a netbook would work.
Which is where I am with a portable device like these, Kenny. I do agree, though, Rico you may want a higher degree of functionality a netbook, by design, will never have. I just want an iPad so I can get back on the forum during the day from my office! :hate
In a perfect world (and excess money) I would just end up with both. And that may happen at some point. All good points by everyone. I can easily find myself finding uses for both devices. I guess it comes down to which one to get first.
How about the ThinkPad X100e? It has an 11" screen, and decent CPU, and can sport up to 4GB of RAM.
I love the small footprint of a netbook - and I have been toying with buying one for some time.
Quote from: Bromptonboy on March 09, 2010, 05:16:24 PM
How about the ThinkPad X100e? It has an 11" screen, and decent CPU, and can sport up to 4GB of RAM.
I love the small footprint of a netbook - and I have been toying with buying one for some time.
That looks pretty nice. Good review of it here: http://netbooked.net/netbook-reviews/review/lenovo-thinkpad-x100e-review/ (http://netbooked.net/netbook-reviews/review/lenovo-thinkpad-x100e-review/)
Seems like it can even handle WOW. Hmmm,....
I love my Acer Netbook and use it every day for surfing, email and occasionaly instant messaging. It isn't so powerful so I just stick to writing with it and surfing. It's small, easy to take with me and connects very easily to any wireless network I encounter. I don't do any audio hardly at all with it, and of course that is what I do mostly for a living now. So, it's just handy, and for the money, totally worth it.
I picked up an older Dell laptop at a computer store and installed latest Fedora Core. Works well for me for browsing, word processing, and watching videos.
I love my netbook, especially for travel! For surfing, it's fantastic. I also authorized the watered-down office programs (word & excel), because I'll sometimes use them for work purposes when traveling. Sometimes, on hulu, it's a little slow for streaming, no matter that quality of the wireless connection. I also use skype on there from time to time.
But from what I've heard, you don't want to have any more programs on a netbook than it. It might technically be able to handle them, but it will end up running so slowly you can't use it. I haven't even attempted to put iTunes on the netbook, I just wait to download new podcasts when I get home. ;)
Alot of the students get itunes, it works fine. I use VLC. I run rainmeter and so many other programs at once and the computer uses about 25% of the processor speed
I think I'm headed more towards a laptop. I like Dell and HP quite a bit. Looked around Best Buy a little yesterday. Still thinking and reading up more on some reviews and so on.
When it comes down to it, do you want performance or battery life?
Quote from: Darkmolerman on March 15, 2010, 04:22:01 PM
When it comes down to it, do you want performance or battery life?
Performance. Most of the time I'll be able to plug in if I have to.
I know Alien ware has a pricey netbook with the power of a laptop so I would go with that, but I don't know how the stats are
I have a Dell Mini 10v NetBook with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. 10" screen and nice and quiet and gives me a little over 5 hours to continuous use.
I take it with me to work so I can surf and check my email and such. I have used it very successfully for audio stuff with Audacity, iTunes is fine, and it is great for use with Skype for video chats with my daughter at college. (it comes with builtin mic and web cam).
I have Word/Excel/Outlook 2003 installed and they run fine. The only program that is slow on it is Photoshop Elements so I am going to put Image Ready on it instead. I need something to deal with photos from my iPhone or other digital cameras.
I am very happy with this little guy and it only cost me $320! My real laptop is a DELL D630 and is pretty much upgraded to the max. I love it but it stays home in the docking station most of the time because the NetBook is less of a risk if it is lost or damaged.
I used to have a Dell XPS 1530, the thing overheated, processor apparently started over heating to the point where it would not accept a charge, now I am not using it.
Did you contact Dell about it? My D630 had a faulty NVidia video chipset onboard which caused a lot of heat generation to the point where the bottom of the laptop was too hot to handle (it could have been the Organians...)
I contacted Dell. They admitted the problem and sent a tech to come out to my house to replace the motherboard, fan assembly, etc. and the problem was solved. Now it is nice and cool even after powered up for eight hours. And they fixed it for free cuz it was still under warranty at the time.
I have owned a lot of Dell desktops and servers over the past ten years. They have always been very reliable for me. I have also had VAIOs which were NOT.
I contacted them about 5 times in one year, then the warranty ran out, as it happened again so I gave up and built a computer
Well that blows. Sorry to hear they were less than helpful.
Building your own is always your best bet if you have the time, tools, and talent. That way you know what you are getting and can ensure everything works right, you have sufficient power and airflow, etc.
Well they were more then helpful, the laptop just sucked for a hot Hawaii summer
Dell has a new device now which is a tablet PC. The form factor is a bit like the iPad and it supports multi-touch. It is a lot of more expensive than the iPad but it does everything a PC can do, including Flash, USB support, etc.
http://www.dell.com/tablet?s=biz&cs=555 (http://www.dell.com/tablet?s=biz&cs=555)
I would love a tablet PC
EDIT: WHOA it is expensive I mean WHOA, all I want is a decent tablet PC...hello Ipad
Quote from: RickPeete on March 15, 2010, 10:57:52 PM
Dell has a new device now which is a tablet PC. The form factor is a bit like the iPad and it supports multi-touch. It is a lot of more expensive than the iPad but it does everything a PC can do, including Flash, USB support, etc.
http://www.dell.com/tablet?s=biz&cs=555 (http://www.dell.com/tablet?s=biz&cs=555)
Very nice, but way beyond what I want to spend right now.
HP 311 - netbooks have some pretty good configurations - with up to 3GB of RAM, 11.6" display, 80GB SSD, etc.
Here's one thing I want to be able to do with it. Since being out of town, I watch a lot of TV shows via www.hulu.com (http://www.hulu.com) and other sources. What I wanted to do was take the laptop to the other room, use an HDMI out on it (or other connection if needed) and hook it into the 32" flat panel LCD TV I have there. Then I can watch the shows in a more comfortable setting. This seems pretty feasible with some of the more multimedia friendly laptops I am seeing.
P.S. Any netbooks out there with HDMI out - or other outputs to do this?
If you want it really easy, just see if your TV has a VGA port on it. My 40" Samsung LCD does. HDMI would be better but for Hulu purposes I imagine VGA would be fine.
The HP Mini 311 series (a few of the models) does have HDMI. I use an full size HP laptop with HDMI to watch hulu on our big screen set.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=Mini&series_name=mini311_series (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=Mini&series_name=mini311_series)
That's a nice item. Frak, why did I look at those Alienware/Dell laptops? Man, they sure are awesome looking!
As cool as that is, I gaming laptops have never done it for me. They get too old too fast!
I am within a hairsbreadth of ordering one of those HP 311's.....someone stop me! 3GB of RAM, 80GB SSD,......MMMmmmmm...SSD....
Quote from: Rico on March 17, 2010, 11:15:26 AM
That's a nice item. Frak, why did I look at those Alienware/Dell laptops? Man, they sure are awesome looking!
Hehe sorry for the suggestion, Alienware gets the best of us :(
Just double check on how that 3 gigs of ram is allocated to each chip. If it's 3 1 gig sticks you'll break dual channel. DDR need to be in matched pairs to run at full speed. For 3 ggis you'd need 2 1 gig sticks and 2 512 meg. Not sure if the laptop has 4 slots.
For this machine (HP 311 mini):
Choices:
1GB DDR3 System Memory
2GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
3GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
must be 2 x 512MB and 1 slot for the balance.
heh, didn't know they had 3 GB DIMMs, guess it makes sense.
One thing I'm finding is the Netbooks (of course) and even some of the smaller format laptops (like the Alienware small version above) leave out the internal DVD/CD drive. I guess this isn't a huge thing and can be dealt with, but I'm unsure if it will be something I really miss or not.
Yeah. Netbooks don't have internal CD/DVD drives. If I install software, I just 'share' a CD drive from another system on my home network and use that.
Eventually, I just went and got a USB DVD R/W drive for like $70 or something so I could watch a movie on a trip or burn something for a friend when I wasn't home.
Yeah you can get a USB optical drive for around 70 dollars and just throw it in the bag with the netbook. I can't even remember the last time I used my DVD drive (especially on my laptop, I'm not even sure it still works) .
The big thing I think of is if I want to watch a movie or something on it. Anyone ever stream a movie on DVD from another PC's shared DVD drive wirelessly to a netbook or laptop?
Gosh this thing is tempting me a lot!
Alienware M11x Walkthrough (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1HLijIka5o#)
$800 - not bad for laptop
Oh boy! I would love to get this machine!
Rico -- I say go for it!
I would totally get that
I think know that you have seen this Laptop, you may as well get it, as if you don't, you will always be wondering if you should have.
There is only one little thing holding me back, the display size. It's only an 11.5" screen. I think it would be ok and adds to making it more portable, but I'm very used to big screens now. The resolution is still high, but I'd like to see one in person to be sure. I think Dell/Alienware might have a 30 day return policy, so I guess that's an option to think about if I really didn't like it. Have to check into that.
Quote from: Rico on March 22, 2010, 07:03:35 AM
There is only one little thing holding me back, the display size. It's only an 11.5" screen. I think it would be ok and adds to making it more portable, but I'm very used to big screens now. The resolution is still high, but I'd like to see one in person to be sure. I think Dell/Alienware might have a 30 day return policy, so I guess that's an option to think about if I really didn't like it. Have to check into that.
Perhaps you would be happier in the 13" range for a display? If you do that, you can get more horsepower in the CPU and better components.
Check out this 'new' tablet: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V3C4F8 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V3C4F8)
I am getting a test unit to play with - should be here in a few days.
I think they said it would be sold in consumer outlets as well. So I would expect you could soon find this laptop in Best Buy or Circuit City or something like that.
Could be your way of seeing before buying...
don't get vista horrible laptop i had one but soon it couldn't hold a charge
My newest obsession is the HP 311 Netbook. With a 11.6" WS LCD, and up to 3GB of DDR3 RAM - and with a 80GB SSD....
I'm holding off for a little, but right now I think my top contender is something from Alienware.
Just bought Fran a Toshiba Satellite T130D. It's basically a big netbook. 13" with the AMD version of the Atom processor, 3 gigs of ram and win7. Nice little machine and a great replacement for her old P4 2.0Ghz that is on its last legs. Also a nice little machine to bring on trips.
Not something I'd get for me but works just fine for her.