I was thinking of buying a small netbook to replace my slowly-dying Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop. So far, the screen doesn’t work (have a 40 lb. monitor attached right now), and some of the keys don’t work anymore (usb keyboard attached for now).
It has a 1.7 Ghz processor, 512 MB of RAM, 30 GB hard drive (w/ 160 GB external), and not much else to boast about.
I use my computer for internet, watching youtube, listening to music, writing papers for school, storing digital photos, and AIM. Literally, nothing else.
I went to BestBuy to look at netbooks, and asked the guy there about using one as a main computer. In an arrogant, “I’m trying to upsell and tell you what you want” kind of way, he said they shouldn’t be used for that, it would be slow. Yet…the netbooks I’ve been looking at have a 1.6 Ghz processor, and 1-2 GB of RAM.
Wouldn’t the netbook be FASTER than my current setup, since I would have 2-4 times as much RAM? He kept saying it would be slow, but if it’s the same processing speed with more RAM, how does that make sense?
I don’t know all that much about computers, so I didn’t tell him off or anything in case he was right. Needless to say, though, I won’t be purchasing anything from BestBuy.
I plan on acquiring an external CD/DVD drive, and already have an external hard drive, mouse, and USB 2.0 hub. I’ve been looking at Acer’s Aspire One.
[B]1)Does anyone have any experience with netbooks they would like to share?
2)Will a 1.6 Ghz, 1GB RAM netbook be slower than my Pentium 4 -1.7Ghz, 512MB RAM laptop?[/B]
You have a 1.7 Ghz Pentium 4, while this netbook is a 1.6 Ghz Atom. They cannot be compared based on the Ghz. According to benchmarks from passmark, the mobile pentium 4 1.7 Ghz has a score of 223, while the Atom N270 1.6 Ghz has a score of 306. Higher is better. So, assuming that everything else is equal between the two, the netbook is faster. More ram of course will improve performance if you have a lot of apps open at once, so that is an added benefit.
The question you should be asking yourself is how much faster of a computer do you want? The faster you go with, the longer it will last you in the long term. Netbooks of course have the advantage of being very portable.
Bear in mind, if you didn’t tell the Best Buy salesman about what you were currently working with, he didn’t tell you anything that was inaccurate. I did once have a horrible computer buying experience at Best Buy, but that was 10 years ago and much has changed since then so I’m giving them a break. Plus they still stand while my preferred Circuit City is now gone!
If your photo sorting is not photo editing, your processor and RAM speeds shouldn’t be too large, and a netbook will probably work just fine for you. Just keep in mind all the extra stuff you may need to carry around with it. If you’ll always be bringing the optical drive, cords, card readers, etc. with you, a laptop might end up being easier to deal with.
i have an acer aspire one netbook its great starts up in 20 seconds but i must warn u gets viruses alot and i havent found any virus protection that works good yet the best i did was spybot and avg the battery lasts around 2 hours has decent sound but myne the speakers dont work good at all anymore which is a pain i have had tgo reset it to factory default 4 times now because it will just freeze from viruses i have heard if u get one put linux or mac or something on it for the operating system and my sister has the same laptop but in white and it did the same thing as myne get viruses and shutdown and such but i hope this helped and good luck with ur buying.
Look out, I think your latest “virus” has taken away all your caps and punctuation.
Methinks mr.UNIversal doesn’t know the difference between a virus, a bug or other issues that may be causing those problems. I’d recommend a Mac netbook, but they don’t make one.
I know, “But Macs are expensive!” Still not by much when you factor in all the time you’ll spend doing maintenance on your PC. Don’t get me started. But a Netbook may run a simpler version of Windows (like Mobile?), which may be more stable…
Vista and 7 are stable enough for anything right now.
Expensive? Its easier to just stop being a damn fool on a computer. Problem solved for me, and a lot of my friends that went through my "‘puter for idiots’ course. lol.
But seriously, Ive seen macs and windows mucked up equally. Viruses, glitches, hardware failure and everything else people will try to talk about because of the name and not their actions.
For your speed questions. Look for benchmark. The ghz number on your processor isnt the only thing that makes a difference in its performance. Ram does help, but its not the ‘cure-all’ for a fast computer.
But for what you want to do, you arent going to need much. 1.6ghz, 1gig of ram will be decent. I know the 2gig options can be spendy (though good deals from Acer), so if you can afford it, go for a 2gig model just to handle your programs/files a bit better.
If it was me, for the money, id just get a small laptop. Youd be able to get a laptop a bit bigger 13" or so, but with better performance for the same price.
If it has to be relatively cheap this could be your best option for $999. Check it out. I know it’s not a netbook but it might be a better choice for a main computer used at home as well as on the road.
Enough speed and power that it works great as my only computer (photo, video editing, even light CFD), and I can drag it with me pretty much anywhere. Highly recommended!
Another tidbit: I’ve found netbooks to really only be effective as internet cruisers. For anything else I’ve found them somewhat cumbersome to work on, and more a “make do” situation than anything else.
I have a 10 inch Asus EEE netbook. The battery life is great since it only has a flash drive. It has Linux Ubuntu. It came with a good bundle of software and can read just about any file type. It will fit in my Camelbak.
The only thing I don’t like is the right shift key is way out of position.
I had read that the 9 inch screens are more of a pain to view web pages because you have to slide the page left and right all the time.
Really my goal here is to get a computer that is very functional for my needs and portable. I expect it to last 2-4 years. I need to replace my laptop soon, and I was thinking I’d try an inexpensive netbook. If it proves inadequate, I’ll purchase a laptop to compliment it in the future (once I’ve earned more money). Portability is a HUGE plus to me. And no, I don’t ever, ever want an iPhone or any other “SmartPhone.” The laptop I have is fairly portable, but its quite heavy and difficult to lug around (especially in the Texas heat…).
He wouldn’t let me finish telling him what I already had, he just kept telling me that netbooks are not primary computers. He literally just cut me off, which I thought was kind of rude.
Nope, no real editing besides cropping or changing the orientation.
I plan on keeping all that extra “stuff” in one place: my desk. I have a USB 2.0 Hub that will handle the CD/DVD drive, mouse, external HD, squishy roll-up USB keyboard, and anything else I need. I plan to use the netbook to take to classes with me, and carry around campus - I want something portable and light. Writing papers and other typing-intensive work probably will be done on the full-size keyboard, unless I end up really liking the tiny keyboard.
Run on, plx?
20 second boot-up! Nice.
I’ve been using Avast!, Ad-Aware, Spybot, and CCleaner with my current computer. Despite doing lots of “dangerous” downloads, I don’t notice any speed difference between when I first got it and now. I attribute this mostly to Avast!
I’m concerned with Acer - I hear their products “crap out” sooner than other brands. IOW, there’s a reason why they’re cheaper. Regardless, Acer may be my best option - I’m not planning on keeping the netbook past a few years…3 years from now I kbet I’ll be able to get a netbook-sized computer that’s tenfold more powerful for the same price.
I’m very seriously considering getting a MacBook at some point - I like the Mac OS and it seems to have pretty intuitive interface in general. However, I just do not have $1000 to drop on a computer right now (decided to buy some backpacking gear…). I’m going to need a workable computer for the coming fall semester, preferably for around $400, or less if I can manage it.
I’m looking for a netbook with XP, which I’m familiar with and has never caused me problems on the two systems I’ve had it on.
I can see how that would be irritating, I’ll try to avoid 9" screens. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for your input, everyone. I think I’m going to start seriously researching makers, models, and features of every netbook I can find. In a couple of weeks, I plan to be the owner of a netbook.
I don’t think 7 is even on the market yet. I guess you could download the current beta and install it instead of the new copy of whatever came with your laptop/netbook. In any case, the copy of XP I was trying to clean up on my relatives’ computer the other day was stable enough, but it was a huge mess… letting it install XP Service Pack 3 was a mistake; it rendered the machine unbootable and I had to do a repair/reinstall from the original software DVD that came with the computer – don’t get me started.
You said a mouthful there. Easier for some, but never gonna happen for too many others. Some people simply refuse to learn to use their computers, which creates whole markets of consultants, repairmen, Geeks On Call, and of course sellers of “PC Fix-it” software that may or may not be any good…
How much would it cost to equip a Windows machine with the equivalent of all the software, including what you need to protect it, that you get bundled with that Mac? Not enough to make up the difference, as many viable products are available for free or pretty cheap. The rest of the difference is not having to hassle with all of that in the first place.
But if you know what you’re doing, you can definitely keep a PC running nice and healthy for a much lower initial outlay of $$!
It’s not the screen size that matters, it’s the screen resolution. Don’t get anything with a horizontal resolution smaller than 1024, which is what most websites are designed for.
+1 for the EeePC on Ubuntu! I have a 9" screen (904HA) and even manage some minor development with it. Sure bigger would be better but for ~$360, I get a ton of use out of this thing. I spent extra on the 6 cell battery so I get 4-5 hours on a single charge and a 32G solid state disk so I don’t worry about the bangs and bumps of a spinning hard drive. The ram has also been upgraded to 2 Gig so that’s never an issue either.
This is my second EeePC and I love it. Sure, I could have bought a full-size laptop for what I spent but this setup suits me better!
With an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, it would work jim-dandy as a primary email / internet / photos computer.
I’ve had the Samsung NC 10. And the Dell Mini 10. I can recommend the Dell Mini 10!
Okay, I prefer my MacBook Pro but for travling the Dell is great (or better said: tiny).
It has a build in GSM/UMTS modem, which was SIM locked (Vodafone prepaid deal), but easy to hack/bypass all by myself. So now I can run it on any mobile network. And I have a couple of unlimited data SIM’s…
Further is has the best keyboard (or should I say the least worst?), very great battery life, and for sure the best screen I’ve ever had. Decent warranty. And a legal Windows OS (that’s been a while ago). I also ran the XP OS from a USB stick.
Plus… it can run OS-X (no kidding, many confirmed reports, but be aware)!!!
And a alive community at http://mydellmini.com/forum/
In Europe it is costing E 380,- So if you ask for my advice…
I don’t have a netbook, but I have to agree here. I don’t understand why anyone would get a netbook with Windows.
If you are getting a netbook, don’t spend much more than 200 dollars, if you do, ask yourself what you need it for. There are ads for older models of dell laptops for like 350 dollars with much more capabilities than a netbook, but of course they aren’t as portable.
I have an Asus Eeepc 1000HE with a dual boot (windows and Linux)
the only drawback is that the touchpad is extremely “touchy” and interprets (supposed) moves in strange ways (very annoying as I use constantly “vi” and things “happen” … I don’t know how to get rid of that under Linux).
this said it is a good compromise and I don’t need a more powerful tool.
