Netbook or no?

[Synomenon]

Have an MSI Wind U100 dual core atom that I have increased the memory to 2GB and added an HD Decoder card.

Before I upgraded it I could run MS Office 2007 and surf the web and play flash games just fine. The extra memory and HD decoder just makes for better eye candy and faster load times.

I didn't know the Wind U100s came w/ N330s. Where did you get it? I may have to return my U110 for this N330 Wind.

 

[dawza]

So long as you understand their limitations (which, if you are viewing them as toys, it sounds like you do), there is nothing wrong with single-core Atom-based netbooks. I have a "real" ultraportable laptop (elitebook 2530P) as well as a bona-fide netbook (Dell Mini 9) and find that both have a purpose. The netbook is a great throw-around, quick-search, pack-up-and-go device. With the proper tweaks (the biggest one being installation of flashfire to compensate for the poor SSD performance), it is perfectly suitable for browsing and typing the occasional document. I paid just over $200 for mine, and at that price, theft and damage aren't things I stress about.

IMO, if you can find a model that suits you for less than $250, a netbook is tough to beat. Once you go over $300, and/or get into the 11" + range, CULV-based ultraportables need to be considered.

 

[msi1337]

here ya go

shameless self plug

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29355206#post29355206

 

[hcksaw]

I came across this post and thought I would contribute a bit. I recently picked up an Asus 1005PU for bout $350. I live in Chicago and ride a bicycle bout 20 miles a day between school and work. With school books, adding any additional weight was an issue as my dell inspiron 1520 weighs in at 7+ lbs. For me, weight and size were an important issue and the netbook class has been perfect for this. Sitting in class and using a netbook is also fantastic in comparison with other size of laptops. If you ever had to have classes in lecture halls or sit in desks that have a small surface, the netbook is small enough to have out while still keeping a notebook (the paper kind with spirals) out to write things.

As far as performance goes, I am able to install flash and do light actionscript programming on it as well as code in Visual Studio with minimal slow down. I have noticed there is a bit of a loading time when running a PowerPoint slide show in full screen but it runs fine to run through the slides. Other than that, Office 2007 Enterprise runs fine.

The BIGGEST selling point for me and I think is a factor that people don't appreciate is the battery life. In real time, I get a good 7 hours of battery with everything turned up. This means that I can get through 5 classes in the day without having to find a power source to recharge. I also don't have to fight in the Cafe for the much sought after spots which are right by the outlets.

I agree there are shortcomings as in the resolution and multi-tasking but these are easily dealt with by being flexible in your computing styles. So you can't have three instances of Word, iTunes, four weather applets, and Norton running as the same time as your web browser. This isn't your powerhouse desktop or your gaming laptop. This is your super light stripped down machine that is as close to your desktop/laptop as possible while still trying to give you the most freedom as possible.

 

[Spicedaddy]

This is what I have (configured with dual core Celeron) and it's pretty much the most powerful notebook (really just as portable as a true netbook) you can buy in this size and price.

Yeah, it's a SU2300 Celeron Dual-Core. The model with Pentium Dual-Core SU4100 was more expensive, and lacks Virtualization Technology.

 

[Emulex]

2530p + x18-m = awesome
2750p + x18-m = awesome
Hp mini + x18-m = awesome

just make sure you get the free engineering samples atom is quite nice with mad fast 1.8" SSD

 

[Decembermouse]

The new Atoms offer a performance increase that is barely measurable compared to the N270 and its friends. It offers a bit better battery life though, and that's what netbooks are all about, not processing power. If you get a dual core, you'll be forfeiting some of what netbooks are about. I'm all for dual-cores but if you're going to get one, for not much more than a dual-core netbook you can get a laptop with 4 or more hours of battery life, and so much more computing power.

A friend of mine's laptop died, and she got impulsive and bought a N280 netbook. I believe it was an ASUS. Cute little thing. It has a webcam built in, but does not have the processing power to actually send the low-res video in real-time over Skype. If that gives you any idea of what kind of performance to expect.

 

[LeetViet]

sorry for double post, but Win7 is for sure faster than xp. Had to get that out of the way.

I'd like to echo this statement as I have used both on my Atom Z520 (1.33Ghz).

 

[YoungGun21]

I think you all have maybe swayed my mind a bit.

I'm looking into CULV offerings, but Staples doesn't have much in a small size (13.3 or less). I have a little over a month to wait, so I think I'll wait to see if they get a new model, or if the ones they have get a nice sale I may jump on it.

 

[Decembermouse]

I think CULV is where the future of ultra-mobile computing lies. People for the most part are unsatisfied with netbook performance, even knowing that netbooks aren't meant to be powerhouses. I forget who did the poll and am too lazy to look it up but CULV's offer enough performance that it won't make most multitaskers curse at their computer for being too slow...

 

[piasabird]

Netbook is going backwards,not forwards.

Intel I-3m

Would you buy a new desktop with a weak old PIII based Celeron?

 

[MJinZ]

I bought a 1005PE for it's strongest aspect - battery life. Rated at 14 hours, realistically I can use it for a full day without charging.

I did a quick review here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=456753

The Atom is slow for multi-tasking, but for single-tasking, it is fast enough for browsing and Hulu. It does HD video via CCCC perfectly.

HULU capable (though not perfect) is enough for me.

Also got lucky with a good screen I guess, the contrast is excellent.

 

[YoungGun21]

Staples just got the new Acer 1410's on their website. $449 minus my $137 Reward makes it $312. Then I can just pick up a 4GB RAM kit on NewEgg and have myself a decent computer with nice battery life for not much more than a netbook.

Thing I'll end up pulling the trigger on this one soon.

 

[EarthwormJim]

So is XP Home much faster than Windows 7 Starter?

Windows 7 feels faster mainly due to it's much better caching. I never noticed any speed increases in photoshop, ocrad psice, altera quartus, matlab, or any other programs I used. The programs did open faster initially though.

However battery life was better for me in XP home on my Eeepc. I averaged around 7-8 watts of battery drain in XP and 9-10 watts in Windows 7 (browsing the web in firefox with wifi). With my 54watt hour battery that meant the difference between being able to use it for over 6 and a half hours to just over 5 hours. A pretty big difference if you ask me.

 

[erikistiredx]

i have a little 9" dell mini that i like taking around with me, it's not as bad as some people are going on about in this thread. it can play most popcap games, and other than a few keys out of place on the keyboard is easy enough to type on. i wouldn't use it as my main computer, but as a portable it's quite nice. if i was to replace it i would go for the 10v, just for the 92% keyboard.

 

[konakona]

I think I heard aero helps out a bunch on netbooks by offloading some of the UI tasks to the GPU - kinda sad but atom is bogged down by even the most simplistic tasks like those. That is not to say netbooks are as slow as they make it out to be, at least I for one felt they were quite adequate for most everything; it's not like more reasonably priced full fledged laptops are not a compromise coming from a nice desktop anyway. I can't possibly imagine anyone expecting a puny netbook to be the one and only computer to have? But I digress...

7 runs smoother than XP, although it loves to have more ram to work with. At 1GB total ram, you are pretty much at the limit, doubling up on ram would help out BIG TIME.

I agree there are shortcomings as in the resolution and multi-tasking but these are easily dealt with by being flexible in your computing styles. So you can't have three instances of Word, iTunes, four weather applets, and Norton running as the same time as your web browser. This isn't your powerhouse desktop or your gaming laptop. This is your super light stripped down machine that is as close to your desktop/laptop as possible while still trying to give you the most freedom as possible.

also, you could probably cultivate a better taste for more usable and resource efficient programs like fb2k over itunes, avira over <insert whatever heavy anti-virus software here>, etc etc

 

[Bigun08]

I have had a bunch of netbooks and they are fine for web surfing and watching movies and playing music. Unfortunatly the new 11.6 models are cursed with the 1.33 Ghz cpu I would stick with a 1.6 or 1.66 model with CPU they are great. My wife still has her's I caught a deal on a Dell XPS M1210 and sold my netbook for that.. But if I had the extra resources I would get another one in a heart beat.. couple of rules though;
1- NEVER get a SSD drive in one unless its like an 40GB known brand that you can verify the read write times of the drive
2- 6 cell batter and no lower. i usually ramped up the settings on mine for performance and with the 3 cell that means just about 2 hours and no more. 6-cell is good 4 hours with settings for performace
3- Windows 7 or XP preferred vista was always a bit of a hog..

good luck

 

[LOUISSSSS]

the i take it the fastest atom is the dual core 330, or 520?

and how do those processors compare to...AMD's x2 base cpu?