geekhack
geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: iMav on Thu, 07 August 2008, 06:26:26
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The Acer Aspire One (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_Aspire_One) has started showing up in stores around my area with linux pre-installed. $379 was the price at Circuit City last night (no, I didn't buy one).
This seems a lot more reasonably priced, better spec'ed, and looks better than the EeePC, IMHO. 7 hours battery life with the 8-cell battery. Now, that's almost respectable.
(http://www.uhhh.org/~lherzog/blog-images/acer-aspire-one.jpg) (http://www.uhhh.org/~lherzog/blog-images/acer-aspire-one-big.jpg)
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The blue casing looks really nice, but I can put that money toward something better...hmm dual Power4+ workstation mmm...tasty...lol
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I like it, looks like a neat toy.
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Does anyone here actually have one of these? I was looking at the EEE and the Acer....just curious if anyone has one and how they are liking it.
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Does anyone here actually have one of these? I was looking at the EEE and the Acer....just curious if anyone has one and how they are liking it.
I've had mine for about a month and a half now. I like it quite a bit.
I wiped it and installed Ubuntu as well as upgraded it to 1.5GB ram. I've got no complaints...it has been a nice ultra-portable for me.
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Do you still get the fast boot times with Ubuntu installed?
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Does anyone here actually have one of these? I was looking at the EEE and the Acer....just curious if anyone has one and how they are liking it.
I've got the version with 120GB HDD and Windows. It is ok to surf the net and do smaller things in office. It is ok store photos in picassa or similar tools, but the screen is too small to do much more.
The keyboard is small and mushy but ok for short periods of touch typing.
The biggest problem the Acer has in my opinion is the abysmal battery life of the stock 3-cell battery; with Wifi off and screen brightness all the way down I am still short of three hours.
Verdict for me: Nice toy. Ideal for a surfing the net for a bit or doing some corrections on documents while on the road, but not a replacement for a real notebook.
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The short battery life is a minus to me. But it comes with linux and I suppose I could put Ubuntu on it. All I would want to really do is have a web browser, email and SSH.
Right now I am basically stuck at the desktop. It would be nice to have the mobile unit so I could sit ANYWHERE else in the house. Like on the couch with the wife watching a movie : )
I don't expect the unit to be a powerhouse, I like the small size, wireless that works....long battery life : (
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You know, the other day, I was playing around with a few netbooks at Micro Center... they had the Aspire One (in both Linux and XP configs,) a few different Eees, and a rebadged Cloudbook.
I found the Aspire One's keyboard to be quite nice, actually.
I could not touch-type at all on the Eee, and the Cloudbook was mush city.
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I found the Aspire One's keyboard to be quite nice, actually.
Yep. As far as laptop keyboards go, the Aspire One's is pretty decent. It's actually pretty crisp and there is no 'board flex like you find in almost every Dell laptop. Believe it or not, I'd almost call it tactile. Key actuates immediately (at the top of the keystroke). If you go slow, you can definitely feel when the key is actuated> You can actuate a key without bottoming out...but with the keystroke so short, it'd be near impossible to type like that.
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Dare I say it, the Aspire One's keyboard is... ThinkPad-like?
And I'm used to the 2.5 mm ThinkPad stroke, not the 1.6 mm Aspire One stroke, even. :eek: (Not sure what key pitch is on the Aspire One - key pitch on my ThinkPad is 18.2 mm, so it's not full-size, though.)
Of course, I'm considering replacing my ThinkPad with a Fujitsu P1630... I know it's got 16 mm pitch and 2 mm stroke, but I'll want to get my hands on one (or the externally identical P1610 or current P1620 - the P1630 is a P1620 with a G45 chipset and a 1.4GHz 45 nm Core 2 Duo instead of the i945 and 1.2GHz 65 nm C2D in the P1620 (or the 1.2GHz 65nm Core (1) Solo in the P1610)) to see what it's like.
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I recently bought an MSI Wind. I installed OS X Leopard on it, and performance is pretty decent. Everything is much faster than my old 12" G4 PowerBook.
I had to swap the wifi card, which was not compatible with OS X. Battery life is around 4 to 4.5 hours with the 6 cell battery.
Pros:
1) Performance is actually better than I expected, considering that I'm running Leopard.
2) Small, light, portable
4) Battery life is decent with the 6 cell battery
5) Cheap
6) I like the looks of it
Cons
1) Trackpad is meh.
2) The comma and period keys are smaller than the other keys. Takes a while to get used to.
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my bro-in-law has a linux installed Eeee. Not sure which version/spec but he thinks its great
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I have an Eee 701 4G, been using it with Linux, but just switched to XP recently. I like it, but its battery life isn't too great with the 3-cell and its the hardest damn thing to type on. Another thing that gets pretty annoying is the 800x480 resolution, makes it difficult/impossible to reach buttons located at the bottom of some windows.
Despite all that, I still have fun with me Eee, though I do wish I waited a little longer and bought a newer version of the Eee with the 8.9"-10" screen and an Atom processor.
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I've got the version with 120GB HDD.
I kinda wish I held out for the hdd version (I have the flash storage (and THIS flash is NOT speedy))
I could actually mod it to put a PATA drive in (like the iPod drives)...but I likely will not bother.
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I've seen the Lenovo Ideapad S10 on sale for 350 a few times - it's comparable or better in specs to the aspire one, eee, and dell mini. Upside is that it has a massive HD instead of a dinky little SSD.
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Anyone want to give HL2 or a Source Engine Mod a test through Windows or Wine and report FPS and battery life? :rolleyes:
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So iMav, are you still using this netbook? I'm wondering what you think of it after owning it for a while.
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So iMav, are you still using this netbook? I'm wondering what you think of it after owning it for a while.
Still have it. It's my primary around-the-house system. That is, if I'm on the couch, in bed, or otherwise away from my desk and want something more than the iphone with me, I grab the AA1.
I've considered several times picking up the hdd version and selling this one...but really, the ssd version I have has served me fine.
I'd love to get the bigger battery, as the stock battery life is pitiful. (I don't even bother grabbing it without the power cord)
It primarily sits on my nightstand and is used for evening and middle-of-the-night email, web, etc.
Overall, I like it. I'd only get rid of it for another netbook (likely another AA1 with hdd), so a netbook has solidified it's place in my life.
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interesting cuz both amd and intel reps have said they dont think netbooks have a future or are a viable market. Intel's chief said this recently (apropos the atom processor). They're focusing their R&D instead on "regular" but smaller form factor laptops (ie, full size keyboards, core duo processors, etc).
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Intel also wants to sell high profit margin Core 2 Duos and GS45 chipsets, not low profit margin Atoms and i945GSEs or US15Ws. ;)
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They're scared of the market shifting to smaller and less expensive things. Their are a few types of people who max out current day computers. They are video pros and gamers. Do you think I need the system I have to write prose? Do you think you guys need the systems you have to write code? Hell no is the answer to both questions. But we all have pretty powerful machines, don't we?
I asked this of iMav because I am thinking about buying a netbook to have as my daily driver. I'll keep my MacBook around, but I would like to get away from being tied to a damn desk all day everyday. I think a netbook is the answer.
My view is the computer should help the owner, not own him.
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The thing is, they may actually have somewhat of a point.
I regularly do things that would make a 1GHz P3 run in terror, and a 1.6GHz Atom is in that performance ballpark. My 1.6GHz C2D can do them... just.
Playing flash videos (think YouTube... and YouTube is one of the easier sites for an underpowered machine to handle) is murder on an inadequate CPU. Even at 1.6GHz, the browser process often maxes out whatever core it's on when I'm playing flash vids.
Flash videos are a slideshow on my 1.2GHz iBook G4. Completely unwatchable if there's any other flash objects on the page.
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Do you think I need the system I have to write prose?
no, but you may well need a full sized keyboard. I myself wouldnt ever use a netbook as my daily driver even though all I do is write prose and check email for the most part. The biggest reasons are:
a) I would really appreciate a full sized normal keyboard when writing for 10 hours a day
b) I would really appreciate a screen size larger than 8" or 10" when writing 10 hours a day
c) I have a TON of "helper programs" that launch on bootup, and I need them all to run fast and snappily, ie, so even if i'm writing prose all the programs in the background would not run as smoothly as I'd like if they werent on a core 2 duo at least running at 1.8ghz with 2 or 4 gb of memory.
d) I multitask like crazy: at any given moment while doing research I have about 20 browser windows, surfulater, onenote, evernote, a half dozen word documents, Endnote, all open and running. No way a netbook will handle that with ANY grace.
e) On top of the above, I often watch videos, movies, and even play the occasional round of battlefield.
f) So how much weight and space does a netbook save anyway? I have a 14" laptop which weighs only 4 pounds and is TINY ENOUGH already. And has a battery that lasts 5 hours.
So in short, even though I do think netbooks are "neat", there is no realistic way its going to replace my 14" fully functional laptop even for "spontaneous" uses, or even for prose writing. As I understand it the 14" laptops coming out in the next year will be even lighter, have batteries that last even longer, and will be even thinner.
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That's my only qualm about moving to a netbook or a subnotebook form factor - I like my 12.1" 1400x1050 screen too much. But, I'd like a LOT less weight than I've got now - 4.3 pounds is way too much.
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That's my only qualm about moving to a netbook or a subnotebook form factor - I like my 12.1" 1400x1050 screen too much. But, I'd like a LOT less weight than I've got now - 4.3 pounds is way too much.
Ya, there's only two things I'd wish for:
-less weight (sure, who doesnt want that? But not at cost of processing power, for me anyway).
-faster startups (which they're working on, Windows 7 specifically targetted startup time as something to greatly improve. that combined with the ssd-hdd hybrid drives that "cache" certain settings should boost startup times quite a bit in upcoming OS versions).
But again, these for me are luxuries compared to processing power/multitasking power/typing and viewing comfort -- all of which are necessities and not luxuries for me.
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I know I can deal with an 8.9" 1280x800 display just fine on the pixel density, it's just the amount of total pixels that I'll have a problem with. The keyboard size is an issue, but I'll really need to spend about a week with my desired machine to see.
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See, I don't even go to YouTube. All I do on the computer is homework, writing and shopping. A little bit of Flickr and this site. Other than that, I'm playing with my son or I have my face in a paper book :eek:
I need something to get me away from the desk, and the netbooks I've tried are about as comfortable to type on as an ML4100. I would still use my MacBook for editing and formating ... and pr0n, lol.
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And, see, I usually use a site for that that has 640x480 flash videos... I get like 0.1 FPS on my iBook on that site. :eek:
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See, the thing is, as netbooks become more powerful, and as laptops become smaller and smaller, the two markets are going to meet in the middle and overlap to a large degree. Maybe thats what the execs at amd and intel are foreseeing. Also meanwhile handhelds will get bigger and more powerful, eating into netbooks from the bottom.
So in a way netbooks have temporarily filled a niche that I think handhelds from below and laptops from above are going to eat into at some point.
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Good point. I think handhelds are going to have full blown computers in them soon anyway. People will just "dock" them to a desk with a keyboard, mouse and screen when they need to do work ... or to do themselves with pr0n.
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So, I'm thinking about replacing my current AAO (Acer Aspire One). I love everything about it except for the SLOW flash drive and horrid battery life. So, I've been thinking about stepping up to the hard drive-equipped version and getting the extended battery.
If I could get a sub-10" netbook with a higher density display (more vertical pixels than the standard netbook 1024x600) I would consider it...but I don't think one exists.
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The HP Mini 2133 and 2140 do...
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The HP Mini 2133 and 2140 do...
Oooo. 8.9" display, 1280x800. NICE!
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Alternately, it's definitely not a netbook, but there's always the Fujitsu P16x0... 1280x800 8.9" tablet, with a 1.2GHz Core Solo, 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo, or 1.4GHz 45nm Core 2 Duo, depending on generation... oh, and it has a pointing stick.
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I was really surprised that nobody is making a netbook with a pointing stick. Especially on the 9" models, you'd think it would be a great way to avoid having to do a bizarre-shaped compromise trackpad (like the Aspire One's with the buttons on the side). Well, technically, Sony is making something with a pointing stick that's "similar to every other netbook, except we don't call it that, and it's 900 bucks for the same performance as our <= $450 competitors"
I finally gave up waiting for one (my Thinkpad 385XD was past the point of economical repair long ago) and bought an Asus 1000HD. The keyboard is a bit lacking compared to the 900-series (although supposedly some 1000-series models have a better one)-- the keys have very wide angled sides and small tops, and don't feel incredibly tight, and the battery life is a little weak (maybe 3 hours; I tend to use it 10 minutes at a stretch), but the performance is surprisingly perky for a Celeron M 353 (the more common HA is the Atom everyone uses)
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I'm going to be getting a Lenovo S10. All of them look comparable, and my parents had a Lenovo desktop that held up very well. Plus, I can get the S10 in Red. :D
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Might just go back to a x-series thinkpad. Relatively small and light, great battery life, trackpoint and NO touchpad.
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You know, my biggest complaint about my X61t?
The fact that it weighs a pound more than a comparable X61s, and the only thing it offers additional over the X61s is the 1400x1050 screen and the tablet features.
Which sucks, because I almost never use the tablet features.
If this were an X61s, it'd weigh 3.3 pounds, not 4.3 pounds. That's quite a significant portion of the weight...
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Better get the "regular" X61 with the T9300 CPU instead. Weights just a tiny bit more than the X61s (with the enhanced 4-cell battery) yet way more powerful. :)
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Keep in mind, that 3.3 pounds is with the 8-cell battery. ;)
(And, 4.3 is with the 8-cell, as well.)
Also, the CPU runs really hot in this X61t under load, and that's a low voltage unit - I've seen in throttle at cold room temperatures, when both cores were being thrashed hard.
I couldn't imagine the full-speed, full-voltage one in the X6x chassis.
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From Lenovo's tabook, the regular X61 with 8-cell is 3.59 lbs. So that's just a 0.29 lbs savings which is insignificant IMO. It's the X61T with 8-cell that is significantly heavier at 4.25 lbs.
Well, FWIW, the T9300 is already using the 45nm Penryn core and has a 6MB L2 cache compared to the LV 65nm Merom core with 4MB L2 cache.
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L7500 Tdp: 17 W
T9300 Tdp: 35 W
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I owned a x60s in the past. Absolutely loved it...except for the resolution (1024x768). However, in the context of a netbook replacement, that's MAD desktop real estate. :)
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Also, there is always the X200s... 1440x900.
(What's confusing is, the "heavy" and fast X200 is 1280x800 only, yet the ultra-thin, ultra-light, low power X200s is 1440x900 only.)
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Hmm, should have joined this discussion earlier. I recently got a refurb X60 for $480. It has a 1.8GHz Core Duo, 2.5GB of RAM, and a 60GB hard drive. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be - really wastes absolutely no space in the laptop. Only thing I'm having a little trouble getting used to is the truncated backspace. I'd take this over a netbook any day though. The extra screen real estate and processing power is totally worth the extra pound.
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Also, there is always the X200s... 1440x900.
That's quite nice. (haven't looked at thinkpad offerings for a while)
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Resurrecting this thread as I'm going to buy a replacement for my Acer Aspire One (SSD) netbook. If nothing else catches my eye, I will simply buy the HDD version of the Aspire One...because my only big complaint is the crappy SSD they use (from a performance and storage standpoint).
However, if something else in the <$500 range has a keyboard just as usable, is just as supported under linux, could give me more battery life, and/or additional vertical resolution, I would strongly consider it.
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Resurrecting this thread as I'm going to buy a replacement for my Acer Aspire One (SSD) netbook. If nothing else catches my eye, I will simply buy the HDD version of the Aspire One...because my only big complaint is the crappy SSD they use (from a performance and storage standpoint).
However, if something else in the <$500 range has a keyboard just as usable, is just as supported under linux, could give me more battery life, and/or additional vertical resolution, I would strongly consider it.
Personally I'm getting the new ASUS Eee EPC1000HE for my son this week (ordering it tonight). Why:
1) Asus fixed the keyboard :) The layout is better now. Not quite perfect but better.
2) 9.5 hours (8-8.5 real) battery life.
3) Price 390 on newegg.
4) The updated Atom N280
5) 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
con: 3.20 lbs due to the bigger battery. But still light enough.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220504
Oh I will be whipping the hard drive and will be putting Ubuntu on it.
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Looks like you can get the HP 2140 mini with a 1366x768 display. That's tempting.
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Don't have a link but I was reading somewhere that some vendor/vendors will be releasing netbooks using ARM chips. The article sounded fairly positive. It mentions the ARM chip being more powerful then the Atom and also better on battery life.
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The ARM Cortex-A8 is probably within spitting distance of the 1.6 GHz Atom... when at 1 GHz.
(Well, some benchmarks need a quad-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 to match a 1.6 GHz Atom. But certain real-world benchmarks indicate at least clock parity if not better.)
Really, though, a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 should be enough to thrash an Atom, at much, much lower power levels.
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I dont know if this is related.
but, I bought an asus 10" and i really disliked the speed of the atom. or lack there of.
I have decided to get a dell xt 12.1" tablet. its dual core and I think I dont like anything under that. its very tough on the eyes.
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Really, I do like the performance of a Core 2 Duo over something like an Atom, although I think it's today's bloated software that's to blame for us "needing" such performance.
I've got an Acorn RiscPC with a 233 MHz StrongARM (roughly 1.0 DMIPS/MHz - so just over a TENTH of the speed of a 1 GHz Cortex-A8 (which is at 2.0 DMIPS/MHz, and almost five times the clock speed) - and that's not counting the fact that that 1.0 DMIPS/MHz figure is on a 64-bit wide, 66 MHz data bus... and the RiscPC has a 32-bit wide, 16 MHz data bus, so anything that doesn't fit into the CPU's cache is ridiculously slow,) and it's perfectly usable online.
Want to know how?
The OS, RISC OS, is a very, very lightweight OS - it fits into 6 MiB, and an older version that's just as capable at internet browsing (well, OK, it doesn't have a DHCP client, but once you get an IP address...) is in 4 MiB of ROM.
The web browser? It's an open source browser, called NetSurf (http://www.netsurf-browser.org/), that was developed from the ground up for this platform, but there's a GTK+ port, so it'll run on *nix. It's got good HTML and CSS support, although it does have the rather huge drawback of missing JavaScript altogether. However, it's one of the projects in Google Summer of Code, and one of the biggest things they'll be working on is fixing the DOM so that JavaScript is feasible.
Myself, I'm a proponent of green software (http://my.opera.com/bhtooefr/blog/show.dml/3136663). The reason why hardware is so power consuming nowadays is because it has to be, to keep pace with modern software. But modern software is coded inefficiently because "you don't have to worry about CPU and RAM, they're cheap." I've actually been told that many, many times. Ridiculous.
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I don't know if talking about illegal apps is allowed here, but considering it's about stealing Windows, I don't think iMav would mind LOL
If you're familiar with a windows OS and don't want to install the bloatware that Windows XP (with Service Packs) is, the alternative is TinyXP - it's basically a 'trimmed down' version of Windows via nLite, with some pretty decent tweaks that allow it to run optimally. I use it on an Asus EEE PC 900, and it runs great. A little laggy here and there when doing big stuff, but fast enough to run Quakelive and Diablo II at fullscreen with no problems and no frame loss.
I'd provide you with a link to the ware, but that might be going too far so
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tinyxp+platinum+edition+2
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good discussion. For my needs, the atom CPU in my current AAO has enough power. Like I said before, additional vertical resolution would be a driver to go with something different. I'll probably hit Best Buy and look at the Dell and ASUS offerings. That higher-resolution HP mini sounds pretty sweet though.
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You can get the Dell mini10 with a higher resolution, too.
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You can get the Dell mini10 with a higher resolution, too.
However, the ram is non-upgradable on the 10" Dell (1GB, soldered). That's a definite deal-breaker.
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I have had a hard time finding the max. ram capacity of netbooks on the market. The highest I've seen is 1.5gb, I think. I'm pretty sure the ASUS and Lenovo netbooks can go up to 1.5gb. I want to say I saw one that could do 2gb, but it was really expensive, and I can't remember which brand it was now.
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However, the ram is non-upgradable on the 10" Dell (1GB, soldered). That's a definite deal-breaker.
You need 2GB even with the Atom CPU?
I have had a hard time finding the max. ram capacity of netbooks on the market. The highest I've seen is 1.5gb, I think. I'm pretty sure the ASUS and Lenovo netbooks can go up to 1.5gb. I want to say I saw one that could do 2gb, but it was really expensive, and I can't remember which brand it was now.
Well all the old Asus ones used to happily accept 2GB, It'd be odd if they'd reduced the capacity for the new ones.
EDIT: The ARM-based netbooks look interesting hardware wise but what's the software going to be like for a non-X86 CPU? Do they support flash for example?
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IBI: Some of these netbooks also have 4200 RPM HDDs. You ESPECIALLY need more RAM then, to prevent swapping.
Anyway, the ARM-based ones... the full Ubuntu distribution will be available, the full Debian distribution is available, and Adobe's working on porting Flash 10. (Flash 9 is already available on the Linux-based, ARM-based Nokia N8xx series.)
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I pulled the trigger on an HP 2140 HD mini. Ordered direct from HP's site...will probably take a week to ship.
- N270 Atom CPU (1.6GHz, 512kb L2 cache, 533Mhz FSB)
- 10.1" LED-backlit display (16:9, 1366x768)
- 6-cell battery
- 160GB hdd (5400rpm)
- 1GB ram (have a 2GB stick waiting)
$449
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I got a Samsung NC10 for my girlfriend, with basically the same attributes. There was a comparison of current netbooks in a famous German magazine (c't) recently. The good things about the NC10: very bright non-glare display, 7 hours real world battery life and a good (by netbook standards) keyboard (of course :) ). The NC10 has a 1024x600 resolution and that's already a good bit over the limit dpi-wise. 1366x768 on 10" would be way too much for me. (I know you can enlarge font sizes but that: 1. looks ugly, 2. doesn't work always (on Windows that is)).
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What made you decide to go for this Atom? There's so much choice there.. And I'd be interested to know how it works out for you.
The screen resolution was the clincher. Having less than 768 of vertical resolution is a pain in the ass, IMHO.
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Let me know what you think of the Atom. It's the only reason I've held off on buying a netbook, all the new ones are the this new cpu technology. I think my tastes just might fit better with a cheap laptop though
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I think you're gonna love this. I have a 9" Fujitsu P1510D 1024x600 - that extra kick you're getting is enough to make a netbook a lot more useful. A lot of Adobe stuff requires the 768. Plus, I don't think HP uses the "surplus" displays the other netbook guys do.
8.9" at 1024x640 is only 135dpi, 10.1" at 1366x768 is 155 dpi. I find the 135dpi screen on my original eee a little on the small side for some websites.
Although I suppose these days you've got a much wider choice of working Linux distributions for netbooks so you can always switch to a browser that handles scaling better if it's an issue.
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I must be some sort of cyborg, because I know I'll be able to do the 170 DPI of my new display comfortably...
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I must be some sort of cyborg, because I know I'll be able to do the 170 DPI of my new display comfortably...
Well it may be that I'm using firefox 2 and I'm too lazy to go through the tortuous process of swapping it for opera on Asus' hacked together excuse for an OS on the original eee.
How do you find http://www.trustedreviews.com/ on your 170dpi, especially the text in the articles?
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I haven't actually fired up my 170 DPI panel, but I'm on 145 DPI right now. The article text is comfortable for me in Opera 9.64 at 100% zoom on WinXP Tablet SP3, and doesn't look out of the ordinary.
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Anyone notice that the Geekhack Wikified sections (reviews, mods, etc) have real small text now?
That's been this way ever since the forums update. You may want to mention it in the update thread, just so I'm not the only one complaining... ;)
Greetings from the "large (120dpi) system fonts + cranked up font sizes on a [strike]106.7[/strike] 86 dpi screen" camp :D
Actually the screen is one of those big questionmarks in terms of netbooks for me. I really have to try one out in person.
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Running Ubuntu on my new HP mini (2140 HD) right now. Install was uneventful...the screen is absolutely GORGEOUS!! Amazing how much more useful it is with a "full" 768 of vertical resolution.
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they might be a bit too slow imo. =/
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I hope they will upgrade their processors too; The new 2Ghz Atom Z550 is so sweet.
When netbooks with HP's resolution and solid case, mat screen, new Atoms and 2-4GB RAM will finally be available, I'll throw away my heavy laptop without second thought.
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My primary personal system is an aluminium Macbook. I do a lot of virtualization on it (and have been thinking of upgrading to the MBP that supports 8GB of ram)...so there is no way I'd ditch it for a netbook.
For me, a netbook makes a great complimentary system. It often sits on my nightstand...and is a great system to bring with me on my trips to the data center, friends/family homes, on vacation, etc.
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I hope they will upgrade their processors too; The new 2Ghz Atom Z550 is so sweet.
When netbooks with HP's resolution and solid case, mat screen, new Atoms and 2-4GB RAM will finally be available, I'll throw away my heavy laptop without second thought.
What are the benchmarks like on that processor? I was surprised to learn the older atoms are only about as fast as a p3, kept me from buying it since I have toshiba tablets that are as fast and only about 1.5 the size anyway and a heck of a lot more useful.
I want to see netbook with an active wacom digitizer, and the ability to access the net anywhere on the planet, with a processor that is as fast at least as a centrino 1.5, maybe even free with a $30 a month plan, then I might dive in. lol
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The 1,6 GHz Atoms are about as fast as a 1 GHz Core Solo, which means the Atoms are sloooow in comparison to current standard CPUs. But they are perfectly suited for netbooks which are not much more than simple web surfing devices by design. They're not supposed to replace standard notebooks or even desktop computers. For the tasks they're designed for they're a really nice fit and relatively cheap.
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What are the benchmarks like on that processor? I was surprised to learn the older atoms are only about as fast as a p3, kept me from buying it since I have toshiba tablets that are as fast and only about 1.5 the size anyway and a heck of a lot more useful.
It must have been a top of the range P3 then, the Atom is about as fast as a 2Ghz P4 for some things
I want to see netbook with an active wacom digitizer, and the ability to access the net anywhere on the planet, with a processor that is as fast at least as a centrino 1.5, maybe even free with a $30 a month plan, then I might dive in. lol
It sounds like you're after a normal ultraportable laptop rather than a netbook then.
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It must have been a top of the range P3 then, the Atom is about as fast as a 2Ghz P4 for some things
Some tests run slower on Atom than on a 2Ghz P4 (Prescott) others much faster.
In real world, with exception of graphics an atom board runs at least as fast as a P4 consuming less than 4 Watts (P4/Prescott: 100W). Not bad at all!
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I had one of those with a Ninja heatsink. Could fry eggs on that thing.
I know what you mean; I can't tell you how many times I've burnt my fingers by accidentally touching the cpu. :lol:
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Some tests run slower on Atom than on a 2Ghz P4 (Prescott) others much faster.
In real world, with exception of graphics an atom board runs at least as fast as a P4 consuming less than 4 Watts (P4/Prescott: 100W). Not bad at all!
A 2Ghz prescott? Wikipedia says the lowest clocked Celeron D was 2.13Ghz.
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This is what I saw:
http://laptoping.com/intel-atom-benchmark.html
I was surprised to read on another site I guess the newer 330 atoms are as fast as pentium m's which is impressive. the 1.6 330 is about as fast as the 1.2 pentium m. I use pentium m's 1.0's in two of my smaller tablet pc's and I've done everything from really big photoshop to c4d and illustrator on them, so not bad if it really has that performance. Although I got the two tablet pc's for like half the cost of an acer aspire 1 and they're only slightly larger. an acer c110 and a motion m1300. They go for as low as like $100 on ebay.
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3562&p=5
I have 1.33 Tualatin's in two of my older tablet pc's, so I really wasn't impressed. The only advantage a "netbook" could really offer me is if it really is what it says it is and I can get on the net anywhere without having to pay a mint for access as I currently would if I accessed the net through my cell phone if I couldn't find an accessible wifi point.
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I know what you mean; I can't tell you how many times I've burnt my fingers by accidentally touching the cpu. :lol:
It seems like RAM these days gets hottest, especially if you have a decent aftermarket cooler on the CPU itself.
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Everybody overstates the heat produced by a prescott... I've got a massive 120mm copper heatsink/fan and the tips don't even get hot... Runs at about 32c usually, at 100% load, I'm amazed if it ever gets above 40c...
It's a Zalman CNPS7700cu btw, best LGA775 cooler ever except for the Zalman 9500...
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Almost any decent cooler can be installed on LGA775 still.
I got the Zalman 9700 (the 110mm version of the 9500) which I used briefly on an E6750 and an E7200 (free giveaway), but switched to an Xigmatek S1283 with my Phenoms. It's cheaper and works better, but apparently doesn't mount easily on 775 boards.
Zalman seems to be pricing themselves out of the market-- their stuff is expensive per unit performance, although it's still gorgeously made.
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Well, you can get a conventional laptop with a 3G card, too - I believe any ThinkPad can be ordered with a 3G card and a really good antenna installed at the factory.
And, here in the US, netbooks often don't have built-in 3G anyway (but they usually have all the provisions for it.)
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Today I had my first opportunity to play around with a few netbooks in real life. Contrary to my expectations, you could actually see something on a 1024x600 10.2" screen, though the viewing distance required would pretty much demand operation on a table or somesuch. Nothing new to me really - back when I had something with a 14.1" XGA display (and large fonts), operation on the lap was not too back-friendly (*ouch*).
Out of the half dozen or so on display, there were 3 models with a matte display (interestingly, all the full-size notebooks had glossy ones). The eeePC 1000HE didn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would, even disregarding that the screen content was upside down (someone was attempting to be funny there I guess). But those smallish cursor keys and narrow return, nah, not really my cup of tea.
I liked the LG X110, nice keyboard and decent screen. Too bad it seems to have a smallish battery and lousy battery life, as I read on the net.
My overall fav would be the Samsung NC10 270W (white, 6-cell battery, no bluetooth and stuff) now.
Alternatively I looked at some used X series Thinkpad online (X31, X32 or such, going for about as much as a netbook or somewhat less). Probably another league in terms of build, and with trackpoint and all (not to mention better spare parts supply), but also with a dated harddrive, an old battery (and less realistic battery life than for a long-running netbook to begin with) and possibly no OS and stuff.
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I'd look towards the X60 or X60s. An X60s with an 8-cell battery will have a battery life approaching 5 hours with a fresh battery, can take any SATA HDD you can throw at it, and they all at least come with OS licenses... just make sure the one you get doesn't have Intel wireless. And, you can find off-lease ones without too much issue, cheaply.
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I'd look towards the X60 or X60s. [...] just make sure the one you get doesn't have Intel wireless.
Why that? :|
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I really liked the X60s I had. However, with this HP mini, I have better battery life (a good 6 hours under linux compared to 4.5-5 on the thinkpad with the 8-cell), higher resolution with a 2" smaller screen (1366x768 v. 1024x768), lighter weight, and smaller form factor.
The only think I really miss is the trackpoint (which is not a minor thing...I LOVE trackpoints). The keyboard is actually quite nice on the mini as far as netbook keyboards go. Like it better than the keyboard on the AAO...and I thought that one was quite acceptable.
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I just wanted to jump in and mention the netbook that I ordered yesterday. I found this thread very informative but went in a different direction myself. I decided on the Asus 900A, mainly because of its size and processor. It has an 8.9" screen 1024x600, a tiny 4GB SSD HD, intel atom, and should hold a 3-5 hour charge. Although I would have a preferred a 10" screen, my wife was excited about how small the 9" Asuses were--they're like a medium sized book, and weigh 1kg. I bought a refurb unit for $155 shipped at mwave.com (http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch_v3.asp?scriteria=BA25872).
I'm going to follow the prices of parts, and as they become cheaper this netbook will become more upgradable. It will be delivered to me at the end of June, along with a 2GB ram upgrade. The best part is that the wife will be switching to using linux on it, which will make our complete transition away from windows easier; right now I dual boot Vista and Linux Mint to keep things safe at home.
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Mmm, X60. I love mine - I got it for $449 refurb and threw a $28 2GB RAM upgrade and $20 Atheros wireless card in it. A bit more than a netbook, but netbooks can't give me decent performance virtualising Debian under XP.
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I just wanted to jump in and mention the netbook that I ordered yesterday. I found this thread very informative but went in a different direction myself. I decided on the Asus 900A, mainly because of its size and processor.
If the 901 is availible then I'd cancel go for that - it's a very similar system but with a bigger battery.
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If the 901 is availible then I'd cancel go for that - it's a very similar system but with a bigger battery.
I looked into the 901, but the cheapest I could find it was $125 more than the 900a.
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Why that? :|
The Intel wireless sucks, the power management doesn't play nicely with the ThinkPad software (and it's easy to get it stuck in low-power mode where it can't connect well,) and driver support is poor.
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I see. Thanks for the explanation, bhtooefr. I don't run Windows on my X60 wit Intel 3945blasomething WLAN, and it seems for Linux-based OSs it's the other way around. Intel chips are generally supported quite well because of Intels own efforts. And throughput-wise Intel WLAN is rather fast with most access points, too. Just wanted to add that :)
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I've got two friends, each with a different Acer Aspire One.
My first pal has the A110-AGp which only cost him £130. It is the Linpus Lite Linux version with 8.9" screen, 16 GB SSD and 1GB RAM and it boots really quickly - about fifteen seconds and can get on wireless internet (using in a hotspot or by piggybacking on an unsecure wireless router) in less than a minute ).
You can add storage with a SD card I think.With 3 usb connections - you can add a better keyboard and perhaps an external DVD-RW and an external usb HDD.It's very portable and light - to me the the built-in keyboard is okay; it doesn't feel too mushy.
My other mate has the D150-1Bw with 10.1" screen - 1 GB Ram - 160 GB HDD with Windows XP Home SP3 preinstalled which can be had for less than £220 but he has his on contract with three.com (3G wireless internet) and to get that he plugs a little white USB dongle into it.
It can also sniff out wireless hotspots and unsecured wireless routers in no time although it takes longer to boot than the Linux model version.
You can get bigger batteries for them both and I've tried them briefly.Only limiting thing for me is the small screens and tiny in-built speakers that aren't as loud as my mobile phone - A 3G Samsung touchphone.
I wouldn't buy one though - too small - I like lapdogs with big screens - 19" at least because I've had big monitors (21 inch plus) for over ten years and I couldn't go back to anything smaller.
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