My current laptops screen has gone out. I have a monitor I am going to hook the laptop because the laptop has plenty of power to run CAD programs and stuff. But I would like something light and long battery life and just to do basic word processing, internet and etc? How much should I look at paying for a netbook and what are good brands and any other advice I could get? Also how big a harddrive can I get?
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July 25, 2011 9:25 p.m. 93EXCivic SuperDork
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July 25, 2011 10:17 p.m. Toyman01 SuperDork
Asus EEE 1000HE. At a year and a half old, I still get better than six hours of battery life. Durable, even bouncing around in the cab of my van. The HD in mine is 160GB, but I'm sure there are larger available by now. The only thing that sucks about it is the sound isn't loud enough. I can live with that.
After getting used to the smaller keyboard, I hate using a full size one. My Sony Vaio sits most of the time now because I never use it.
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July 25, 2011 10:19 p.m. Toyman01 SuperDork
Oh yeah, mine was $250 at Best Buy.
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July 25, 2011 10:53 p.m. Osterkraut SuperDork
Meh, I have a netbook, and eventually got tired of the tiny screen and underwhelming performance. I bought a refurb IBM X60s for $230, and it's perfect. 9 real hours of battery life, too.
Not to mention it's a Thinkpad.
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July 25, 2011 11:09 p.m. JoeTR6 New Reader
Ditto the Asus EEE. I've had two EEE PC 1001s, and they've worked great. One of the few laptops that still use anti-glare displays, so nicer in diversely lit environments. I repartition the drive in half and run mostly Linux.
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July 25, 2011 11:36 p.m. Strike_Zero HalfDork
This is my everyday device. I bought it when Amazon had it on sale. I got it with the neoprene case and 2GB upgrade for $300.
With BT turned off and screen turned down to the lowest settings, I can get really close to 10 hours of autonomous use.
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July 25, 2011 11:55 p.m. HiTempguy Dork
If you buy the basest of base models, you will barely be able to do ANYTHING besides word processing. Even browsing the interwebs can overwhelm a model running XP or newer with 1gig or less. And you might think "Oh, I can totally watch videos on it". No you can't, if it has any sort of weird encoding, there isn't enough jam to run VLC.
I have a real issue with netbooks, I find them useless. They barely can be used to watch youtube videos, a simple .gif file slows them down if its linked on the page, and popups will slow it to a crawl. I'm sure this would be fixed by a model with 2 gigs of ram, but then you are up to full size laptop prices.
Personally, I don't know why people don't go with a nice 15.4" laptop. They are still light, still portable, and you can get ones with ACTUAL standalone graphics cards nowadays for the $300-$400 range. And they will last you more than 2 years. But that's just me.
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July 26, 2011 1:38 a.m. donalson SuperDork
a bit over a year ago we picked up an aspire one d250... it was a used model... XP 1.6ghz atom 1gig ram... got it used for $120 I think it was.... also picked up a 9 cell battery (which can pull of 12hrs of battery life) from ebay...
no it won't win any power house contests... but it was easy to toss in the wifes purse and worked well while we stayed in a solar house and where aloud to charge for a few hrs durring the day...
you get used to the small keyboard (and they have gotten larger)... and same with the touchpad...
it never had an issue with video from the HDD (standard def)... (having intermitent (and very slow) internet I brought 500gig worth of movies on an external HDD) plays youtube no prob....
now that we are back home my wife uses it most of the time... she likes it... I rarely use it (mostly when I travel)
it does have some issues with online games (think facebook) on battery saver settings though...
and the speakers are rubbish...
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July 26, 2011 6:13 a.m. Maroon92 SuperDork
I got mine about 4 years ago. It's an Acer.
Still works great, but I have been through 4 chargers because the wires separate inside the sheathing. They are about 12 bucks on E-bay though, so 12 bucks a year doesn't bother me too much.
I also bought a larger cell battery pack, but it stays plugged in all the time as it is about 1000X slower when running only on battery power.
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July 26, 2011 6:13 a.m. Maroon92 SuperDork
donalson wrote:
and the speakers are rubbish...
W3RD!
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July 26, 2011 11:58 a.m. 93EXCivic SuperDork
In reply to HiTempguy:
I started college with a laptop with 1GB of RAM and I was able to run a CAD program, word processing and etc with no problems.
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July 26, 2011 12:02 p.m. ProDarwin Dork
93EXCivic wrote:
My current laptops screen has gone out. I have a monitor I am going to hook the laptop because the laptop has plenty of power to run CAD programs and stuff.
You can replace the screen pretty easily and cheap. I got a free laptop from someone because they busted the screen. $65 later I had a perfectly working laptop. Not brand new, top of the line - but on par with laptops in the 500 range now.
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July 26, 2011 12:06 p.m. HiTempguy Dork
93EXCivic wrote:
In reply to HiTempguy:
I started college with a laptop with 1GB of RAM and I was able to run a CAD program, word processing and etc with no problems.
I'm not saying you didn't. All I know of is my frustrating experience with netbooks, slow, inferior products to a regular sized laptop. I think 512mb would have been limiting, even on XP...
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July 26, 2011 12:22 p.m. YaNi Reader
HiTempguy wrote:
If you buy the basest of base models, you will barely be able to do ANYTHING besides word processing. Even browsing the interwebs can overwhelm a model running XP or newer with 1gig or less. And you might think "Oh, I can totally watch videos on it". No you can't, if it has any sort of weird encoding, there isn't enough jam to run VLC.
I have a real issue with netbooks, I find them useless. They barely can be used to watch youtube videos, a simple .gif file slows them down if its linked on the page, and popups will slow it to a crawl. I'm sure this would be fixed by a model with 2 gigs of ram, but then you are up to full size laptop prices.
Personally, I don't know why people don't go with a nice 15.4" laptop. They are still light, still portable, and you can get ones with ACTUAL standalone graphics cards nowadays for the $300-$400 range. And they will last you more than 2 years. But that's just me.
What he said.
I've been extremely happy with my Toshiba Satellite ultra portable (13.3" screen). I wanted a small computer with enough cajones to watch HD video, and occasionally run a basic Matlab program and view/print the odd SolidWorks assembly. It was a massive step up in quality. I have a bunch of relatives that ran out and bought netbooks for christmas two years ago and they are all junk by now. Instead of buying another battery you basically throw the entire netbook away after 2 years. The dedicated video card takes ALOT of load off the CPU.
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July 26, 2011 12:27 p.m. mndsm SuperDork
Toyman01 wrote:
Asus EEE 1000HE. At a year and a half old, I still get better than six hours of battery life. Durable, even bouncing around in the cab of my van. The HD in mine is 160GB, but I'm sure there are larger available by now. The only thing that sucks about it is the sound isn't loud enough. I can live with that.
After getting used to the smaller keyboard, I hate using a full size one. My Sony Vaio sits most of the time now because I never use it.
I have this exact one. It fits in the glovebox of my car, and I use it to datalog when t00ning. Bulletproof little rig.
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July 26, 2011 5:10 p.m. 93EXCivic SuperDork
13.3" screen doesn't sound bad. I may replace the screen on this laptop down the line but this laptop is heavy, hot as hell and needs a new battery. And even with a new battery it only last about 1.5 hours. Basically when I got this laptop I just went for performance and nothing else.
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July 26, 2011 5:28 p.m. SupraWes Dork
HiTempguy wrote:
If you buy the basest of base models, you will barely be able to do ANYTHING besides word processing. Even browsing the interwebs can overwhelm a model running XP or newer with 1gig or less. And you might think "Oh, I can totally watch videos on it". No you can't, if it has any sort of weird encoding, there isn't enough jam to run VLC.
I have a real issue with netbooks, I find them useless. They barely can be used to watch youtube videos, a simple .gif file slows them down if its linked on the page, and popups will slow it to a crawl. I'm sure this would be fixed by a model with 2 gigs of ram, but then you are up to full size laptop prices.
Personally, I don't know why people don't go with a nice 15.4" laptop. They are still light, still portable, and you can get ones with ACTUAL standalone graphics cards nowadays for the $300-$400 range. And they will last you more than 2 years. But that's just me.
I have not had any problems with mine, a MSI U-100. I did add a 1 gig stick of ram to make it 2 gigs when I bought it 2 years ago. A 15.4 inch laptop is about 2x the size of my netbook, and probably weighs at least twice as much. That's a problem when I am traveling on a plane and space is at a premium and I have to carry all of my stuff everywhere.
I find it to be the perfect travel companion. It allows me to keep up with my YouTube subscriptions, check e-mail, offload photos and video from SD cards, and do some basic web surfing stuff. That's all I want it to do and its great, doesn't take up much space or weigh a lot doing it.
Its like the Miata of computers, you wouldn't take your family to Wally World in it or haul a load of firewood in it but for what its meant to do it does a great job.
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July 26, 2011 6:05 p.m. donalson SuperDork
I noticed last time I was at target that acer has a new "netbook" it's an 11" or so... full size keyboard and that little size diff makes for a HUGE screen difference... I'd rather something in the 11-13" personally...
on a side note... MOST of the netbooks are pretty much the same thing inside... but my dad still recomends acer over all others... says he sees far fewer acers come back than any other brand... stick with XP if at all possible... an extra gig of ram helps a lot...
