• From: Bleeding Kansas
  • Registered: 2009-11-09
  • Posts: 178

Topic: Advice on a NetBook

I'm thinking about getting a netbook for the Wife and myself, but I'm not really keen on Computer innards. I see numbers when it comes to computers and anything with a G suffix is good to me. I've been eyeing the ASUS 1005PE (http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=IGLKH3VUoGlp8KE1) as the N450 chipset and long battery life seem well enough and I would upgrade it to 2G of RAM. That being said............

I'm wondering if a NetBook is really the right choice for me? I like the idea of the portability, but I have a couple of concerns.

1. How does the little processor really perform? Compared to some older Pentiums.
2. Does anyone get a headache looking at that small of a screen?

And what I'll be doing with it...........

My Wife's needs are pretty simple when it comes to computers. All she does is play games on Facebook and watch YouTube or Hulu videos. She surfs normally every once and a while, but most of her computer usage is Flash related.

I'm thinking I can use it with my guitar and bass lessons, so I can make drum loops on the fly with Hydrogen and maybe do some basic recording with a small form USB mixer (like here http://www.alesis.com/multimix4usb) or an external sound card. So my students can hear what they sound like recorded. I might even use it to do some audio editing away from home. It would also be used for my limited office needs, some GIMP style editing and maybe some on the go web management. Just as a secondary device. I don't game much, but I will also surf YouTube and watch some movies and listen to music with it as well as normal web browsing.

I have a main Lappy I use day to day it's a 15.6" AMD dual core with 4G Ram, so the EEE wouldn't be a main computer, but I'm wondering if it would work for my proposed needs? The thought of tossing it into my gig-bag, going to my lessons, having online tab at hand, having the songs at hand and being able to mix the bands demos or edit photos during down time between lessons is the real turn on here, but I don't want to be disappointed.

For reference (I know I've mentioned this beast before) the band uses "El Opto" in the band room for Demo recording. "El Opto" is an old Dell Optiplex PIII tower with I think 512mb of Ram maybe less. Right now I've got Pure:Dyne 9.10 on it and I record 2 Channels to it at a time and so far have ran 6 tracks (2 guitar, bass, drums, vocals, backing vocals) simultaneously with effects while editing without a hitch. So all in all my theory is that a little Atom N450 with 2G of Ram should out perform "El Opto" and be enough to do actually quite a bit of audio editing.

So I throw myself on the mercy of the forum big_smile

Opinions? Thoughts? Has anyone regretted getting one of these little puters? Are they a good purchase? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

|My Band: 12 Honest Men| |My Screenshot Gallery on Minus|
  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: Advice on a NetBook

1. The Atom is comparable to a Pentium III, maybe Pentium 4. Not a speed demon by any means.

2. I suggest you go to a brick and mortar store with your wife and get hands on with the netbook. At least for me, seeing a netbook in person made me realize how small the dang things are.

Last edited by anonymous (2010-03-16 06:04:18)

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  • From: Bleeding Kansas
  • Registered: 2009-11-09
  • Posts: 178

Re: Advice on a NetBook

Thanks anonymous. We did on Saturday and yeah they are tiny. Being a six-foot 260 pound guy I see the "awe how cute" factor it has lol My Wife on the other hand is 5'4" and 105, so she sees it as "Look honey a my size laptop". I research things and have done a lot since Saturday. I'm just looking for some real world peer opinions. I know a lot of people here use them so I'm curious of experience. Plus to be honest the Salespeople at the stores didn't seem to be in a helpful or polite mood anywhere on Saturday. I feel like next time I should walk in holding my Debit card above my head. lol Or dressed as the Monopoly guy.

|My Band: 12 Honest Men| |My Screenshot Gallery on Minus|
  • pvsage
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  • From: Section Six
  • Registered: 2009-10-18
  • Posts: 4,911

Re: Advice on a NetBook

About video on a netbook:  360p is the highest a single-core Atom processor can handle.  If your wife likes HD video, you want a more powerful processor.

while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );

5 Reply by yt

  • yt
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  • From: Duisburg / Germany
  • Registered: 2009-06-01
  • Posts: 72

Re: Advice on a NetBook

pvsage wrote:

About video on a netbook:  360p is the highest a single-core Atom processor can handle.  If your wife likes HD video, you want a more powerful processor.

Or a netbook with the nvidia ion chipset

  • fox
  • #! Junkie
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  • From: Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
  • Registered: 2009-05-10
  • Posts: 361

Re: Advice on a NetBook

I'm very happy with my Wind.  It's no speed demon, but I treat it as an internet appliance and as a device to experiment with pure (as opposed to virtual machine) Linux.  It has served me well for internet, email, watching video and learning about Linux.  The small size makes it ideal to take anywhere, so whereas I used to think about whether or not to take a laptop on a short trip, I don't hesitate to take my netbook at all.  I can do real work on it, but I find the 10" display too limiting for this.  If I were buying one for occasional work, I would have an LCD monitor handy to hook it up to.

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  • From: Algarve, Portugal
  • Registered: 2009-02-07
  • Posts: 196

Re: Advice on a NetBook

I'm sold on netbooks and nettops. I currently have experienced 3 netbooks and 1 nettop, all from Asus, namely: EeePCs 1000H (mine), 1008HA (wife's), 1201N (mom's) and EeeBox EB1012 (my current main system). I love them all, I like compromise between portability, usability, power efficiency, economy, aesthetics and their silence! My wife loves it to.

Having that said, Flash is still quite heavy on CPU and Graphics, specially HD video and facebook games. Although barely usable on Atom single core CPUs and Intel Graphics chipsets, I'd advise you to choose a dual core Atom and a Nvidia ION chipset. You'll loose battery autonomy but gain the required crunching power.

Regarding CPU power, the 1.6/1.66GHz N270/N280/N450 single-core Atoms processing power compare to an old Pentium 4 2.4GHz or an Intel Pentium M 1.4GHz. See it here.

The dual-core N330 and D510 1.6/1.66GHz Atoms compare to a Pentium 4 3.8GHz. Here.

The Nvidia ION Graphics can easily handle Full HD video, and even play some 3D games at lower resolutions. The dual-core Atoms play better flash video or games. Future Flash versions will bring support for Nvidia GPU acceleration.

The Asus EeePC 1201N is an excellent compromise, with it's 12" HD resolution, Atom N330, 2GB RAM, and Nvidia ION. Altough the 12" screen makes it a bit larger than the standard netbook, the weight is on par, but only 5h of battery life. The EeePC 1005PE has 14h. It's a trade off.

Future models will bring the Nvidia ION Optimus chipset solution which dynamically switches between the ION chipset and the Intel one, whenever required, improving quite a lot on battery life but having the graphics power at hand if required.

Hope it helps. wink

Cumprimentos. Regards.
--
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  • From: U.S.A!
  • Registered: 2010-03-14
  • Posts: 37

Re: Advice on a NetBook

@Zen:Core

It would seem that your wife might be happy with a netbook, but you would soon be wanting for more to meet yours.  These things are great for basic and cloud computing.  When you start getting into media creation and editing with one, however, it's like a fat guy trying to get into a Yugo.  Plus, if you give it to the wife and she likes it and it fits in her purse, how often do you think she would let you use it?  wink

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  • Registered: 2009-02-02
  • Posts: 547

Re: Advice on a NetBook

The newer laptops from Asus have the dual core atom and the ION graphics card in them. I would recommend checking those out, as they are fast - a dual core 1.6ghz or, if you count the hyperthreading, quad core 800mghz (lol). Long story short, it can run EVEonline at max settings just fine, and really just about any game pre-2007 on max settings just fine.

  • From: Bleeding Kansas
  • Registered: 2009-11-09
  • Posts: 178

Re: Advice on a NetBook

Thanks everyone I really appreciate it. I went and looked again today and played with a 1005pe with it's Windows whatever on it. Yeah, they're cute, tiny and don't drip on ounce of machismo but I was a really impressed with it. Things didn't really seem too slow.

@jotapesse- I was looking at the 1201N, but I've read conflicting opinions about it and the 14HR battery of the 1005PE is pretty appealing to me, but then again I rarely unplug my laptop as is. Thanks for the charts. According to the charts the little 330 performs almost as good as my AMD and the N450 owns good old "El Opto"! Thank you again very much. big_smile

@epidenimus- I'm a fat guy and you should see me hoist myself into my Jeep! lol I came across Indamixx, which is a commercial audio distro built by the 64 Studio guys. So it looks like it can be done. They sell a netbook (http://www.indamixx.com/indamixx-laptop.html), but then again they're mostly doing soft synths it seems. As far as the Wife goes, if I get one of these it'll probably end up being my toy, but you're right. Who knows? wink

@stopie- Do you know of any Model numbers on these? I've been looking around and haven't found anything accept the 1201N. Are there more? That would be pretty cool.

There's a lot of these things on the market. The 1005PE caught my eye mainly because of the long battery life. I'm not seeing many NVIDIA Ions in my search does anyone have different models they might recommend looking at? Acer, Toshiba, Dell? Thanks again!

|My Band: 12 Honest Men| |My Screenshot Gallery on Minus|
  • Registered: 2009-02-02
  • Posts: 547

Re: Advice on a NetBook

Zen:Core wrote:

@stopie- Do you know of any Model numbers on these? I've been looking around and haven't found anything accept the 1201N. Are there more? That would be pretty cool.

To my understanding its the 1201N - I wouldn't be surprised to see more come out in the near future...but waiting sucks...

  • alef
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 192

Re: Advice on a NetBook

Zen:Core wrote:

I'm wondering if a NetBook is really the right choice for me? I like the idea of the portability, but I have a couple of concerns.

1. How does the little processor really perform? Compared to some older Pentiums.
2. Does anyone get a headache looking at that small of a screen?

My opinion is that a non-premium netbook should be chosen only by people traveling a lot, otherwise people willing to buy a cheap machine and not using their computer often.

Zen:Core wrote:

My Wife's needs are pretty simple when it comes to computers. All she does is play games on Facebook and watch YouTube or Hulu videos. She surfs normally every once and a while, but most of her computer usage is Flash related.

Regarding performance it should be acceptable with something like mine (eeepc 1000h) to watch flash videos, but also think about screen size. may not be very convenient to be more than one person watching a fullscreen video on a 10' screen. Since it is your secondary system it may not be a problem for you.

Zen:Core wrote:

It would also be used for my limited office needs, some GIMP style editing and maybe some on the go web management.

It is not very comfortable to do image editing on a 10' netbook...

jotapesse wrote:

Regarding CPU power, the 1.6/1.66GHz N270/N280/N450 single-core Atoms processing power compare to an old Pentium 4 2.4GHz or an Intel Pentium M 1.4GHz. See it here.

The dual-core N330 and D510 1.6/1.66GHz Atoms compare to a Pentium 4 3.8GHz. Here.

hey thanks for these links CPU performances benchmark like this is very useful, since there are so many models, and some of them with very close name and very different performances...

Personally I am considering the option of replacing my eeepc 1000h with something a bit more powerful, and maybe lighter in weight too.
I have had a look at other netbooks, 'premium' ones like the eeepc 1201N, this one specially looks not too bad. I am also looking at ultraportables, and it seems that it is possible to find much more powerful machines same weight, screen between 11' and 13', for not so expensive if bought from ebay (Vaio X11, Portege R600, Thinkpad X200s ...). I am wondering whether this would be a better deal.

Now I am really hesitating: should I get one of these thinkpad x200s from ebay right now (one third or half price than new ones from regular shops), and get some money back by selling the 1000H, or should I wait few months for new netbooks to be released ? I am afraid that in a near future it will not be possible to sell the 1000H since it will be considered as too old...

Thanks for telling me your opinion on this if you have one.

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  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: Advice on a NetBook

If the screen size or performance is important, an ultra portable is preferrable IMO.

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14 Reply by sjr

  • sjr
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  • Registered: 2009-11-25
  • Posts: 35

Re: Advice on a NetBook

I had an HP2140 -- beautiful design, and great keyboard, but it had some quality issues.   The speed was ok, but then I only used it for email and light web browsing. 

Now have an Acer 1410 -- 11" screen and an Intel Core Solo CPU.  It's peppier than an Atom, but was about $100 more than the Acer netbook with the same-sized screen.  Bought my mother one of those and she's had no trouble with it.   It's also perfect for traveling -- you don't know it's in your bag and it's a great size for a tray table in cattle class.   The small screen can be a little hard on the eyes (or at least my eyes) after a while, which is the only downside.

--sjr

  • From: Algarve, Portugal
  • Registered: 2009-02-07
  • Posts: 196

Re: Advice on a NetBook

Zen:Core wrote:

@jotapesse- I was looking at the 1201N, but I've read conflicting opinions about it and the 14HR battery of the 1005PE is pretty appealing to me, but then again I rarely unplug my laptop as is. Thanks for the charts. According to the charts the little 330 performs almost as good as my AMD and the N450 owns good old "El Opto"! Thank you again very much. big_smile

You're welcome! smile It's really up to your preferences. Remember that you can't have both features, if you require more cpu and graphics performance you'll have to compromise battery life and portability and vice-versa.

Cumprimentos. Regards.
--
Asus EeeBoxPC 1501P and EeePC 1000H with #! Xfce Linux
  • From: Algarve, Portugal
  • Registered: 2009-02-07
  • Posts: 196

Re: Advice on a NetBook

alef wrote:

hey thanks for these links CPU performances benchmark like this is very useful, since there are so many models, and some of them with very close name and very different performances...

Personally I am considering the option of replacing my eeepc 1000h with something a bit more powerful, and maybe lighter in weight too.
I have had a look at other netbooks, 'premium' ones like the eeepc 1201N, this one specially looks not too bad. I am also looking at ultraportables, and it seems that it is possible to find much more powerful machines same weight, screen between 11' and 13', for not so expensive if bought from ebay (Vaio X11, Portege R600, Thinkpad X200s ...). I am wondering whether this would be a better deal.

Now I am really hesitating: should I get one of these thinkpad x200s from ebay right now (one third or half price than new ones from regular shops), and get some money back by selling the 1000H, or should I wait few months for new netbooks to be released ? I am afraid that in a near future it will not be possible to sell the 1000H since it will be considered as too old...

Thanks for telling me your opinion on this if you have one.

It all depends on what you need and when. Currently the EeePC 1201N offers the best compromise for cpu/graphics performance with not bad portability/battery life. But it can't match the portability/battery life of the 1005PE. If you require more cpu performance (why? to what tasks?) you may find the Acer 1410 with a 11" HD screen interesting, with more cpu performance (single core for single tasks) and excellent portability/battery life but you'll loose graphics performance and better multi-tasking (dual core) for the EeePC 1201N.

The others machines X200s, R600s, X11 may be a good temporary solution, if you require one. I must say I also have one EeePC 1000H and I'm very happy with it, knowing it's limitations, I've used it as my main and only system for more than 1 year (with an external LCD). Personally, I'm very fond of the netbook/economy/portability/silence form factor so I would probably go for the EeePC 1201N although it's a bit larger than the 1000H. We can't have it all.

If you don't need it now, you may consider waiting a few months for the next Nvidia ION solution with Optimus switching between graphic chipsets. That probably will be the best of both worlds, but not currently available.

Cumprimentos. Regards.
--
Asus EeeBoxPC 1501P and EeePC 1000H with #! Xfce Linux
  • From: Algarve, Portugal
  • Registered: 2009-02-07
  • Posts: 196

Re: Advice on a NetBook

jotapesse wrote:

If you don't need it now, you may consider waiting a few months for the next Nvidia ION solution with Optimus switching between graphic chipsets. That probably will be the best of both worlds, but not currently available.

To be clear, I meant that it isn't available on netbooks. if you don't want to be on the netbook form factor, you may go for the ultraportable, altough pricier. The Asus UL30Vt, for example, with 13" screen, Core2Duo ULV, Intel/Nvidia switching Graphics and up to 12h battery life.

Cumprimentos. Regards.
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  • alef
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 192

Re: Advice on a NetBook

Hi,

thanks for the tips. I'll decide myself one day smile

Eee-PC 1000H    |  Statler r20110207 Openbox
Vaio VGN-FE21H  |  Statler r20110207 Openbox

no more proprietary OS at home, and still no printer smile
  • Registered: 2010-03-29
  • Posts: 3

Re: Advice on a NetBook

Very nice thread. I am looking forward to buy a system but I am quite confused which should I buy?? Should I buy netbook/ tablet or iPad??  Any suggestion from personal experience would be great.

  • From: Orléans - France
  • Registered: 2009-09-03
  • Posts: 234

Re: Advice on a NetBook

I have a Asus EeePC 1101HA (11.6" - Atom Z520 at 1.33Ghz - Intel GMA500 - RAM 1 Go), and I like it !

The screen resolution is 1366x768 (like in a 15.6p Laptop) : very much usable than the 10p resolution (1024 x 600 pixels) ... I try both and I think the 11.6" (or 12") is the good compromise between portability, battery life and comfort ! For web or office usage, it's the best choose.

I also have an 17.6p Laptop, I not use it because I like to use my Netbook (it's being my wife Laptop tongue).


PS : thank to the "Pouslbo" chipset (bad support on Linux, but with some tits, it's work), I can watch 720p and 1080p HD videos with "smplayer-vaai" ... No CPU burning, no RAM overflow, work like a charm. Very impressive, really ! smile

Last edited by Kookaburra (2010-04-05 12:47:38)

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