Getting a Netbook

[DeM0nFiRe]

Hey guys, I am thinking of getting a netbook, but I don't really have any hands on experience with the power of the netbook processors and video cards, so I'm wondering if anyone here does!

Based on the numbers, I am looking at getting this one here: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-AO521 ... pd_cp_pc_1

The AMD Neo K125 should be faster than all of the atom processors, but not as fast as the celeron processors. The ones with the celeron processors, though, are too expensive. The Radeon HD4225 is certainly faster than the Intel GMA945 and 3100 that come in most of the atom processors, but the AMD Neo MV40 netbooks come with Radeon 3200 which is faster than the 4225. I am ok with the 4225, though, as long as the K125 is faster than the MV40. Anyone actually tried out any of these CPUs/GPUs, and if so, am I wrong in my thinking?

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if anyone can find a better netbook for a similar price, please let me know :D

 

[moog]

get a dell

 

[Star]

get a dell

Dood I lol'd so fucking hard. DOOD GET A DELL!

I have a dell One of those big one, studio edition laptop. It weights like 15 pounds

 

[Daxis]

get a dell

Dood I lol'd so fucking hard. DOOD GET A DELL!

I have a dell One of those big one, studio edition laptop. It weights like 15 pounds

yup, studio 17 core i7 720 qm with 4 gigs of ram and rather good specs overall. I have to have a computer that's able to DO crap, not just typing and email/facebook... -_-

and yeah i rather like dell over pretty much any other manufacturer and distributor. At least, the website is considerably clearcut and understandable, easy to navigate, etc

anyways, if you're looking for something easy, check out the dell store, they have sales 100% of the time.

 

[Star]

get a dell

Dood I lol'd so fucking hard. DOOD GET A DELL!

I have a dell One of those big one, studio edition laptop. It weights like 15 pounds

yup, studio 17 core i7 720 qm with 4 gigs of ram and rather good specs overall. I have to have a computer that's able to DO crap, not just typing and email/facebook... -_-

and yeah i rather like dell over pretty much any other manufacturer and distributor. At least, the website is considerably clearcut and understandable, easy to navigate, etc

anyways, if you're looking for something easy, check out the dell store, they have sales 100% of the time.

This.


Dells have never let me down. And if they let you down you're fail at working at computers and need to stop looking up porn or learn how to kill viruses.

Personally I think Compaqs are the worst manufacturer out there. Anything that does anything really cheaply has something wrong going on.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

get a dell

Dood I lol'd so fucking hard. DOOD GET A DELL!

I have a dell One of those big one, studio edition laptop. It weights like 15 pounds

yup, studio 17 core i7 720 qm with 4 gigs of ram and rather good specs overall. I have to have a computer that's able to DO crap, not just typing and email/facebook... -_-

and yeah i rather like dell over pretty much any other manufacturer and distributor. At least, the website is considerably clearcut and understandable, easy to navigate, etc

anyways, if you're looking for something easy, check out the dell store, they have sales 100% of the time.

So do I, I will be building a desktop to do that, though. The netbook is for mobile stuff only, like programming on the go!

Also, all the dells are too weak or too expensive (like the alienware ones >.>)


EDIT: Oh yeah, plus I already ordered the Acer Aspire One AO521 like an hour ago, haha

 

[moog]

yeah that dell post was a troll

HPs are nice, the notebooks are trash though

 

[moog]

its not that they SUCK at all dells are pretty good but they have shit consistency

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

Haha, yeah, I figured the dell post was a troll. But yeah, quality control is the biggest issue with dell. Plus, like I said, the dell netbooks are either not powerful enough to do what I want to do with this, or they are too expensive (like alienware). The thing is, Intel's actually beat by AMD on the netbook market. To get an intel netbook as capable as the one I am getting would cost like $550. afaik all the dell ones are like Intel Atom NV450 + Intel GMA3100 and stuff like that. To get atom + ION2 is 'spensive.

Dell notebooks aren't too bad. Decent price, and so it's a pretty decent deal assuming you don't get screwed by QC

 

[mawk]

dell notebooks are alright, yeah. I've had this one for going on two years now and the only big problem has been nvidia's fault. even that was handled in a timely manner once I realized they'd issued a warranty extension because it was so common. sure as hell wouldn't go to them for a desktop, though; those are pretty grievously overpriced.

out of curiosity, have you ever tried to build a laptop? generally everyone I've talked to prefers to buy premades for various reasons, mainly so that they don't have to deal with the tight size and heat considerations that a laptop shell imposes. overall I've only spoken with one person who built a laptop on their own, and they may or may not have been trolling, so I'm sort of wondering if it's really as bad as they say.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

Building a laptop these days is not QUITE as bad as it may have been in the past. I've not done it, because currently it costs as much or more than just buying a laptop so the only point is for fun really. You might be able to save like $100.

There is some soldering involved if you are putting in the video card yourself, but realistically you would buy the barebones kit that has the chassis, motherboard, GPU and screen and then you get the stuff like CPU, RAM, hard drives, wifi etc. You could also get like a touchscreen kit which would actually mean you could build like an i7 touchscreen laptop for ~$1400 which is actually a good price. The only problem is you still wouldn't have the swivel joint like tablet PCs.

Keep an eye on Shuttle, though. They are a company that's been making barebones kits and chassis for small form factor PCs and some monitor/desktop single chassis barebones kits. They are working on making a sort of unified line of laptop parts to make it easier to get into building laptops. It looks like at first their idea is to make it easier for small / medium businesses to break into the business of selling laptops (since like we know laptop parts aren't as easy to buy normally) I suspect that in the not-so-distant future they will start selling some moderately priced laptop kits to end-consumers. You can see their site for it here: http://spa.shuttle.com/main/goIndex

Looks like to sign up for the project now you have to be a business, not some guy who wants a laptop, but I suspect that will change after the program takes off a bit. (Assuming it takes off, haha)

EDIT: Oh yeah, main point of the first part of what I said is that the hardest part is finding parts that work well together.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

So my netbook got here, and so far it seems pretty cool. It obviously doesn't have the multi tasking power of my i7, but it's not bad for such a little thing. I uninstalled all the bloatware and now it's running pretty smoothly. I am updating Win 7 Starter now, I am going to play around with it a bit before I decide if I want to do different OSs(eses?)