New Laptop or Netbook? [Archive] - Overclockers Forums

deathman20

01-20-09, 09:41 AM

My wife has an aged laptop to say the least. Its at least 5 years old if not mistaken by now. A 14" Dell, with a 32gig HDD 256Meg ram running XP. Has a 2.4 or 2.8Ghz P4 in it (forgot which). Its slow as hell IMO, now most of that is due to there being NO RAM for the system but its a brick. Good thing on it, it still has decent battery life running 2-2.5 hours.

We'll and with that I wanted to replace it. Its done its job as far as im concerned, and its time for a new one. Question is do I replace it with a laptop or a netbook? If it was for me I'd probably get a laptop just due to the fact I'd want power :)

But since its mostly a e-mail, web browser, word document type system, maybe an occasional game on it, would be nice if The Sims 2 could play on it (could care less what the graphics look like) but that type of thing. And since Circuit City is going down the crapper I was looking to possible getting one there if the price is right of course, if not something online.

So I'd lean more tword a netbook but im not sure whats all with them. I noticed that the ones in the store I saw, had no CD/DVD drive? How can you load an OS on it without a drive, or even some software at that? Would you have to do a copy of the CD/DVD and use other means to install things on the PC? As well whats a netbook feel like for average day computing on it? I guess if anything else I'd go back to a laptop, but really perfer something of a smaller nature for ease of use.

juane414

01-20-09, 10:19 AM

Mr.Guvernment

01-20-09, 10:49 AM

Sim 2 is very intense on the harddrive and CPU, i dont think a netbook would run it at all even at the lowest settings with out bringing it to a crawl.

Trap05

01-20-09, 11:02 AM

Yeah notebook is the way to go plenty of 15.4" and 14.1" notebooks for cheap with good specs if you take your time and look around for deals.

deathman20

01-20-09, 11:29 AM

Ok so exclude Sims 2 then ;) She's not much of a gamer and she'll be getting a Wii eventually so that will rule out playing Sims. If it would cool but its like the last thing on the list.

I'd think we'd use it for moving between places as well, just right now we are house bound, mainly due to our little one (1 month old) but eventually we'll be going places and im sure I'd love to use it around the house alot. Like sitting in a chair holdin her trying to fall asleep, whip out the laptop/netbook and surf the web or chat or look at websites (AKA OCForums ;) )

Trap05

01-20-09, 11:36 AM

LOL sounds like you've already made up your mind...just buy the netbook

deathman20

01-20-09, 12:04 PM

Well its not mine its my wifes too ;) Since it will be mostly her's but im the one that can swing the vote. Reason why im saying netbook is because getting a nice one for $400 as long as I can load an OS (some how without a DVD drive) and have battery life so when she forgets to plug it in most likely I'll still have power in it to boot it up instead of plugging it in.

If I do a laptop, then well I'll want something nicer = more money. Guess its a way to limit what I spend really easily in my eye's.

But even if I went laptop I wouldn't know what to even look for, call me dumb on the mobile side of things. Im good for either, but just need a good argument of its better to spend more on this over that. Screen size is defiantly not an argument for her on most things so I doubt it would hold up in this case.

Wiggy Fuzz

01-20-09, 12:26 PM

if it isn't a present i'd recommend going to a store anc checking out the netbooks. even the acer aspire one (which has the largest keyboard for a 9 inch netbook) feels cramped. and you have no idea how many of the toshiba netbooks come back (ubuntu) because of their frequent crashes and incredibly puny keyboard (it even freezes showing a screensaver...)

a friend of mine bought a netbook, to replace his dell inspiron as a travel lappy.

the next day he was back to his 3.2 kilo 15 inch dell, in the lectures, with a big evil smile on his face whenever i mentioned "netbook".

Ashura

01-20-09, 12:26 PM

If you go for a netbook, you can install an OS via USB so long as you have another PC with a dvd drive to copy over the files. That's how I got Vista on my Eee 1000H. Since your wife will be doing a lot of typing, I wouldn't go for anything smaller than a 10" screen so that she can properly touch type. Your battery life will definitely be there depending on how you leave it running (with full brightness and the highest clock speed I get about 3 and half hours whereas with a dim screen and the lowest clock speed I get about 5 and a half).

The biggest selling point for the netbook is the portability and long battery life. For around the same price as a 10" you can get a refurb or new laptop with specs that'll definitely outdo a netbook. But the price will be shorter battery life and a heavier weight to carry around.

I use my 1000H as my main machine for both home and work and it's been great. With an upgrade to 2gigs of ram, v-lited Vista and an OCZ SSD, I typically have open a couple of Office 2007 apps, Quickbooks, the occasional Adobe CS2 app and Google Chrome with about 75-100 tabs open all at the same time and everything runs pretty smooth. Only occasional hiccups are in Chrome when sites are too flash heavy for the Atom.

juane414

01-21-09, 04:48 AM

You can get small laptops that are much more powerful with just as much batter life as a netbook. Dell and Lenovo have some nice business laptops with 8+ hours of batter life. That and they are still relatively small and light. Dell's 12" Latitude supposedly can get 16 hours of batter life with the right configuration. The Lenovo X200 is also really cool. Both are only 2 or 3 inches bigger than most netbooks and probably no more than a pound heavier. They will cost a lot more, but they are a lot more useful than a netbook (and practical in my opinion).

I've toyed with the idea of getting a netbook, but I figure that there will be something even better in couple years. Two years ago the big thing was those UMPCs. They were almost a complete flop. Give it another year or two and there will be some hand held device that's at least as powerful as a netbook and way more practical. The Sony Vaio P is getting closer to that I think.

MARCI

01-21-09, 05:46 AM

Coworker of mine had a laptop fail on him. He purchased a eee 904HA. He loves it. perfect size for home or office, does everything he needs it to (web, email, watch avi/mpg/mkv, play mp3s etc) He did purchase a second gig of ram for it. And he had a usb cd drive

Wiggy Fuzz

01-21-09, 02:01 PM

walking into a sony store i looked at the sony vaio p NETBOOK (it's a netbook through and through, sony. live with it)

i admit it's a gorgeous little thing, but the price tag is, put simply, highway robbery of the highest degree. it's biblically pricey, for what in essence you're getting. no other words for it.

nakatalee

01-21-09, 07:57 PM

Me and my wife are ordering the Asus Eee 1000HA as I am typing this. I already got a desktop and an old laptop (6 years old 17" toshiba). We want something mobile that we can easily carry around the house and when we travel or just hit the Starbuck.

From what I read and heard around, netbook should be enough for email/surf net/emu game/play old games/movies/mp3 and that's all we need.

The other good thing is we also have a 3 year old that will definitely love this netbook while we are travelling on a road trip, and with 5 hours on battery it should be enough.

Happy hunting.

Ps: also consider MSI, samsung, HP, and Acer... plenty of options.

deathman20

01-21-09, 08:49 PM

Yeah might have to put it on hold for a little bit :/ Lovely layoffs have hit our division and could be more so have to put it on the back burner for now.

Definatly consider some of the things said here and will look into it when my future looks solid again.

MARCI

01-22-09, 01:55 PM

gl with the job ::crosses fingers::

juane414

01-22-09, 07:39 PM

I'm so glad I'm not working in the states right now... or looking for a job for that matter. I hope the situation improves before I come back ::also crosses fingers::

Tell us how that netbook works out for you Nekatalee. I hope it does what you need it to do!

Also, I'm curious about how much battery life you get with that Asus. If I ever do get a netbook it will probably be an Asus or a Samsung, as those two are supposed to have the longest running batteries.

Slayn

01-23-09, 10:32 PM

I like my MSI Wind because I got it from BB for $300 so I cant complain. It does what I want and was cheap.

Know Nuttin

01-24-09, 11:41 AM

standard 6 cell gets around 4.5-5.5 hours in general use
I have an 8800mah battery and get closer to 7-8 hours of use (web surfing mainly but sometimes some web dev work using dreamweaver cs4)
Asus 1000HA, 2GB ram, 7200.3 320GB Seagate momentus.

frankkesel

02-12-09, 01:39 PM

IF battery time is important to you check out the new 1000HE suppose to last 9.5H

deathman20

02-12-09, 01:43 PM

Yeah everything is on the back burner now as things settle down here at work and as well deciding what to do with my PC now that is broken.

squads

02-13-09, 10:52 AM

Yeah I have a 14" Asus I got a couple months ago (right before I got laid off...go figure). Anyway its not too big, but I keep it at my desk most of the time hooked up to a keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor, and eSATA HDD. Despite having a [relatively] portable notebook, I would also like a netbook simply for much better battery life (I can squeeze 3hrs out of my Asus) and massively better portability. Its on the agenda for after I find a new job.

curtis1552

02-14-09, 12:36 AM

Which PC broke and how?

deathman20

02-14-09, 11:17 AM

Which PC broke and how?

My main. Not sure how but getting RMA's done on hardware to figure out what went wrong.

mercalf

02-15-09, 02:08 PM

The only real advantage of netbooks is their superior mobility. If you are going to be doing extensive emailing and word processing, I would recommend at least a 12" or 13" computer for the sole purpose of having a full sized keyboard. Also, if you think you're going to be playing ANY game, I think you would be better off with a laptop.

A netbook is really only good for frequent travel. Even if you want to move it around the house a lot, I'm guessing you will get sick of the tiny screen and cramped keyboard pretty quickly. For the last six years I've used a desktop as my main computer. Since moving to S. Korea I've been using a 15.4" laptop as my main computer. I can't tell you how much I miss my desktop. Even though my laptop is great and I really like it. I miss having a full keyboard with numpad and a 19" monitor that sits at eye level. I get sick of squinting at my display.

If you're going to be using this thing every day and keeping it in the house 90% of the time, get a laptop. Netbooks are cool and seem like they would be fun to play with. I've spent hours staring at them at stores. But, ultimately I don't think they would be very useful unless you're traveling constantly.

Cost? A GOOD laptop will run you at least 750 dollars... For that price, you could buy a nice little Aspire One (I have the first generation model), AND a custom desktop...

This debate comes up at my school a TON - and whenever I'm asked, I recommend that if you want to shell the money - that they get a Netbook AND Desktop. Think of when you use a laptop...? Okay, you use them when you want portability (or if it's all you got). When you're working for extensive periods of time, you want a desktop. You can have both in today's market ;)

x30Jx

02-15-09, 03:15 PM

Dell Mini 9 or 12
Use the extra money to soup up a PC or get a brand new desktop

squads

02-18-09, 01:38 PM

Cost? A GOOD laptop will run you at least 750 dollars... For that price, you could buy a nice little Aspire One (I have the first generation model), AND a custom desktop...

This debate comes up at my school a TON - and whenever I'm asked, I recommend that if you want to shell the money - that they get a Netbook AND Desktop. Think of when you use a laptop...? Okay, you use them when you want portability (or if it's all you got). When you're working for extensive periods of time, you want a desktop. You can have both in today's market ;)

I completely agree with this. I bought a 14" laptop for $850 and now I plan on selling it and rebuilding my desktop system and getting a netbook. My laptop is fast, but it lacks severely in certain areas (like ripping dvds because laptop drives are massively slow in comparison). It also doesn't have the portability of a netbook.

Know Nuttin

02-18-09, 04:29 PM

I think your best bet if you want to get a netbook now is the Asus 1000HE. They fixed the location of the right shift key, and gave it a good battery (should do ~7 hrs pretty easily on somewhat conservative settings).

sulretal

02-19-09, 05:54 AM

I'd say a notebook, 14.1 - 15.1. They are only several hundred dollars more usually than top end netbooks, and you get so many more viable options. Perhaps even look at notebook forums or classifieds for laptops older than a year old.

mercalf

02-19-09, 09:34 AM

One of my COMP classes at school has about half the class owning netbooks...

Each one of them bought DURING the time period of our class. We have the Dell Mini, my Aspire One, the Lenovia, and a couple others...

Personally I like them all, but the Lenovia boasts the same size keyboard as the Aspire One (which is manageable to type on...others require a pencil) - and runs very fast. I'd go with the Lenovia or Aspire considering that they really gear their companies towards the Netbook era, and offer a TON of support. I also haven't run into any errors on my Aspire One, FIRST GENERATION, and yet I have swapped OS's many times - Linux, Windows, etc.

Another cool feature about the Aspire One, that none of the others have is the TWO HCSD (High Capacity SD cards) slots on them. One on the left automatically MOUNTS, AND adds the card to your permanent hard drive space... So even if you get the lower storage version, SD cards will become cheaper and cheaper, so you can add away. The slot on the right is for plug-and-play type use. Rip your camera pics, then remove it again, etc.

Know Nuttin

02-19-09, 06:46 PM

Another cool feature about the Aspire One, that none of the others have is the TWO HCSD (High Capacity SD cards) slots on them. One on the left automatically MOUNTS, AND adds the card to your permanent hard drive space... So even if you get the lower storage version, SD cards will become cheaper and cheaper, so you can add away. The slot on the right is for plug-and-play type use. Rip your camera pics, then remove it again, etc.

That only applies in linux, windows will not merge the SDHC space with the HDD space (not that it's really needed).

The Aspire 10" model does not have dual SD card readers, only the single.

curtis1552

02-19-09, 10:55 PM

+1 for linux! Yay!
Sorry, I had to do it.
It must have to do with how the computer recognizes the drive, and linux is much more configurable than windows.
I wonder how exactly it does it?
Does it set it up with LVM and what happens if the SD card fails or is removed? Does the file system get a fail notice and loose all those files on it until it gets reinserted (if only removed)?

mbentley

02-20-09, 06:14 AM

the main thing that makes a netbook a bad choice for me is the screen resolution. i run out of real estate on my laptop with 1280x800.

of course with any decision there are going to be trade offs between a netbook and laptop:

battery - do you need a longer battery life than a couple hours?
screen - do you need a larger screen than 1024x600 or is that plenty of space?
keyboard - do you have trouble with a cramped keyboard?
hard drive - do you need a large amount of local storage on the hard drive or can you get away with a few gigabytes?
optical drive - are you going to need/use an optical drive? install programs frequently? watch dvds?

boarderjw

02-27-09, 02:08 PM

i own 3 laptops and 1 netbook (samsung nc10). my laptops just collect dust now. i love my netbook. i dual boot winxp and opensuse 11.1 and it runs great.

things i like about my netbook:
160GB hard drive that is easily upgradeable (i'll probably put a 320GB drive in)
1GB RAM that is upgradeable to 2GB
93% size keyboard (i can't really tell the difference from my laptops)
battery lasts forever. 7 hrs+ when surfing internet or word processing.
small and light. i take this thing everywhere. don't ever need to take the charger with me either.

so yeah, i have all good things to say about netbooks, or at least my samsung netbook. some people don't like the smaller screen, but 10.2" is just fine for me. i don't think i could go with a 8.9" though. also no optical drive is a deal breaker for some. i don't miss it. everything i need to load i can do from usb.

it's all just personal preference though. i love my netbook but you may hate them. that's when buying from a place with a 100% return policy helps a lot.