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Netbook Recommendations

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S

shawy14

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Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Hello Everyone,

I need a netbook for my final year of college which I will be starting soon. It needs to be able to do some basic Photoshop work and also a little bit of coding in Visual Studio.

I have a main laptop however it is very heavy and I hate lugging it around.

Also another quick questions, what are the differences between the processors in the netbooks?? :screwy:

Thanks in advance!
 
from your description of your needs, this one looks like just your ticket:

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668275.php

edit: to answer your question, basically all netbooks use some form of atom processor. it's quite a diminuitive little guy that doesn't have much muscle going for it. Asus currently sells a netbook that pairs a 9300M GPU with the atom that peps up the platform significantly, but i think the athlon 64, 2GB ram, ATI graphics combo suits you better. in particular the Athlon will take you much further in things like photoshop than the Atom would; even if it was paired with the 9300M.
 
Thankyou Tserrof for your suggestion.

However I live in the UK so I cant get that laptop, nowhere sells it and BestBuy do not ship to the UK :(!

Have you got any other suggestions?

Thankyou
 
Do you need a NETbook or a NOTEbook?

Cause for Photoshop, a netbook is the wrong kind of PC.

What is your main notebook? Size, weight, etc?
 
I personally don't think that there are very many differences in the netbook market due to Microsoft's dumb licensing requirements for Windows XP (the current OS of choice). They all use about the same processing and RAM power if not identical. You will find variations in things like the keyboard style, battery capacity, screen size/resolution, wireless/bluetooth support, essentially peripheral features. I would just grab something cheap and light that has the extras that you are looking in particular for. An example from my own experience is that I wanted something ultra light and cheap for college so I grabbed a 10" Asus EEE 1000 with a built in solid state (I've had issues with platter drives failing in laptops), a decent 6-cell battery for good longevity on campus, and wireless support for G and N networks for connectivity.
 
I have an aspire one. I honestly will not get another netbook that has a screen smaller than 10". Note however that I am a guy who can easily email and such on a 3" PDA screen.

It just makes sense - 10" is the magic number. The small screen makes your posture become a problem since you have to place the netbook closer to you.

In any case, I do lots of MATLAB engineering work on mine and I am quite amazed by the performance. The battery life is a huge plus with most netbooks. Also some like mine come with built in 3G internet cards - a huge plus.

Use a netbook like a big PDA and you are right on the money.

Photoshop? erm, not such a good idea...

As others have said, the graphics processing is the main problem. These are only designed to do basic tasks
 
Know Nuttin said:
Find a used Lenovo X60/X60s/X61/X61s, or look at getting something like the HP DV2.
Click to expand...

Not a fan of HP at all but lenovo's are fantastic if you can get them for the right price. If you need more power than a netbook for photoshop I would def consider a small X series.
 
Jayws said:
Not a fan of HP at all but lenovo's are fantastic if you can get them for the right price. If you need more power than a netbook for photoshop I would def consider a small X series.
Click to expand...

It's not just the power but the screen as well. Photoshop CS3/CS4 wants at least 1024x768, and most netbooks only do 1024x600. There are a few where you can do the virtual scrolling but that's not exactly ideal.
 
Thankyou all for your replys.

I would like to have a Netbook but however the sounds of it I dont think I would be able to run Photoshop.

I currently have a Acer Aspire 5920G:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200
RAM: 4GB 800Mhz Corsair
HDD: 250GB WD Black
Graphics: Nvidia 8600GT
Screen: 15.4" Standard

However as you will be able to tell this laptop is very heavy.

Where shall I go????
 
I still think you should look at my previous recommendations. I replaced my netbook(s) with an X61s, and while it's not as fast as the T7200 (only 1.6Ghz), it does the job for PS work and it is still light (just over 3lb) while lasting around 5.5hrs when just doing basic web browsing over public wifi.
 
The only problem is the price of a X61, I would need something a lot cheaper.

Do you have a cheaper recommendations?

Thanks for all your help though.
 
I'm pretty sure you can find a used one for not too much more than a new netbook. I paid around $700 CAN for mine with the extended life battery. Cost around another $40 for 4GB RAM. I did put an SSD in it (64GB for $140) but that wasn't necessary, that was more for my own wanting than needing.
 
I agree with Know Nuttin about the Stinkpad. Their X series are great and usable for PS unlike a netbook.
 
Pretty much any decent dual core (1.5ghz plus At least) coupled with 2gbs of ram will run any 'light' photoshop work fine. I have 4gb of ram with a tri-core, and my photoshop still lags.. But thats cos I work with large/complex files.

I honestly suggest a nice lightweight 13" with just the basics.. Netbooks are nice, but theyre really only that, netbooks, for basic web browsing, word processing, etc. Nothing even remotely intensive was intended for their use.

I can't suggest anything cos you haven't specified an actual price-range..
 
My price range would of been £400 and under.

Can you make any recommendations on that or will I have to spend more?
 
I had the 5920G, too, and just got an Acer 3810t (for the weight). This thing is just amazing.

~$800
13" at 1.6kg (compared to MacBook Air's 1.4kg... I think the 5920G is 3kg)
Core 2 Solo 1.4ghz ULV (this is a bit weak, but still a few times faster than an Atom) There's also a dual core version, but I think it costs quite a bit more.
2GB DDR3 (probably for the lower power consumption)
80GB Intel SSD (this thing retails for ~$250 now) very fast, quiet, cool, and has low power consumption.
LED backlight
>8 hrs battery life (both advertised and real! I get about 9hr with wifi on, screen brightness on medium)
Way better buy than netbooks IMHO.
 
I think if you try to use an Atom/Ion platform in a netbook for photoshop work you're going to be taking a really long time to do photoshop work. You're probably not going to be very happy.
 
I have been doing some light GIMP work (jpeg photo editing, scaling, etc) on my 1.4ghz C2S. Only feels a TINY bit slower than my C2D @ 3.3ghz. Could as well be placebo effect.

That said... the C2S is a few times faster than Atom (it's about 50% as fast as a Core 2 clock for clock). So an 1.6ghz Atom (seems to be the most common), would be comparable to a 800mhz Core 2.
 
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