Netbook for the wife

[Stereodude]

Well, I can't see how the N120 would be much better than the Aspire One in terms of being a full featured machine. It's still a netbook with an Atom + 945 chipset.

 

[ddrueding]

Yup. Every time I evaluated a netbook, I thought "more memory and CPU is all I need". I've come to the conclusion that what I need isn't a netbook.

 

[Mercutio]

Maybe a Lenovo X300? That gets you an SSD and a real CPU, and also size and weight to make Netbook owners jealous.

I keep having to rant to people who don't understand the functional difference between a Netbook and a proper notebook. At this point I'm pretty good at it.

 

[ddrueding]

Yup, an X300 is exactly where I need to be. That or a Macbook Air with a real OS put on it. Of course, the extra $2k hurts a bit.

 

[Stereodude]

Somehow I suspect my wife will try to co-opt my netbook to use for her work since it will be smaller and light than her work provided one.

 

[ddrueding]

You can get her a pink one.

 

[Stereodude]

Uh... No! I draw the line at the pink RAZR.

 

[timwhit]

Yeah, those pink netbooks are an eyesore.

 

[ddrueding]

I almost got a pink one for myself, far less likely to be stolen

 

[Stereodude]

So what happens when you put a 2GB stick of RAM in one of these WinXP netbooks? I know MS won't let them sell a 2GB model, but does it refuse to see it, or does it work fine?

 

[Mercutio]

Depends on the machine. I know some Asus models won't see the extra RAM but I've put more RAM in a bunch of other netbooks.

 

[ddrueding]

My Aspire one only shipped with 512MB onboard, and the expansion slot only recognized 1GB.

 

[timwhit]

I put a 2GB chip in a Lenovo S10 and it worked fine.

 

[Stereodude]

Someone else reported that a 2GB stick works fine in the N120.

 

[Fushigi]

The new MSI Wind 123, coming this month supposedly, uses the N280. I think this paired with a Vertex SSD would be a killer portable for around $700. The MSI site doesn't say it but the reports are noting expandable RAM up to 2GB and up to a 9 cell battery.

The U123 has been more or less released and is listed at Amazon as coming soon. 1GB standard w/an open RAM slot, 2GB listed as system max. No 9 cell battery; 6 cell appears to be standard. 160GB HD, SD-family card read built in, optional bluetooth, etc. for about $350 street.

 

[timwhit]

Why can't any netbook support 4GB RAM?

 

[Mercutio]

It's a chipset limitation. Netbooks are all pretty much based on some ancient iteration of the 945 chipset.

And because Microsoft doesn't want these machines to be any faster or nicer than they have to be. They don't want $300 notebooks with XP running circles around $1000 ones with Vista, so they've colluded with Netbook manufacturers to make them appear limited in capability.

The next step in this lie will be when Windows 7 Starter is shipped as the default OS on a lot of those machines and people find out it can only run three apps a a time. Watch. I'll bet there will be some of that going on.

 

[Fushigi]

Microsoft sets limits one what the hardware can be and still have it be called a netbook, i.e. still qualify to sell XP instead of Vista. And qualify for the apparently very cheap XP licenses.

But unless there's a chipset or BIOS limit, I don't see why a machine can be advertised as 1GB installed/2GB max but actually be capable of seeing 4GB.

IMO for the relative power of a netbook's CPU and intended usage pattern, 1-2GB should be plenty.

 

[Stereodude]

Well my N120 came today.

It's pretty sweet!

 

[Stereodude]

Is there any reason to get a DDR2 PC6400 SO-DIMM over a DDR2 PC5300 SO-DIMM for a netbook. They'll be the same price after rebate. I know they won't run at the faster speed.

And, in case you were curious, no I'm not an idiot. I know a netbook generally only has 1 SO-DIMM in it. A buddy is splitting the pair with me for his HP Mini 1000

 

[ddrueding]

You don't plan on OC'ing your netbook?

No, no difference that I can imagine. If they are the same price, may as well get the faster one.

 

[Stereodude]

You don't plan on OC'ing your netbook?

Is that even possible?

 

[ddrueding]

Probably not without a BIOS re-flash, maybe some soldering. I was joking, but now you have me curious.

 

[ddrueding]

For the record, the MTRON MSD-PATA3018-ZIF2 is working great in my ASUS R2Hv, and is a massive improvement over the Toshiba MK8009GAH (4200RPM) that was in there. 100MB/s and 0.1ms without any lag issues with small file writes.

I suspect the interface in the Acer isn't standards-compliant in some way.

 

[Mercutio]

Gee, a nonstandard Acer? Inform the media!

 

[Stereodude]

Well, my 2GB DDR stick arrived and seems to be working fine in my N120.

 

[ddrueding]

Got some of these coming for the netbooks in the office. Boot time just isn't acceptable with a 4200RPM drive.

 

[Stereodude]

I'm going to put a 2.5" 500GB 5400 RPM SATA drive in my netbook.

 

[ddrueding]

Neither of my small toys take 2.5" drives. One takes a mini (like the one I linked) and the other is a 1.8" ZIF. I hope more vendors adopt smaller form factors (something the width of the SATA data/power connector would be nice).

 

[timwhit]

Got some of these coming for the netbooks in the office. Boot time just isn't acceptable with a 4200RPM drive.

Are those SLC or MLC?

 

[ddrueding]

MLC, and likely have the small write performance issue, but that will still beat a 4200RPM drive during boot (95% read) and light use.

 

[timwhit]

MLC, and likely have the small write performance issue, but that will still beat a 4200RPM drive during boot (95% read) and light use.

SteadyState will fix that...I'm now a firm believer in it after using it for the past few weeks. Just don't reboot often as boots now take forever.

 

[ddrueding]

Boots are the one thing I really care about in netbooks and small machines. Any of these do fine with Firefox once they are up. Worst case, I do some tricks with a RAMDisk to speed that part up.

 

[Mercutio]

That's WAY more configuration than I want to bother with on a $250 computer

 

[Stereodude]

Boots are the one thing I really care about in netbooks and small machines. Any of these do fine with Firefox once they are up. Worst case, I do some tricks with a RAMDisk to speed that part up.

If it's anything like the MLC IDE SSD I have they're going to drive you nuts. You'll see.

 

[ddrueding]

I have quite a few cheaper MLC SSDs, they really only annoyed me during software installs/updates and when doing more complex stuff.

 

[Stereodude]

I have quite a few cheaper MLC SSDs, they really only annoyed me during software installs/updates and when doing more complex stuff.

Installs and updates are horrible. Other than that it's not so bad. Still some times it gets slow at the oddest times for no apparent reason.

It's all irrelevant now, as I have given up on it and have a 320GB 2.5" IDE drive on the way to replace it.

 

[Stereodude]

So, I cracked open the N120 today to see how to get at the HD in anticipation of swapping in a 500GB 5400 RPM HD. I found an empty mini PCI-e slot labeled for HSPDA, a joke of a "subwoofer", and a SIM card slot.

 

[ddrueding]

I wish mine used an SATA drive...it would have an X-25M by now.

Mine has the PCI-e as well for the cellular card.

 

[Stereodude]

I wonder if the mini PCI-e slot can be used for something else...