Netbook for the wife
- Thread starter Adcadet
- Start date
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Don't you have 802.11 on your phone?
ddrueding
Fixture
I do now. I had an i880 until last week.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
That's it. I'm suspending your nerd card.
ddrueding
Fixture
There is no cellular service where I work/live, except that provided by the company's provider (Nextel). The repeaters that give service up here only work for Nextel; not even regular Sprint phones work. The only Wifi capable Nextel phone came out recently, and I now have one.
Stereodude
Not really a
Anyone ever speed tested the wired network capability of their netbook? :???:
Mine seems dismal. If I can believe the performance application, it's copying data over my network at 2.3Mbyte/sec average. Task manager shows 77-80% network utilization and CPU usage is about between 15-20%. :frowner:
How can ~20Mbit/sec be 80% network utilization of a 100Mbit/sec link, and why does it use so much CPU? :arge:
Mine seems dismal. If I can believe the performance application, it's copying data over my network at 2.3Mbyte/sec average. Task manager shows 77-80% network utilization and CPU usage is about between 15-20%. :frowner:
How can ~20Mbit/sec be 80% network utilization of a 100Mbit/sec link, and why does it use so much CPU? :arge:
ddrueding
Fixture
I did speed test the HDD of my netbooks, and they all sucked. The worst was the Intel 8GB SSD in the Acer AspireOne, but the spinning disk in my first Wind U123 wasn't much better.
Don't both those use the standard NIC on a 945 chipset? Do you think it could be a driver issue?
Don't both those use the standard NIC on a 945 chipset? Do you think it could be a driver issue?
Stereodude
Not really a
Mine uses a Marvel something or other for wired Ethernet. The 500GB spinning disc I put in it is not slow, so that's not the problem.
ddrueding
Fixture
Just finished voiding the warranty on my own U123. 2GB of RAM and a 30GB Vertex with a customized (nLite) build of XP Pro. Thing absolutely flies.
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
I bought a netbook the other day, an ASUS thing. It was quite unplanned, we had just left of a 14-day trip when my 13-month old Thinkpad died, completely without warning, and just 3 weeks out of warranty. It was either drive 300km to Adelaide and buy something (anything) or turn around and go home.
So I bought the first one I found in stock at the first computer shop I got to, an ASUS with a 160GB HDD and 1GB RAM.
First impressions:
Nice sharp screen for text, bad colour for photography (not that I expected much).
The 1024 x 600 res is horrible! 1024 x 768 would be lots, lots, lots better.
Excellent battery life
Excellent keyboard, given the size.
Horrible touchpad; very difficult to do anything without plugging in an external mouse
Overall, decent value for not much money. I'll keep it as a permanent spare.
Back home, I discovered that it was going to cost between $1000 and $1600 to fix the Thinkpad (An R Series with 2.4GHz CPUs), and in the end I bought a new one, a T400. Nice machine, but bloody dear considering it's no faster than the old R Series one.
So I bought the first one I found in stock at the first computer shop I got to, an ASUS with a 160GB HDD and 1GB RAM.
First impressions:
Nice sharp screen for text, bad colour for photography (not that I expected much).
The 1024 x 600 res is horrible! 1024 x 768 would be lots, lots, lots better.
Excellent battery life
Excellent keyboard, given the size.
Horrible touchpad; very difficult to do anything without plugging in an external mouse
Overall, decent value for not much money. I'll keep it as a permanent spare.
Back home, I discovered that it was going to cost between $1000 and $1600 to fix the Thinkpad (An R Series with 2.4GHz CPUs), and in the end I bought a new one, a T400. Nice machine, but bloody dear considering it's no faster than the old R Series one.
ddrueding
Fixture
That is the biggest sacrifice with netbooks IMHO. 600 pixels isn't really much for anything. I expected the CPU to be really lame, but so long as you avoid doing CPU intensive stuff (like converting RAW files), you don't even notice it. The keyboard is fine and the touchpad isn't bad, if a bit small.
It hibernates the 2GB of RAM in under 10 seconds and resumes to a non-hourglassed desktop in 15 seconds. Firefox 3.5 with 5 add-ons loads in just over 2 seconds, and the battery gauge says I have another 8.5 hours left (9-cell).
It hibernates the 2GB of RAM in under 10 seconds and resumes to a non-hourglassed desktop in 15 seconds. Firefox 3.5 with 5 add-ons loads in just over 2 seconds, and the battery gauge says I have another 8.5 hours left (9-cell).
Stereodude
Not really a
It seems like most of the new 11.6" netbooks have a 1366 x 768 screen. There are also a few 10" models with the 1366 x 768 screen like the Dell Mini 10 and HP 2140.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Keep that R handy, Tannin. There's a pretty decent shot that you'll be able to find a used replacement board for far something more like AU$500. Assuming the board is what's dead.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
The standard Dell 10" screen is in fact only 576 lines, not even the 600 that's standard on other netbooks. The "HD" screen is an option, but frankly, with pixels only 3/4 the size, you'd need a magnifying glass to use one. It would be lke shrinking a 10" screen down to 7.5".
I agree that the main limitation with netbooks is the limited screen height - unfortunately, that's what enables them to be so usefully compact. Perhaps something like a hinged screen is the answer?
~~
Perhaps something like a hinged screen is the answer?
Wasn't there some hoo haa a few years ago about flexible/rollup displays? Maybe made with OLEDs? Anybody know where they are at with those things?
Stereodude
Not really a
There are a few others with 16:9 screens instead of 16:10 screens. The Lenovo S10 and the HP 2140 are two more.
ddrueding
Fixture
I think small LED-based projectors will beat the roll-up displays to this market segment.
Stereodude
Not really a
However the latter will be infinitely more useful than the former. Projectors don't work well in ambient light, and they need something flat and uniformly neutral colored to boot.
ddrueding
Fixture
Two in one: Test of my Blackberry's camera, and me on a tower...
We measured it this time...75'. The guy belaying me said the top was swaying over 4'.
ddrueding
Fixture
The guy belaying me was wearing a hard hat. I was using my personal climbing gear, and gave my belay a quick training on what to do. We were safe, provided the tower stayed up.
ddrueding
Fixture
He actually used my wife's climbing harness
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
DD - you're a man of many talents!
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Apparently a lot of netbook purchasers are dissatisfied with the performance, expecting notebook performance. Expect to see more CULV based devices being pimped by Intel, now Atom is recognised for the cpu sloth it is.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
Hmmm, I'm not convinced that CULV will offer that much better performance than Atom when you're trying to keep power usage in the same ballpark.
Frankly, Atom offers (far) more performance per watt than just about anything else out there. Castrating a Core 2 to bring it down to the same level is - IMO - not a good idea. In fact, Intel has stated that future CULV may not be based on Core 2.
I was going to suggest looking at AMD's Neo, but then I saw some benchmarks and realized how far off the pace AMD is on this. Performance is somewhat better than Atom but power consumption is not in the same ballpark at all (as I understand it, it's several times greater, versus only a few times for Intel's CULV).
Frankly, Atom offers (far) more performance per watt than just about anything else out there. Castrating a Core 2 to bring it down to the same level is - IMO - not a good idea. In fact, Intel has stated that future CULV may not be based on Core 2.
I was going to suggest looking at AMD's Neo, but then I saw some benchmarks and realized how far off the pace AMD is on this.
Performance is somewhat better than Atom but power consumption is not in the same ballpark at all (as I understand it, it's several times greater, versus only a few times for Intel's CULV).
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm perfectly happy with the performance of Atom. I wouldn't mind some more speed, but not with a loss of battery life. With the right other components, it is a fast boot and fast app loading little monster.
udaman
Wannabe Storage Freak
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1,209
Hmm, then the top of the trees must have been nearly 50ft. I seriously doubt that antenna is engineered for the weight of 2 people. Needs guy wires, a strong wind could have made it collapse from the weight of 2 people on it- especially someone might weight
.Apple's mkt cap is now ahead of Google, based on skyrocketing stock price...sure wish I had some money to buy a few thousand shares when they hit bottom just a short while ago.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/07/22/cook.on.apple.netbook/
Until better processors come out, the recent sealed (higher capacity) Li-Poly idea being embraced by Apple for their laptops is where the max runtime is going to be. Up on an antenna, that could collapse at any minute; runtime isn't so important, a bright LED backlit screen *is*. Think dd should go buy one of those unibody, stiffer MacBook Air, put a Vertex Turbo SSD in it, and run Winblows RTM 7 from that...charge it off to company, they can afford it.
Someday, sometime in the future, we'll get those always promised brighter/more vivid colors OLED screens
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I wound up ordering three MSI Wind U123s this week for different people, each one was someone whose notebook had died and each one will keep someone from buying some shitty $400 Toshiba or Acer slug.
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm recommending U123s at an amazing rate. All with an SSD and more RAM.
y'all may be in'erested in TR latest netbookie shootout
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17249
Basically Atom vs low power Athlon. One wins in battery life, the other has better performance. See if you can guess which before reading the conclusion
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17249
Basically Atom vs low power Athlon. One wins in battery life, the other has better performance. See if you can guess which before reading the conclusion
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
DV2 looks good but I will wait for Congo to release. Then it will be a desktop replacement.
Fushigi
Storage Is My Life
Stereodude
Not really a
I'm probably most interested in an 11.6" Ion / Atom powered system, or perhaps even a 11.6" CULV Core2 system. Long term the 1024x600 resolution screen on my Samsung N120 has turned out to be a deal breaker for me. I find myself not wanting to use it due to the limited screen real estate. I also find that web surfing on it is pokey. Admittedly, that's probably due to the extra CPU cycles sucked up by NoScript, Adblock, and all the other Firefox extensions I'm running, but still...
ddrueding
Fixture
I have a client who loves my MSI Wind U123, but needs an optical built-in. What is the nearest thing?
Stereodude
Not really a
ddrueding
Fixture
Looks good, but the only price I can find is $700