Recommend me a netbook

[milje]

I was at Walmart, looking for a power cable for my sisters old laptop (her dog chewed the cable up), the computer is a piece of crap, I was going to throw Ubuntu on it and use it as my watching TV computer. Well, power adapters are $70, so screw that.

What do you guys like for little netbooks? I know the keyboards are going to be small, but the Acer I saw at Walmart actually felt pretty good. I've tried a few others at Best Buy last time I was there and some were OK, some were like typing on my Palm Centro :icon_rofl:

I'm looking for something in the $300 range or so, I'd assume Newegg would be the cheapest place to get one? I think the Acer at Walmart was around $400.

Something that can run Rigs of Rods would be cool, but not required. I don't know how much power that little Intel Atom processor is so I don't know if it's capable of more than just basic internet or what.

[85_Ranger4x4]

I have thought of getting one and getting a external hard drive for it to keep my music and stuff on since with my Zune I wouldn't have to have it on the computer all the time. Dunno how well it would work, but it would have to be better than the half an hour to get the boiler stoked on my current desktop to get onto the internet.

But what I have works, and I am a bit of a tightwad, so who knows...

[Downey]

get a Toshiba

[martin]

A friend of mine bought an acer last year and it works very well. The keyboard is a little small but unless you have huge hands it is possible to touch type on it, If it was me I would buy a cheap keyboard for when I was using it at home. If you are an avid gamer I would forget it, they are quite quick but I doubt it would play ror.

[Downey]

just remember this you get what you pay for.

[Jay FX4]

I recommend the Asus EEE series. I have the 900HA, but I don't think that one's available anymore. Not at Newegg, at least. It's an 8.9". I think that screen size is being phased out, and I think that's a shame. I think for the most part the minimum size is now 10".
Anyway, the EEE's are awesome, and the reviews at Newegg back it up. They come with XP and on mine, believe it or not, there was ZERO crapware to uninstall right out of the box. They are also very easy to upgrade. I have read that some on some of the Acer models, the HDD and RAM are hard to access. With the Asus, 4 screws and 1 minute later, I had 2GB RAM and a 320 GB HDD. :headbang:
Also with the EEE, there is a massive online community here:http://forum.eeeuser.com/ I love that forum, and it's 100% dedicated to all things EEE.
The Atom processor is actually pretty impressive. 1.60Ghz doesn't sound like much, but it's very efficient. I can actually do some processor intensive tasks with Photoshop 7 and some other photography software. Movies play flawlessly. I have heard that it does a good job with games (within reason) but I don't play PC games. It's overall a very quick machine, even before I added the extra gig of RAM and the 7200 rpm HDD.
I got mine in February and I haven't been able to put it down since then. I almost never actually turn it off, just standy when I'm not using it, so it's pretty durable.
I would at least consider Asus. Newegg has them for around $300.

[mjonesjr]

You can get a nice netbook from AT&T for $199. It will already have the 3G network card built I to it so you can use it on the go also.

[ronclark]

Fasted netbook out there, and a really good deal for the price.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9370272&type=product&id=1218093001788

[milje]

A friend of mine bought an acer last year and it works very well. The keyboard is a little small but unless you have huge hands it is possible to touch type on it, If it was me I would buy a cheap keyboard for when I was using it at home. If you are an avid gamer I would forget it, they are quite quick but I doubt it would play ror.

I didn't think it would be very good for RoR, but I had to try. My desktop is going on 5 1/2 years old, still runs like a champ but the ol' FX5200 graphics card is a bit oudated, I think :icon_rofl:

I'll have to do as I've been doing for computer gaming, go to my parents house and use theirs. I'd just like something that I could take out with me, or use when I'm watching the tube, my computer is in a bad position and I can't see the TV from it.


I've seen the ones through ATT, but I don't want to pay for a 3G plan with them, and I don't think 3G works here.

[WONGO]

I actually just bought an asus eee pc 1005ha from amazon and its awesome. I did a lot of research and its definitely the best out there for the price. Im at school now and i use it for everything, and is perfectly fast enough for video playback, internet browsing, and even running some of my programming applications. Plus it has a six cell battery that is rated for 7 hours. It was also rated the best netbook on cnet: http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/asus-eee-pc-1005ha/4505-3121_7-33698873.html?tag=mncol;lst

[Original_Ranger84]

Well I recommend the 3 Subject spiral notebook by Mead! It comes in all sorts of colors and has excellent college rule paper filling the covers. :)

[TheTopher]

+1 on the EEE 1000 series...I love mine. I upgraded to 2gb of ram before first boot and couldn't be happier



On a side note I see some of the older EEEPC models on woot.com for about $170 every so often.

[dburton07]

Cant remember the exact model number, but I have an Acer and I love it. Was $319.99 marked down to $299.99. With the computer, the 2g of ram upgrade, an external cd drive, and a 1 year protection plan I believe it was around $440 shipped to my door.

[brandonwh64]

Fasted netbook out there, and a really good deal for the price.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9370272&type=product&id=1218093001788

800Mhz EWWWW

[goodlife]

i'd keep an eye on slickdeals.net. good deals for netbooks pop up there every once in a while, and the people there can usually weigh out whether it's a good deal or not.

[GeorgiaBoy 87]

I got the Toshiba nb205 netbook from bestbuy with the n280 1.66ghz atom for $400. It does the job.

[kolton]

get the DELL INSPIRON MINI 10.

i was in the same situation a few months back. i spent $320. on it at wally world and opted to get the extra 2 year warranty, $50. so $270 all in all.
great little computer, tends to get a lil hot if not properly ventalated. fixed that with a $20 cooling fan from bestbuy. runs fast and i am running all my music and movies off of it with no download lag or anything, video quality is just short of amazing. and has a built in webcam.

the only downsides are that it has no cd drive and it heats up. but there are plenty of upgrades for the comp, including live TV

just my 2cents.
kolton

[CJREX]

I bought the Toshiba NB205 2 weeks ago.

Terrific little machine with awesome battery life. Plus one of the USB ports is a charging port that will charge your USB device even when the computer is off.

I do a good deal of flying so I wanted something less cumbersome than a laptop but with enough juice to watch a full movie without conking out.

On my first trip. I watched a 2 hour movie and 2 TV shows on it. Still had over 60% battery life left (it's rated for 9.5 hours). I have ran it for 7 hours and still had 30% battery.

The main thing about the netbooks is keyboard, keyboard, and the keyboard. Did I mention to try the keyboard?

Most all have the same basic specs (1.66 Atom 280 CPU, 160GB HDD, 1GB Ram, Intel integrated graphics) so pick one you can type on without making too many errors.

The Toshiba has a great keyboard and a real touchpad with 2 real buttons that are located where they should be. These 2 things (plus the great battery life) are what made me get the Toshiba.

If you get one now, it will likely come with Windows 7 starter. I went ahead and got mine with XP since I wasn't sure that all my work applications would play nice with 7.