Netbook Reccomendations

[Lurid]

Anyone have any reccomendations for a cheap netbook for browsing the net and general office stuff? I've been out of the game a bit and need something small, cheap, and preferably good battery life for college.

EDIT - I of course have no problems swapping parts out if I can get a better deal by doing so. I'd prefer to have a relatively large hard drive so that I could store my music on it too because it will be my main computer. I don't have time to game anymore really and a laptop is ideal for me considering the amount of traveling I have to do.

[4-n-zics]

ASUS EeePC 1000HA - I just bought 2 of these a few weeks ago for myself and my wife and we both love them. I did upgrade the RAM from 1GB to 2GB tho. Here is my thread asking about several different netbooks:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.co...ighlight=eeepc

If you are wanting wireless N and Bluetooth then get the ASUS EeePC 1000H instead of the HA.

[Lurid]

Thats not bad at all, as far as I know its everything i've been looking for. How is the battery life? Anything you dislike about it?

Additional Comment:

Oh yea, and if anyone has any other reccomendations i'm all ears. I'll probably be using Gentoo linux or some other streamlined distro instead of Windows simply because of less bloat and i'm not gaming so more security / flexibility for the win, heh.

I'll have to pick up an external drive for DVD backups (I have a fairly large collection).

[4-n-zics]

There are only 2 caveats I have about the 1000HA:

1) No optical drive, but that is the same for any and all netbooks
2) The right shift key is to the right of the UP arrow and is the same size as the lettered keys (small and square) so touch typing takes a bit to get used to.

As for the battery life, with the 6cell battery the 1000HA has I get anywhere from 5-7 hours of life depending on what I am doing. The ASUS has a super drive function (I think that is what it is called) and will auto adjust the CPU speed depending on what you are doing and if you are on battery or AC and will auto adjust when the battery life gets low.

The thread link I posted does not really get any comparisons of the 3 I was asking about, but there are a few members here who have different netbooks (MSI Wind and/or Acer Aspire One).

One thing about the ASUS is that you can upgrade the RAM yourself without voiding the warranty. The 160HDD the HA has comes partitioned with 2 partitions so dual booting is made very easy.

There are plenty of forums out there dedicated to the EeePC and running many different versions of Linux and even Mac OS X. eee Ubuntu and Ubuntu eee are two very popular Linux distros compiled specifically for the EeePC.

I would suggest going to a B&M store (bestbut or whatever) and looking at one in person. That is what my wife and I did before I made the purchase.

[Lurid]

Yea, thanks alot for the info. I plan on dropping by a B&M on my way home and checking them out.

Are the dual core atom's out yet?

[4-n-zics]

Originally Posted by Lurid

Yea, thanks alot for the info. I plan on dropping by a B&M on my way home and checking them out.

Are the dual core atom's out yet?

Just from a brief search, it looks like dual atoms in netbooks won't be available until summer of 09.

[Lurid]

Not worth the wait for me then, i'll just pick up a netbook or ultra portable notebook now and not worry about it. In reality nothing i'll be doing really needs a dual core.

[Witchdoctor]

Just bought this for the same use

you will not do beeter than this hurry limited supplies

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0295988

[4-n-zics]

Originally Posted by Witchdoctor

Just bought this for the same use

you will not do beeter than this hurry limited supplies

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0295988

Again, like in my thread, a 15"+ laptop is not that great for portability. I would not want to go any larger than a 13" macbook for portability because of the added weight of a larger screen/foot print.

And you will have to dish out $700+ for that laptop and wait for the two, seperate, $100 rebates.

[do0zman]

Im looking for something for my mom along the lines of what you need it for the only difference is that i will be keeping xp on it. Ive narrowed it down to these two but really confused on what i want.

EEEpc is nice, i like asus great company, added battery like is really nice but screen size (8.9") is a bit smaill plus heard that typing on them is horrible. other than that its seems like a great rig for basic use.

MSI wind seems to me to be a better deal just because of screen size. hdd is smaller and battery life is horrible compared to the EEEpc but a new 9cell battery on ebay is ~$100

So im up the air on what i think is a good deal the only reason im looking at these two is because of the price.

Link to compare at newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...152074&bop=And

[Lurid]

So i'm beginning to debate whether or not a normal laptop would be better for me. I feel as though I would get tired of the 10" screen and i'm curious how powerful the Intel Atom is.

Any reccomendations on the $700 ish range for a normal laptop? Preferably a fairly powerful CPU (C2D Pref), 2GB RAM, 120GB+ HDD, GPU doesn't matter, good construction. Obviously cheaper is better. I still would prefer to run a streamlined linux install, no gaming usage. The laptop will be used for basic office stuff, movies, music, and light image editing. I'd just like something I can dabble with as far as the image editing goes, not like professional or anything. If I get more into it I have my desktop. Any ideas?

EDIT - I configured a Dell Inspiron 1525 with a 1440 x 900 screen and 9 cell battery added on for $649. 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD. How is the T3200 CPU?

Toshiba also has a Turion X2 Satellite L30 for $649 with similar specs that looks nice.

I'm just looking for the best bang for my buck power wise within around $700.

Additional Comment:

Bit of an update, I went to Best Buy again today to look at the netbooks and found a Toshiba Satellite M305 with a C2D 2Ghz, 4GB of RAM, and 250GB HDD for $600 on sale. So I jumped on that.