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Computer help - which notebook to buy?


Earache
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I'd like to buy a notebook PC similar to: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-10?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&ST=dell%20mini%2010&dgc=ST&cid=39987&lid=1042975

Just something that packs small to access email while on bike trips, download digital pics and do light work while on the road on a bike. Want spend in the $300 - $450 range.

I hate lugging my heavy and huge laptop with me on bike trips!

What are your suggestions?

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There's only a couple of people making mini's right now and they are really lacking. It might work for the stuff you describe depending on what you mean by "light work".

Just need to open excel spreadsheets and email attachments for work. Need to be able to work on the spreadsheets and then email them back to people. Also open and modify Word documents, etc.

Think the notebooks would be decent for that? Realizing that typing on the small keyboards will be a pain, but I won't be doing much of that really.

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I'm looking at them also. The DELL you're looking at has a regular laptop hard drive. It may or may not like riding on a motorcycle. A solid state hard drive (SSD) would probably like the road better. 399 is high, the Acer is selling for 300? Bunch of people getting the Acer. Asus and Lenovo(IBM) are also good name brands for notebooks. I know nothing about the DELL yet, it's too new. The Lenovo is a bit more (400-450), but rugged. Nobody I know has bought a Lenovo notebook yet.

These notebooks can be noisy. The fan runs loud in them. No floppy, no CD/DVD.

edit: Check with Casper, some of his co-workers have recently bought these notebooks.

Edited by ReconRat
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If you go looking on line, it appears they have another name: netbook. The smallest Acer is selling for 239 on line. Whole bunch for around 300. Here's 46 of the most popular:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2034940772&bop=And&Order=REVIEWS

Sort by number of reviews, and see that everyone is buying this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220441

Newegg don't sell junk. And they have a real tight warranty and exchange program. Always search amazon.com for cheaper or free shipping before you buy. And check WalMart and local sales, you never know.

The 10 inch Acer with 160gb hd was 300 bucks somewhere locally, down from 350.

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The Atom processor that those netbooks are using doesn't multi-task at all. They're great for working on web based aps, like email and web surfing, but are extremely slow at anything else. The net books have the highest customer return rate of any electronics on the market right now.

If you still want to go that route, go w/ACER. You get more bang for your buck.. More RAM and larger hard drive. In regards to the hard drives not being rugged enough, I log nearly a million miles per year via plane, drive over 60k, and have yet to have an issue w/my laptop hard drive.

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The Atom processor that those netbooks are using doesn't multi-task at all. They're great for working on web based aps, like email and web surfing, but are extremely slow at anything else. The net books have the highest customer return rate of any electronics on the market right now.

If you still want to go that route, go w/ACER. You get more bang for your buck.. More RAM and larger hard drive. In regards to the hard drives not being rugged enough, I log nearly a million miles per year via plane, drive over 60k, and have yet to have an issue w/my laptop hard drive.

ive never heard of this huge return rate, but i dont really care enough to go look.

these are netbooks, not laptops. they are made for one purpose: to use simple apps and be extremely portable. to complain about the fact that it doesnt multi task well is a moot point, as any of the manufacturers would tell you that themselves. as far as acer having better stats...there are basically two levels of processors out right now, and the motherboards they make for them only come with 512 or 1gb of ram. the graphics are also all the same. the only real difference between some of them is screen size and hard drive. ive been researching these lately as well cause i want to bring one with me to iraq. theres going to be a major upgrade sometime later this year with reported 720p video playback so you might think about waiting a few months until nvidia and intel come out with their new chipsets.

my cousins have one of the asus 8.9" things and the size of these are just unbelievable. the fact that it is a slow computer is just eclipsed by how portable it is imo.

a note about the dell 10, it was supposed to be like the next big thing in netbooks, but then they toned it down and released it with specs that are just plain average. it has an hdmi slot, but who knows how well it can handle being hooked up to a large resolution screen.

hope this helps a bit. seems like you havent looked into it all that much. also, i would take a look at the hp mini. its run of the mill netbook like everything else, but something else to look at.

hp mini

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Bang for your buck is going to be the Acer Aspire. They run about $298, and are "about" the smallest you can get at 8.9". They come standard with the Intel Atom processor. It's not a killer, but for what you need should do the job. I'm pretty sure they come with windows XP on them too, being as the atom has a hard time processing the info with vista. Even though the atom can hyper thread. So it can multi task, but it's not going to blaze the trails.

Battery life seems to work well also, the processor doesn't draw to much power, so its good for mobile use. However it does come with a Crystal Brite screen. So that could eat some battery. Only a 3 cell so it's not gonna last too long running at full capacity.

120BG SATA drive. Should hold all of your pics and then some.

1 GB DDR RAM, good for XP, would need a little more for vista (stupid vista:slap:)

They say they are compatible for wireless b, and g.

They don't have expansion slots, so you can't run a wi-fi card.

I say as long as you don't drop it off the back of your bike it should be ok.

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I'm just joshin ya.

I know i get alot of shit. but its been 2 years and not so much as a hiccup. never had a PC go 6 months w/o failing in someway.

Im sure PCs have improved alot in recent years. but im happy with mac. i also have all the MS office stuff on it too. so im not missing anythiing.

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