Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Computer Usage and Setup Help => Topic started by: Snake X on September 18, 2010, 03:52:15 pm
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Alright, im looking into getting a netbook for christmas, and I need some advice. Ive done some looking around online, but they all seem the same or close to it. So, I need help looking at the one that would be best for my purpose.
Price: $300
Usage: online surfing, ircing, email, and every day activities
brand: none in particular
operating system: anything but windows xp/vista and linux/ubuntu
color: just dont suggest anything pink/purple ;)
Cpu: preferably something good (preferably 1 GHz+)
Webcam: yes
disk space: 100+ GB if possible
anything other than that im fine with. Also, I dont want to look at netbooks with really bad brands (hp is ok, just none of the small brands that noone has herd about)
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I asked a similar question on cemetech, and got these results/responses. The only difference is that you want a webcam. Good luck ^^
http://cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4927
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So what OS do you have in mind? Excluding linux distros and windows xp/vista leaves very little left.
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eee pc, i believe that it costed 330 at release so maybe it's cheaper now. It has a webcam and is ideal for the given requirements + the battery lasts for a very long time. To sqeeuze performance install something else then windows xp though, maybe a linux distro like coolsnake suggested?
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I was actually wondering what OS he would use if he didn't want to use linux distros or a windows OS.
But yeah I would recommend a linux distro for a netbook :P
Puppy linux comes to mind for a good allround yet easy to install OS. I'm pretty sure there are variants specifically made for netbooks.
Xpud also comes to mind but it might be a bit too barebones for what you want. On the other hand it is very fast and very easy to install with extremely low boottimes.
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He said not XP/Vista. That doesn't include 7, so...
Windows 7
Mac OS
FreeBSD (but probably not) :P
are the only options I see, OS wise. Rather limiting.
And I was going to suggest the Pandora (www.openpandora.org)! JK, it would suit your needs well IMO, but there's a long waiting list to get one. $350 + shipping isn't so far off from the price though.
Oh, and Ubuntu=Linux. i don't like it when people refer to them separately. It's not the best linux distro out there, either.
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Eee PC
http://usa.asus.com/ProductGroup1.aspx?PG_ID=7dDelmkESu9DXgVB
Pretty much meets those specs. Its comes with win7 but its great for linux as well.
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ok, what I ment is most netbooks i saw come preinstalled with either
A. Windows 7 starter
B. Linux
C. XP
preferred windows 7 starter. Also, I want to do some flexible multimedia processing in mind with this as I have a snes, and an easycap dc60++, and some other things.
edit: also, the thing with the eee pc from asus is that there are soo many models i wouldnt know what to pick from. That's why i came here to narrow down some choices
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ok, what I ment is most netbooks i saw come preinstalled with either
A. Windows 7 starter
B. Linux
C. XP
preferred windows 7 starter. Also, I want to do some flexible multimedia processing in mind with this as I have a snes, and an easycap dc60++, and some other things.
edit: also, the thing with the eee pc from asus is that there are soo many models i wouldnt know what to pick from. That's why i came here to narrow down some choices
hey! i am thinking of installing windows 7 starter on my old centrino that is currently running windows xp home...
think it is a good idea? :?
since it is a bit old... and i like the windows 7 features...
it has 512 mb of ram only and no graphics card
does windows 7 starter have windows snap and super bar?
how does it compare with xp?
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I have an MSI Wind U135 that I bought for $200. It works great, and is fully compatible with Linux.
@whitevalkery: Windows XP is perfectly fine. 7 is *not* going to like 512 MB of RAM.
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I have an MSI Wind U135 that I bought for $200. It works great, and is fully compatible with Linux.
@whitevalkery: Windows XP is perfectly fine. 7 is *not* going to like 512 MB of RAM.
i was talking about windows 7 starter though
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I'm not so sure on Windows 7 starter...
Windows 7 Starter is the edition of Windows 7 that contains the fewest features. The Windows Aero theme is not included in this version. Windows 7 Starter is only available in a 32-bit version. The desktop wallpaper, and Visual Style (Windows 7 Basic) is also not user-changeable. It also doesn't support .NET Framework.[10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions)
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He's actually referring to Windows 7 Basic. Starter is kind of like Ubuntu: Netbook edition. just a menu, basically, as your desktop.
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He's actually referring to Windows 7 Basic. Starter is kind of like Ubuntu: Netbook edition. just a menu, basically, as your desktop.
yeah... i am not too sure myself... so will basic be able to run on something this old?
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http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=17&sel=Detail;98_266_10586_9982
Sort on price... low to high. You will see some incredible deals on some great netbooks. ;)
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I have an MSI Wind U135 that I bought for $200. It works great, and is fully compatible with Linux.
@whitevalkery: Windows XP is perfectly fine. 7 is *not* going to like 512 MB of RAM.
i was talking about windows 7 starter though
7 starter/basic (as found on most netbooks) still uses ~400 MB of RAM on an empty desktop.
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If you want to be able to game on it too, I would suggest the Asus 1201nl, which has the Nvidia Ion graphics card.
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hmm.. what brand of netbooks should I trust? I know there is no netbook specific brand, but the brands that have the higher quality netbooks
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hmm.. what brand of netbooks should I trust? I know there is no netbook specific brand, but the brands that have the higher quality netbooks
From what I've heard... Acer Netbooks have the best keyboard. I have tried many netbook keyboards out at the stores and I must agree.
I ended up purchasing an Acer netbook because I found it at TigerDirect for $200 (no tax and no shipping charges). Then I upgraded the RAM, bought a 9 cell 11 hour battery (for $50 on Amazon), then purchased a touchscreen kit for it on eBay ($70), finally I installed an internal Bluetooth device ($15).
I love my netbook... It plays DirectX 7 games very nicely such as Delta Force 1 & 2. I haven't tried any DirectX 8 games on it though.
If you have any Acer specific questions... I could give you my opinion them.
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One thing I like about Acer stuff is that it tends to be much cheaper than the average computer. The only bad experience I had was a CRT monitor only lasting about 3-4 years and my computer fan going a bit loose at one point, but otherwise I was pretty fine with my old computer purchase back then.
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146766&cm_re=Ideapad_s10-_-34-146-766-_-Product
I've got an older version of this netbook here, I used it all the time until I got a better laptop. The only issue I had was the trackpad going out due to water damage, but they fixed it free of charge(was under warranty).
I've pulled off Team Fortress 2 on it, although I had a low-quality model pack on, and I had to use some questionable methods to disable particles(They caused crashes, and I basically had to write hacks for the game to disable them.)
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Interesting, although the RAM seems a bit low for Windows 7 it seems. When running games I assume this must take a friggin long while to load and possibly crash, right?
I wonder how much RAM each OS take on a fresh Windows install?