netbook and who has one?

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
The desktop I used for photos and backup for the net won't power up so it's on the street. (after I stripped it to the bone of course. So I'm thinking either another dell from their auction site or maybe a netbook. One of the stores here has an acer for 200 bucks. Looks like a very stripped down little thing and small. I would really like to have a keyboard input as there is not much chance that little keyboard would work for writing.

I would also have to get a ide drive adapter to use my cd writer and hard drives from the other computers. I guess i can use them for extra storage as well. I have some programs I actually paid for I would like to keep. I just dont think I could do all the photo and writing on one of those tiny things but the size is appealing as well. Plus of course using it in ways for which it was never intended. Scanning negative ect.

So if you have one of those lil ole thingies tell me if they are any good or a waste of money.
 
I've an Asus netbook and I love it... but I gotta say that unless you really need the tiny portability you'll be happier with a base model PC as the netbooks are not really meant as a primary system. Given you already have all the peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, HDDs, etc) you can get just a tower for almost the same price with FAR more capabilities.

Still, I love my Asus and I use it all the time for word processing, browsing and music. Ofc it can take an external drive, keyboard & mouse - the only "problems" are that the OS that comes with most netbooks is stripped out, gutted & pretty much pants-on-head retarded, the RAM needs be upgraded (ofc), and you've not much in the way of a processor... the first two can be dealt with easily - the last may be an issue with photography. There's also the issue of battery life, while the Asus offers a selection of extended use batteries - I don't think the Acer does (could be wrong) and despite claims to the contrary you'll be lucky to get 20min out of a charge with the "stock" battery if yer actually using the thing... and upgrading that isn't cheap.

I'd suggest going to Best Buy and checkin' them out, but I gotta say whatever ya do - do not get an Acer - they're pathetic clones of the Asus with no driver support or customer service and a looooong history of failures (particularly Walmart Acer). Worse yet, they're not really any cheaper than the Asus. After working with both the Asus and the Acer clone - I'd not even give the Acer to a child to play with.

While I suspect you may be better off gettin' a base model PC if it's going to be your only 'puter - I really do dig my lil Asus, I've gotten so addicted to having such a lil bullet-proof system (flash HDD = no moving parts)... I'm not sure what I'd do w/o it lol

 
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The first gen Acer netbooks were somewhat hit and miss but in my experience they've got that straightened out.

I'm running an Acer One, Windows 7, a gig of RAM, Intel chipset, 160GB hard drive, 10 in. screen, 3 USB ports, 8 hour battery for $250 and never looking back. Using it right now.

Haven't owned a desktop in years and have a powerful Sony laptop for main home use but I gotta say at 2 lbs. the netbook gets used the most.
 
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Thanks guys I have about decided to buy another desktop only because I have three gigs of memory sitting on a desk now from the old desktop. All I really need is a dell stripped down unit for a hundred and a half refurb to get back to going again. I love the concept of the netbook though. I do lust for one to play with.

I wrote a novel ten years ago set in the future where everyone used only a device like the netbook with one big butt computer setup on the net called hellfire. You just tapped into it and used the hellfire programs and storage. that might eventually be the future of the net. Anyway I'm not ready just yet to do that.

I did buy one of those adapter setups for hard drives ect. I have some things I want to get off the old one. I expect I will just switch out the hard drives when the computer arrives. I still want a netbook but would most likely run it off the battery charger thingie since I don't travel.
 
I ended up buying a school computer removed for an upgrade. I got it from a dealer on ebay. I am pretty sure all my parts will work in this one. I will need to download new drivers for the chip set i'm sure. Otherwise it should be good to go. I still like the idea of the netbook though.
 
I like the net books, spec wise they blow my 4 year old laptop out of the water, I do freelance support stuff and had to work on a few of the netbooks and over all a nice system. It could easily replace a desktop with an external monitor and a few extra usb goodies, but if you are a gamer and want to do more than surf the web and word processing I would go with a desktop, but the average user would be fine with a net book.
 
I just got an aspire one 532H for my birthday in June and I love the thing. I have an acer aspire 8930G (18.5" screen dual 500gb HD, 4GB DDR3, 1GB 9600GT-M video, 5.1 speaker surround sound) it is huge it weights 11 lbs and gets maybe 3 hours battery life (on power saver mode) on a good day. My new netbook looks exactly like the large acer but it gets 11 hours battery life @ 2.5lbs (10.1" screen, single 250GB HD, 2GB DDR2, 64MB Intel GMA 3150) I love my netbook just for browsing, the keyboard is 90% full size meaning its nearly a full sized keyboard, my large acer has a full keyboard with a number pad and all.

If you are looking for a cheap desktop deacon Geeks.com - Computer parts, Laptop computers, Desktop computers, Computer hardware sells refurb laptops, netbooks, and desktops. They sell a Samba PC its barebones pretty much no Hard drive, CD ROM, or OS.... they are 41.99 (pretty cheap) I built one up for my wifes cousin it worked out great, had to add an additional 256MB RAM on top of the existing 256 but it runs a CNC mill and lazycam for cutting parts on said mill. I've had my netbook for a bit under a month and I'd recommend one to anyone needing portability or a side kick to a desktop replacement laptop like my hulking beast lol. I cant even find a case that fits the large one, sad but I love it.
 
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My ram is old and I have two megs of it so I want to use it. So I just found a computer like mine that Works lol. At least I hope so. I think I will get a net book just to bang around the net one day. I don't really go anywhere so I don't need it to travel. I just think they are cute. I could use the standard battery pack no problem.

I think I need the desk top because I have three negative scanners I use. Along with the other junk that everyone has. So with a little luck this will work a while until the next generation of something cool comes along.
 
If you need any help getting your desktop up and running give me a holler, I have built/repaired/configured PC's and networks for 12+ years and would be happy to help you.
 
Thanks I have been building and repairing desktops a while, but I always have questions. Right now I am on a hp pavilion which I was gifted. I had it working great a while back but it has become a piece of working junk but It works enough to get me to the net and to keep my blogs up. I am just afraid to try to fix it any more until the dell arrives. Once I get the dell working I might finally junk this one out.

The most aggravating thing is that the cd drive stopped working. It has power and the system recognizes it. The darn thing is in the hardware list in the systems section of the control panel but it says not working. It is not in the my computer list of drives. I am limping along for now, but it's a pain I have drivers I would like to load since my dell is shot. It is only going to be a few more days then I will just reinstall my memory and harddrive to the one on the way. Then I will probably get to hunt down drivers on the net to make it work. Dell usually had a good download section on its website.
 
It sounds like it could be a jumper issue on the CD drive. I would set the jumper on the drive to cable select if it is on master/slave. I once had a dell Optiplex Pentium 3 tower that would not recognize any CD Drive, I removed the jumpers on both CD drives in the tower and it worked perfectly... strange but it worked lol. Also the rubber belt to open/close the drive sometimes wears out and causes problems if the drive is older. I have a 52X lite-on CD burner I bought at least 10 years ago, its outlived 3 lite-on DVD burners and a pioneer DVD burner... in fact this very moment its chugging away in my wifes PC because her DVD burner stopped working, back to the 10 year old lite-on to make the new ones look bad haha.
 
everything I own is older but no it isnt the jumper or the belt the door is the only that does seem to work. I moved the jumper several times from cable to slave and back to cs. I have read that it is a software problem somehow that causes those things. There is a set of instructions about changing the register but I don't want to bother with that until I have another working computer. If I do then I might just junk this out. I have zero dollars in it so no loss at all. Just have to salvage all the parts that I can use. Memory drives ect. usually cables and ribbons but I just cleaned out my surplus last year not sure what I will do with this one.
 
What I thought I was buying was the same computer I had... What I got was supposed to be a small form factor computer but this thang aint small at all. Just smaller than the last one I had.
 
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