Netbook for the wife

time

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You're being ridiculous. Youtube is hardly HD!

IMO, a significant drawback of getting an HP is Windows 7. That is more likely to tax the Atom + 2GB platform.

Will, a number of people have recommended an MSI Wind U100/120/123 or equivalent. I think you'll find they're cheaper than the HP. If you're really worried about HDD performance, an SSD is a better bet than a 7200rpm drive, especially for booting.
 

Stereodude

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You're being ridiculous. Youtube is hardly HD!
Uh... Youtube has both 720p and 1080p HD, as well as their more demanding HQ streams. However, if you want to have a processor on par with a 1gHz Pentium 3 feel free to keep buying Atom based systems. :lol:

For the rest of us there's the CULV based systems. :diablo:
 

sdbardwick

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(Edit time expired) The clip is not that demanding, as it generally lacks full-frame motion and camera pans, but it is very high quality -you can see individual bits of fuzz- and cute.
 

Will Rickards

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IMO, a significant drawback of getting an HP is Windows 7. That is more likely to tax the Atom + 2GB platform.

Will, a number of people have recommended an MSI Wind U100/120/123 or equivalent.

7 might be more taxing but I'm looking for 7 preinstalled.
The MSI wind only has the 10" screen. I was liking the larger and supposedly better screen on the HP. It was recommended by gizmodo or engadget.
And the nvidia ION is supposed to make it easier to run HD stuff and probably the windows 7 aero. This will be just a couch computer. Battery life and the screen are probably more important than anything else. As for the hard drive speed, that is just how that model comes configured. It doesn't matter to me and maybe eventually I'll put an SSD in there but I want one for my own computer first!
 

Will Rickards

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What do you think of the Acer AS1410? It seems to have a couple processor options.
This deal looks dead but looks like just what I was looking for. It had the core 2 solo ULV processor model SU3500. There is the one with the celeron processor, model SU2300, at frys for 350 here.
 

Stereodude

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What do you think of the Acer AS1410? It seems to have a couple processor options.
This deal looks dead but looks like just what I was looking for. It had the core 2 solo ULV processor model SU3500. There is the one with the celeron processor, model SU2300, at frys for 350 here.
I'd probably go with the dual core option at Fry's.
 

Mercutio

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Big problem with HP Netbooks: The batteries are abysmal. I'm talking 90 minutes of battery life, here, on something with an Atom CPU.
 

Chewy509

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Big problem with HP Netbooks: The batteries are abysmal. I'm talking 90 minutes of battery life, here, on something with an Atom CPU.

We've had a few HP 2140's with the bottom end 4 cell battery, and regularly get 4hrs on them in general usage, even running Win7?

Not disputing the 90min claim, especially if you're running them at 100% cpu constantly (doing RAW photo conversion and the like), but we don't see that with normal regular use?

Admittedly, we haven't seen the latest batch, but talking with our HP rep, he assures us battery time has been improved with the new models, but I suspect that's due to them having a 6 cell battery by default...
 

Fushigi

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For me I want something like the form-factor of the Sony Z series but they are rather pricey ($2500+ as I'd configure it). Too expensive and not likely to get cheap anytime soon. So I'll wait. After all, I did say 'want' and not 'need'.
 

time

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We've had a few HP 2140's with the bottom end 4 cell battery, and regularly get 4hrs on them in general usage, even running Win7?
The HP2140 uses 11V batteries, so the cells are clustered in groups of three. Your examples have either a 3-cell or 6-cell battery.

I'm inclined to call bull***t on the 4-hour estimate, unless the screen backlight was off most of the time. BTW, the Atom doesn't use a lot of power even at 100% - it's probably still less than the LCD display and backlight.
 

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HP Mini 1000, 90 minutes is what my users are telling me. I have four samples. One says 60 minutes, one says "maybe a couple hours." The screens don't seem unusually bright and the HP netbook doesn't have any distinguishing characteristics besides asstacular battery life.
 

Chewy509

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I just did a test on a HP2140 with a 3cell battery. (Sorry I thought it was a 4cell).

Win7 Enterprise, MS Forefront security. 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD.

Power mode set to max performance, with monitor set to not sleep and at max brightness.

Running Prime95 (Torture test set to blend), and running constant ping to a server (to keep the WLAN adapter working), run time was just under 2hrs.
 

time

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HP Mini 1000, 90 minutes is what my users are telling me.

Based on Chewy's test, sounds like your users have problem batteries or charging circuits. OTOH, the Acer 3-cell we have here wouldn't make it to 2 hours if I did what Chewy did. This review got 1:56 from the HP Mini 1000 running 'Battery Eater'.

I didn't think there was any significant internal difference between the consumer and business netbooks, but the wireless adapter looks like a possible culprit.

Also, I imagine the Mini 1000 only has 1GB RAM. I suppose it's vaguely possible that the disk isn't powering down?
 

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These machines have 2GB. I upgraded them myself.

Also, in what can only be a facepalm moment, the way these things came into that client's office has absolutely everything to do with the fact that HP makes them available with a pink chassis.
 

LunarMist

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These machines have 2GB. I upgraded them myself.

Also, in what can only be a facepalm moment, the way these things came into that client's office has absolutely everything to do with the fact that HP makes them available with a pink chassis.

Is it pink in the inside and on the outside? What caused that?
 

LunarMist

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Asus used to make a number of designer laptops with leather covers, etc. They were on the pricey side.
 

LunarMist

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Must have been a hell of a new years eve party ;)

There was a painting mishap around autumn, maybe October. It only seemed like forever. The skin had to regrow before the natural color was restored. :colors:
 

LunarMist

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Well, they're here and shipping from various retailers.

The Acer 1410 has been updated and is available with a dual core SU2300 (1MB L2, 1.2GHz, 800MHz FSB) now. There's also a craptacular version with a single core Celeron M Processor ULV 743 (1MB L2 cache, 1.3GHz, 800MHz FSB).

Acer 1810 Timeline link

The 1810TZ has a dual core SU4100 (2MB L2 1.3GHz, 800MHz FSB). The 1810T has a dual core SU7300 (3MB L2 1.3GHz, 800MHz FSB).

Does the 1810T still exist? I was thinking about getting one for a one-time use.
 

Stereodude

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Does the 1810T still exist? I was thinking about getting one for a one-time use.
Not entirely sure. Most of them seem to have disappeared. Frankly, if it was a one time use, I'd get the AS1410 with the SU2300. It's $200 cheaper and you're not likely to miss the extra L2 cache or the 100MHz.
 
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