Thinking about a Netbook.

I know some of you have netbooks here, and I was just wondering what you think of them as compared to a laptop.

In addition, I have some simple questions to ask.

- What kinds of ports are featured on many netbooks?
- How many of them are USB?
- Should I be looking at a windows 7 netbook or the Xp versions?
- Are netbooks open ended?
- If not, how long can I expect them to last?
- What are some of the things a notebook can do over a netbook?
- Is it in your opinion, worth it?

If anyone could help me with some of these questions, I thank you.

I'll be doing further research as well

Not sure what a notebook is, I'm assuming just a normal laptop? If so, then they can play games, most netbooks can't. netbooks are mainly just for interwebs. And that's all I know

this is going off of my acer aspire one d250 which is next to me

- What kinds of ports are featured on many netbooks?
usually USB, ethernet, an SD slot, a headphone jack and VGA on the outside. Internally there are usually sata ports for a harddrive on newer ones, and in some cases some other port, likely USB for webcamera and microphone(you likely will NOT want to be touching these LOTS of work)
- How many of them are USB?
3 external USB ports
- Should I be looking at a windows 7 netbook or the Xp versions?
windows 7 is nice, if it doesn't cost any extra go for it
- Are netbooks open ended?
what would define open ended? as in able to use other hardware? yep. I'll likely be swapping out the single 1GB memory stick for a 2GB memory stick
- If not, how long can I expect them to last?
no clue, they seem like they'd last LONGER than a similarly priced laptop though because they require less power and accordingly can suffice longer on the cheaper voltage regulation circuits used in low dollar machines, physically, as long as you're not abusing it too much you should be OK
- What are some of the things a notebook can do over a netbook?
basically higher end gaming, more demanding audio and video work. Otherwise their capabilities are about identical the netbook is just aimed more at simplistic tasks
- Is it in your opinion, worth it?
depends on the person. My netbook runs MS office, other apps necessary for school, and Super Nintendo games remarkably well, it's a decent fit for me.

IF you have a desktop or something and need something portable I say yes.

Look here to see if you want these best ones

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-netbook...eftContainer.0

The better ones will have 2 gb of ram, and you will want an hdmi port. I have a Acer AOA 150 which is a 9inch screen. works good with ubuntu

Netbooks seem pretty cool.
My biggest gripe with my notebook is that it's a frigging beast-- it's huge and heavy, has a big-ass battery sticking out of the back, uses a lot of power, and gets hot. Not exactly ideal to carry around. (I do however need it to run things like Adobe CS(x), FL Studio, and such.)

It would be monumentally cool to have a netbook, though, for easy and quick word-processing, Internet, and other simple tasks. I love how tiny those are, they're perfect for carting around with you.

But if I were to personally get another computer, it'd probably be a desktop, since my other desktop is an extremely old Compaq with a 32GB hard drive and probably half a gig of RAM. A desktop would better handle the heavy-duty Adobe stuff without getting so hot (my laptop's adequate, but sometimes I'm a little wary that it can't hold up as well as I'd like it to).

I'm sorry, I'm kind of rambling about nothing, but netbooks seem interesting to me, so it's definitely something to think about.

Originally Posted by nighthawkx

this is going off of my acer aspire one d250 which is next to me

- What kinds of ports are featured on many netbooks?
usually USB, ethernet, an SD slot, a headphone jack and VGA on the outside. Internally there are usually sata ports for a harddrive on newer ones, and in some cases some other port, likely USB for webcamera and microphone(you likely will NOT want to be touching these LOTS of work)
- How many of them are USB?
3 external USB ports
- Should I be looking at a windows 7 netbook or the Xp versions?
windows 7 is nice, if it doesn't cost any extra go for it
- Are netbooks open ended?
what would define open ended? as in able to use other hardware? yep. I'll likely be swapping out the single 1GB memory stick for a 2GB memory stick
- If not, how long can I expect them to last?
no clue, they seem like they'd last LONGER than a similarly priced laptop though because they require less power and accordingly can suffice longer on the cheaper voltage regulation circuits used in low dollar machines, physically, as long as you're not abusing it too much you should be OK
- What are some of the things a notebook can do over a netbook?
basically higher end gaming, more demanding audio and video work. Otherwise their capabilities are about identical the netbook is just aimed more at simplistic tasks
- Is it in your opinion, worth it?
depends on the person. My netbook runs MS office, other apps necessary for school, and Super Nintendo games remarkably well, it's a decent fit for me.

By open ended I meant how well do you think it would survive with advancing technology? I mean, compatibility-wise.

Thanks also.

I would wait a bit. Most Netbooks use Intel's atom processor, and i think that Intel is launching their dual-core atom chip soon.

Originally Posted by Dark Wyrm

I would wait a bit. Most Netbooks use Intel's atom processor, and i think that Intel is launching their dual-core atom chip soon.

their dual core chip's been out for a while now.

Originally Posted by Flames of Valor

By open ended I meant how well do you think it would survive with advancing technology? I mean, compatibility-wise.

Thanks also.

it'll run basic office productivity apps fairly well
if you add in a 2GB RAM stick(DDR2 so-DIMM almost any will work) it'll probably last a few years, the only real limiter will be video performance. Don't plan on much more than 2d gaming(some older 3d games work well) and outside of that pretty much anything will run. Speed might not be INCREDIBLE, but it'll run.

FYI think of net books as auxiliary systems with an emphasis on portability. They should not be considered a primary system.

Originally Posted by nighthawkx

their dual core chip's been out for a while now.

But only for nettop computers, not on netbooks. They are apparently (I can't seem to find anything definitive) going to put out a netbook version (or start allowing it to be used in netbooks) some time, but I don't know when.



I bought a netbook for one of the ladies in the office. She wanted something small and light to take notes with in meetings. So far it has worked very well for this task.

I'd consider waiting a bit longer for dual core Atom processors to become the standard, and possibly to see what Chrome OS has to offer.

you already have a chip with hyper threading though, the benefits of additional cores diminishes because of that. Meanwhile power output doesn't change...

remember, in the tech industry there's always a NEXT BIG THING... netbooks aren't primary systems and aren't meant to be. They're almost like toys... In theory your processing power will double, but this will only matter for media encoding and in all likelihood a dual core chip would either raise the price of the system a bit, or you'd get a lower clocked chip(1.3Ghz dual core vs. 1.6 Ghz single core) and there'd be a 20% clock deficit to make up, so single threaded apps would suffer.

that said I run my CPU at half speed for energy conservation purposes when I'm not running a game, so ehh...

Originally Posted by nighthawkx

you already have a chip with hyper threading though, the benefits of additional cores diminishes because of that. Meanwhile power output doesn't change...

remember, in the tech industry there's always a NEXT BIG THING... netbooks aren't primary systems and aren't meant to be. They're almost like toys... In theory your processing power will double, but this will only matter for media encoding and in all likelihood a dual core chip would either raise the price of the system a bit, or you'd get a lower clocked chip(1.3Ghz dual core vs. 1.6 Ghz single core) and there'd be a 20% clock deficit to make up, so single threaded apps would suffer.

that said I run my CPU at half speed for energy conservation purposes when I'm not running a game, so ehh...

Hyper threading is a joke bud.

depends on what you're doing. For consumers, hyperthreading is of benefit when dealing with single core processors, with dual core processors, or quads I'd disable it.