Windows 7: Netbook question

I'm treating myself to a birthday present today. (Yay for me)

Anyway, this model has an Atom N450, 160 GB HDD, and 1 GB DDR2-667 RAM. I would like this thing to be as fast as it can be so I'm prepared to also purchase upgrades at the same time. I got to thinking: RAM is kinda obvious and an SSD would definitely improve things, but as far as an SSD is concerned, would it even be worth it to get one for a netbook? Wouldn't the processor be the weak link in the chain? Would it be better to just max out the ram (2 GB)?

Any thoughts?

an ssd will certainly help your os and apps to load faster - but is it cost effective and how much data/software are you wanting to store on your netbook?

some netbooks will accept 3 gigs of ram - that will help too.

some netbooks can also be overclocked if you're feeling brave - i've had mine running at 2.1 GHz, but i don't do it all the time...

Thanks for your reply.

I know about the advantages of SSD as I run them on my desktop systems. My main concern with an SSD in a netbook is will the speed advantage of an SSD make up for the lack of "oomph" with the Atom processor.

I've already researched the RAM and SSD prices, so it's just a matter of figuring out if I'm going to go with the RAM or the SSD or both.

Having no experience with any netbooks, nor with the Atom processor, in my opinion, it would make more sense to upgrade the RAM and forego an SSD upgrade. That's just my opinion.

Anyone with a netbook add an SSD to theirs? How's everything?

Talk to me...

Atom N450 is a pretty decent processor for a netbook, with support for hyperthreading. An SSD should give you better read/write speeds, faster boots and also more durability. But you need to see how that weighs against a large capacity 7200 rpm or even 10000 rpm hdd.

SSDs help batteries discharge slower than mechanical ones, right?

I added a SSD to a slow, older laptop and found it to improve performance significantly. I guess it depends on the applications. For traditional stuff like office, browsing the web and frequent acces to files, it will definitely help. The said laptop is being used by my wife and she does not do any CPU intensive applications.
But with that being said, if you run Windows7 on the netbook, 2GBs of RAM will definitely help too. Although with the page file on the SSD, you will already get a nice boost since the access time is about 150 times faster than on a HDD (0.1ms versus 15ms).

Thanks to all who gave some input.

A 6 cell battery would be on my wish list if didn't already have one. I'm thinking an SSD would also be good for battery life even if it doesn't speed things up much. I would think it would run cooler than a mechanical drive too. It would be nice if the cost would go down some though.

I replaced the 5400rpm, 160G drive that came in my Acer Aspire One netbook with a 64G SSD. I also maxed out the RAM at 1.5G, then installed Win 7 Pro in lieu of XP Home. I'm happy with the results. Mine has the earlier N270 Atom processor which is slower and less efficient than the N450. I don't carry a lot of data so 64G is more than adequate. It seems to boot quicker and apps load quicker as well. If you used the netbook awhile and then moved to the ssd you would definitely notice a performance boost.

If you want a fast netbook, max the RAM, add a SSD with size as per your usage/budget will permit.
As Bill2 said the processor will be fine unless you want to max games out or run graphics programs while your on the road.

Put the 160GB HDD in a small external case and use it for data or backups, it won't be too big or much of a nuisance to carry with you.