Need a light AV for netbook. How's new Avast 5?

Hello everyone.. I got a new netbook recently and I've been using it here and there. It's a great little machine. I have the Asus 1201N so it's got the ION graphics, as well as the Dual Core Atom so it's a little more powerful and runs great so far.


I know lots of people want a resource friendly Anti-virus.. But I need something light that wont take up to many resources because of the lighter and weaker processing power that ALL netbooks have. It's got 2GB of ram. and I'll be going to 4GB eventually also.

I've used NOD32 for years and recommend it for everyone. But since It's on my main rig I might upgrade for a 2 user pack and add it to my Netbook, but I wanted to see everyone's opinions on LIGHT resource friendly AV's..

I'm not a fan of AVG.. everyone uses it but I'd rather do Avast!
Has anyone tried the new AVAST 5.0 with the Yellow UI over the popular blue Free version 4.8 I know avast is great with being light on the PC. is 5 still very light?

Any other good Win 7 AV suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. Thanks!

I've ran NOD32 for about 4 years.. I love it. and renew time is in 3 weeks. Maybe I should do that, but I don't know if I need an entire Security Suite for the small netbook.. Although even the Suite NOD32 still is really resource friendly

Is there any others that are really light? I've heard good things about Norton 2010.. but I use to totally be against Norton and McAfee as they were terrible back in the day. I've used kaspersky back on Vista but it wasn't working together well and I've been back to nod32 since.

As long as It's light on resources, and a good AV of course. I'll be happy. I'm careful anyways though.

I've not tried MSE. I hear good things about it. Is it lightweight?

My opinion: Stick with NOD32. On the netbook, I wouldn't worry about the whole suite. M$ firewall will keep you covered.

Yep Avast 5 is very light weight. Using only around 4-8 MB when idle and 15-20 MB when scanning.

malexous said:

Norton 2010 and Avast! are two of the lightest. On a full scan Avast! 5 uses far less RAM than Norton (but takes much longer to complete).

When performing a full system scan Norton uses the same amount of RAM as NOD32 uses when idle.

I agree. Very accurate info.

Just my own personal opinion!! BUT
On my netbook, I don't run an antivirus, simply a sophos scanner. Your netbook already has limited resources, so I want to use those resources to benefit me the most. I have all updates installed and malicious removal tool and the scanner every week. I use simple adblock ie to get rid of advertisements and scripts that lead to virus pages. I use the windows firewall, and my router firewall configured for my computer especially, and I use tuneup utilities 2010.

I just think that if you are sensible enough and understand your risk, there is no problem with running no antivirus, especially for a netbook. I have installed mse before and it crawled. I had NIS 2010 and it was horrible. I had avast, and it was terrible......Why go through so much when the best protection, is your head? =) (I understand that my statement seems extreme and that many people are going to hate me for suggesting the absence of an antivirus. It is only a small opinion or suggestion. please don't start a super long argument. I am prepared to survive the consequences...)