What Netbook should I Buy...

[XGUNTHERC]

So, Short version. I recently got a Netbook for FREE from someone at work that thought his was small, slow, and pointless. The HP Mini 110. (Decent little rig) I mentioned a little bit about it here.
He's being an Indian Giver and 2 weeks later yesterday made me return it. (After I bought a mouse, a case, and almost ram)

So, Now I want a netbook. and I want a good one. I have a beastly Rig for my main PC so I don't need anything extreme. but I want to do Youtube in HD, and have decent performance.

I've decided one of the best small form factor netbooks around is the
ASUS 1201N.. it sounds the best. That or the HP Mini 311

Thoughts, input, or suggestions?

 

[Frostmourne]

Netbooks are useless. I saw one with 7 Starter, pressed Win+E - 2 or 3 seconds later Explorer loaded. My suggestion would be to build a cheap 14" laptop with an AMD chipset and either the new onboard DirectX11 graphics or an older chip that supports DirectX 10.

Again, netbooks are utterly useless - a smartphone might even be better, depending on the model.

 

[XGUNTHERC]

Well I have a wicked smartphone.. the Nexus One. 1Ghz CPU 512MB ram.. it's pretty powerful as it is.

I plan to start school again here soon in the next few months, and the fact that I had a netbook and liked it, and had to return it.. Now I want one.

The ASUS 1201N Is about as good as they come from what I see, I don't want a large 16' Laptop, as I have my large PC.. and 10' netbooks are tiny. the ASUS 1201 has a 12" screen, Dual Core CPU, 2GB ram, 250GB HD.. and ION is basically a Nvidia 9400M.. so it can handle things like HL:2, Portal, Starcraft and SC2 possibly.. does great with HD video, and has HDMI out.

what makes that pointless. I see your point though. a 14" would be ok also I guess.

and what do you mean "build a cheap 14" with DX11" like build my own laptop. or what? can you explain more. I want a laptop that's small, can run win 7 home or ult. have at least 2GB of ram (I can add more later) and not that I need it to game, but have the option for the occasional flash game, or bejeweld, or something of that sort. and a lot of these dell, and HP 15" ones for $599-$699 have similar specs to the 1201N but have 4GB of ram instead, and the crappy intel integrated graphics, or AMD 4500. and neither of those can really do anything other than a youtube movie and facebook.. lol right?

how's your 13' notebook workin for ya. that 9300M is equal to the ION I want in that netbook

 

[Frostmourne]

I have a 2.8GHz CPU and 6GB of DDR3 RAM, the GPU for me is irrelevant in this ultraportable, and its useless for games at my native resolution. Netbooks will not play any games, the CPU is a massive bottleneck with virtually no cache (less than 1MB), no matter the RAM amount. The HDD is also a slow 4200RPM or 5400RPM model.

You can build a laptop without the crapware with the specs you want at a good price.

 

[XGUNTHERC]

like buy the parts and build the laptop myself?? I've not seen alot on that, but I could do it pretty easily I'm sure. I build all my own PC's.

can you link me to some things like building my own? or do you mean piece up what I want at HP or Dell customizations?

and the m11x can game. and the ASUS 1201N with ION actually can play games like Portal, TF2, WOW, and a few others with ease from what I've read. stays around 20-35 fps.. and many people have easily increased the CPU to 1.85 or even 2.0 Ghz and that severely helps the GPU run better.

I'm not going to be like GAMING on it, but it's nice to have that option in the netbook. as well as HD video output and encoding n such. Ion also helps with converting things like music in itunes to proper format and stuff like that.

Where can I build a laptop?

 

[Zepher]

Netbooks are useless. I saw one with 7 Starter, pressed Win+E - 2 or 3 seconds later Explorer loaded. My suggestion would be to build a cheap 14" laptop with an AMD chipset and either the new onboard DirectX11 graphics or an older chip that supports DirectX 10.

Again, netbooks are utterly useless - a smartphone might even be better, depending on the model.

I enjoy using my Dell Mini 9. It does what I need it to do, runs Windows 7 Ultimate just fine.

YouTube - Dell Mini 9 Multitasking test

 

[Frostmourne]

like buy the parts and build the laptop myself?? I've not seen alot on that, but I could do it pretty easily I'm sure. I build all my own PC's.

can you link me to some things like building my own? or do you mean piece up what I want at HP or Dell customizations?

and the m11x can game. and the ASUS 1201N with ION actually can play games like Portal, TF2, WOW, and a few others with ease from what I've read. stays around 20-35 fps.. and many people have easily increased the CPU to 1.85 or even 2.0 Ghz and that severely helps the GPU run better.

I'm not going to be like GAMING on it, but it's nice to have that option in the netbook. as well as HD video output and encoding n such. Ion also helps with converting things like music in itunes to proper format and stuff like that.

Where can I build a laptop?

You start with a chassis, then add the parts. Personally, I wouldn't go for a netbook.

 

[zezasu]

Even though people are telling you to shy away from the net book and keep saying the asus, it seems you really want one.

I would like to say the HPMini 311 series since my friend loves it a lot

This is her specs.
W7 Home Premiums 32-bit
Intel Atom 1.60 GHz with Nvidia Ion
3GB DDR3 1 Dimm
160GB 7200 RPM SATA
Comes with web cam and wireless g card
I looked it up and came in at $519 but she got it for 400$ at the store.

It looks fairly nice and didn't show to many finger prints.
You could easily buy a 15 inch with better specifications if you needed but it seems you want a net book. for 100$ cheaper off newegg you could get a more powerful laptop to do that, but those might come with a 5400 RPM drive most of the time.

Personally I wouldn't do it, Id go with what i did. I bought a Mac book pro and just use W7, is lightweight 15 but there is 13 inch if pricing wasn't a limiting factor to you.

 

[XGUNTHERC]

Well, I had someone suggest get a used Macbook air on ebay for around $700ish give or take, and put 7 on it. lol. get the CPU of a good laptop, and the small 13.3" size and weight of a netbook.

And zezasu, did you look up the specs of the HP Mini 311. I was trying to decide between that, and the ASUS EeePC 1201N and I think the ASUS is a better netbook than the mini 311

You listed the specs, it's a single core Atom 1.6 Ghz N270, the asus 1201N has the dual core N330 Atom. (not a lot better, but better and every bit counts with netbook's and small form) and the N270/N280 is the bottleneck of ION at the moment so the dual core N330 helps that, and I've actually read lots of people slightly uping them to 1.85 Ghz with no heat or voltage increase really helps the graphics shine even better, but I doubt thats needed. But check my sig rig. I do Love to overclock.. lol. (I don't wanna discuss pro's and cons of that in this thread, I like to push) lol

311 has a 1GB or 2GB offering, she had to upgrade it or order right from HP and add the third.. The 311 only can support 3GB MAX. There's 1GB soldered to the Mobo, and then another stick making 2GB, and you can change that out for a 2GB making 3 Max cuz it's DDR3

but then, the 311 does have DDR3 and the ASUS 1201N has DDR2 but can support 4GB and has 2 actual slots.. Next both the models I'm looking at are $489-$499 and they both have 250GB 5400rpm HD's.. not 160gb anymore, but larger size is slower spinning. but thats ok.

Then the 1201N has Wifi b/g & N but the Mini 311 only has b/g

they are both basically the best in class netbooks though. Each have there benefits. and yea a better cpu and 15" would be nice, but the cost goes way up before you get good graphics likw ION, all those others have integrated sadly.

 

[zezasu]

True, and yes I did look up the specs. I did not see the Asus or bothered to look. The 400$ I said was from my friend, and she got it at the store for sale just awhile ago, from fry s electronics and those were the specs on it.
I don't or haven't used the Asus so I thought the Hp would nice despite the crap they pull.

Looking at the Asus looks good and you seem pretty set on it and just need someone to tell you to get the thing. Haha but anyways the 5400rpm drive also slows you down . If the Asus can be customized get the smallest drive and if possible put a 7200rpm drive in it later if the budget requires. I have used a handful of laptops with 5400 rpms and leaves me hanging like no other tomorrow at least for me.

and lastly I bought some sub 450$ laptops with the Radeon 4200 on board for my sisters (2x times) and I thought they were pretty cool and wanted to keep one but oh-well. Sometimes regular stores have sales that are cheaper and come better equipped, but since they don't sell good they lower the price. Just gotta know when to look.

 

[XGUNTHERC]

yea... lol

Even the Radeon 4200 is only comparable with Nvidia's 9300M chip. and the 9400M is ION. so they are the same.. but then those you're talking about at the end of your post would probably have a better cpu. I just don't want the larger 15" size.. I like the 12" it's not to large, or to small like the 10

Thanks for the input everyone.