[Lime]

Alright, so I'll be getting a netbook this weekend. All I know is that I want a 6-cell battery and $325 or less. Most of the netbooks appear pretty much exactly the same apart from their build quality, so I wouldn't mind sticking with ASUS or MSI, but I don't know too much about netbooks anyways.

I *want* to be able to run 720p reasonably well (I've got CoreAVC 2.0 around here, dunno if I'll be able to buy a 2GB DIMM of RAM). The main purpose of this is to have a laptop that will be able to last an overseas trip for video viewing (no outlets lol).

I've been looking at this ASUS netbook. I do need this by next Wednesday (leaving on Wednesday night) so buying one at Best Buy or Fry's is probably going to happen.

 

[Juggalo23451]

laptop sale here
http://www.tigerdirect.com/email/WEM...4-_-tigeremail

 

[GuilT1]

That Asus won't run 720p, my Aspire One 532h has the same specs and it stutters like a mother. If you want HD video playback you either need to buy a Broadcom HD Decoder or get a netbook with Nvidia Ion.

 

[Lime]

I'd assume a Broadcom HD Decoder would replace the wireless internet though, which I don't really want to happen either.

 

[GuilT1]

Unless it has an extra mini PCI-e slot, which mine does, but right now the cards are getting pricey.
Mine has the extra slot because the more expensive options have bluetooth.

 

[PowerTrip]

I went to Best Buy last week to buy one for my wife. I was looking to buy the Asus 1005PE netbook that I saw on Newegg for the long battery life and the new N450 CPU.

They had this one instead, and as far as I could tell the only difference was the color and it's missing the bluetooth capability. Hence the lower price.
I love the look and feel. It's definitely one to consider.

 

[Ceadderman]

I got my 904HD Eee PC at Newegg last June and it's very nice. It plays HD but I didn't get it for that. I got it for School.

You can get good deals on ASUS at Newegg.

They don't have my model anymore, but you can't go wrong with any of the newer models. I would stay away from the Linux models unless you have experience with that OS.

Mine had XP on it cause Vista sucks and 7 wasn't available yet.

You can get them with 7 onboard now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220675

$299.99 is a hell of a price for a 10.1 with the latest Intel Atom and Win7.

Check it.

~Ceadder

 

[Ceadderman]

Oh yeah and if you have the funds handy, spring for the upgrade in RAM.

Go with the GSkill 2Gig PC2-5300 chip. I got it for mine and it's the one with the heat spreader and 5 latency. It's a tight fit but it goes in and clears the hatch easily. If that model is anything like mine you have to make sure the chip is evenly placed in the socket and then snapped into place with even pressure on both ends of the chip.

You would notice the difference in speed if you ran the stock Gig and then upgraded to the 2 Gig chip. I know I certainly did.

I apologize for a multi post. But it was for the betterment of Netbook kind.

~Ceadder

 

[Lime]

That's a pretty nice netbook. The 2 day shipping is pretty cheap too, I'll look more into it.

I've been reading from different sources about 720p playback with the N270/N450s, and a lot of the sources conflict with one another. Sigh.

Also, I found this article about netbooks with spare PCI-e slots (for using the Broadcom decoder while retaining WiFi capability), although some of the laptops seem a tad old or out of date.

 

[N33t]

What netbook does not play 720p ??? I mean my gf's HP laptop with 1.4cel (266mhz fsb) 768mb ram & 40GB 4200 RPM plays 720p. The Acer One (first type with 4GB SSD) played 720p.. Not when multitasking though.

 

[ganastasiou]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuilT1 Unless it has an extra mini PCI-e slot, which mine does, but right now the cards are getting pricey. Mine has the extra slot because the more expensive options have bluetooth.

Did u use broadcom hd accelerator on 532h?? I have read that it has free mini pci-ex slot.

 

[GuilT1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganastasiou Did u use broadcom hd accelerator on 532h?? I have read that it has free mini pci-ex slot.

It does have an extra mini PCI-e slot, but I haven't found a Broadcom card for cheap yet, I think they are becoming extinct or something because a couple months back you could get one for about $25 shipped, now you can't find it for less than $55. The price has more than doubled here lately, I'm hoping for a resurgence with these cards to drive market prices back down.
For whatever it's worth my netbook will not smoothly play 720p period, I have tried different codecs and this Pinetrail platform is just as slow as the last generation, but with these Broadom HD Decoders you can smoothly play 1080p on your netbook, for whatever good that'll do.

 

[Ceadderman]

I didn't have problems running HD on my 904. I can watch HD uploads on Veetle so long as I have a reasonable connection via the WiFi. As a matter of fact I saw every 49ers game this season and can't remember one that wasn't broadcast in 780p, not that I paid attention to which generation HD they cast.

Like I said though so long as I had a reasonable connection I got to see games. Though a couple times I wished the connection failed.

~Ceadder

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuilT1 It does have an extra mini PCI-e slot, but I haven't found a Broadcom card for cheap yet, I think they are becoming extinct or something because a couple months back you could get one for about $25 shipped, now you can't find it for less than $55. The price has more than doubled here lately, I'm hoping for a resurgence with these cards to drive market prices back down. For whatever it's worth my netbook will not smoothly play 720p period, I have tried different codecs and this Pinetrail platform is just as slow as the last generation, but with these Broadom HD Decoders you can smoothly play 1080p on your netbook, for whatever good that'll do.

 

[bryce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lime Alright, so I'll be getting a netbook this weekend. All I know is that I want a 6-cell battery and $325 or less. Most of the netbooks appear pretty much exactly the same apart from their build quality, so I wouldn't mind sticking with ASUS or MSI, but I don't know too much about netbooks anyways. I *want* to be able to run 720p reasonably well (I've got CoreAVC 2.0 around here, dunno if I'll be able to buy a 2GB DIMM of RAM). The main purpose of this is to have a laptop that will be able to last an overseas trip for video viewing (no outlets lol). I've been looking at this ASUS netbook. I do need this by next Wednesday (leaving on Wednesday night) so buying one at Best Buy or Fry's is probably going to happen.

I just bought mine today at CompUSA. Total was $335 after tax. Gateway LT2106U Black Netbook. So far it's awesome. Typing this post at this moment on it. <3 it.