Netbook Opinion(s) needed

polkatese

For Christmas, I am thinking of getting my daughter a Netbook. She is mainly using it to play online game such as:

http://www.buildabear.com/play/play.aspx?id=1 and http://www.clubpenguin.com

Which Netbook brand would you suggest? Maximum RAM to 4GB needed? Is it fast enough?

If anyone has one (Netbook), could you try out the links above and see if speed and response time are acceptable?

TIA

ESavinon

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220556&cm_re=asus_eee_pc_1005ha-_-34-220-556-_-Product

with 2 gig of memory.

polkatese

Thanks ESavinon.

vc69

+1 on the Asus. I have set up several including the HP and Asus. I liked the Asus best.

Overall though, not a fan. They have a niche, but not in my world.

polkatese

Definitely wouldn't be my first choice. I am just tired of her hogging my Macbook Pro to play online game.

It looks chunky to me, but if it serves the purpose, why not. Thanks for your feedback VC69.

bigaudiofanatic

+3 to asus I swear by there motherboards and there computers are not bad either. Or you can get a netbook for 150 on black friday. Forget which one it was though. Also just keep in mind is she going to mind the small screen of the netbooks?

polkatese

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Also just keep in mind is she going to mind the small screen of the netbooks?

she would rather playing games on the laptop than on a 17" desktop, so I am sure screen size is the least of her concern. portability and convenience are her reasons when asked.

Does it has HDMI? if so, playing game on the big screen would be another benefit for her perhaps? nah. not her, I don't think.

polkatese

Scrap that. I was wrong, screen SIZE matter when I asked her. She said it is too puny...:)

bigaudiofanatic

LOL that is what I though, also no they do not have any graphics card strong enough for a hdmi conection.

dvran

Netbooks are cheap, but compared to similar priced laptops, they really are not a good value.

Just recently I bought an HP laptop for $579 from Bestbuy. It has a 320 gig drive, 3GB RAM, Windows 7, a DVD burner.

The downfall with Netbooks is, which price at around $400 you don't get the large drive space, the larger screen, the DVD burner...etc. For a $100-150 more, you can get a nice laptop that will last her a lot longer. I'm sure she'll be at the age of downloading music soon and wanting storage space.

mshan242700

"$298 HP G60-519WM, which touts a 2.2GHz Intel Celeron, 15.6-inch HD display, Windows 7 Home Premium, 3GB RAM, and a 250GB HDD..."

$300 HP laptop made exclusively for Walmart: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/04/leaked-walmart-ad-reveals-xbox-360-arcade-with-100-gift-card/

Direct Walmart Link: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=12347224

Probably want to get to Walmart really early tomorrow morning if you want that laptop.

vc69

There are some very affordable laptops with all the horsepower you will need and a screen size that should be suitable for the little one.

polkatese

Yeah, I am start thinking Black Friday is around the corner and a laptop with slower Intel/AMD CPU from 6+ months ago, will be priced around the $400. Perhaps a regular size laptop makes more sense when bigger screen size is needed.

Thanks all!

mshan242700

The $300 Walmart one is going on sale tomorrow (I think it's "Celeron" is really more akin to a single core Core 2 Duo processor, than old school celerons).

1.6 gHz single core Atom is probably equivalent to an 800 mhz to 1 ghz Pentium III cpu. IMO really underpowered for even a lot of general purpose computer needs.

dvran

Netbooks are cheap, but compared to similar priced laptops, they really are not a good value.

Just recently I bought an HP laptop for $579 from Bestbuy. It has a 320 gig drive, 3GB RAM, Windows 7, a DVD burner.

The downfall with Netbooks is, which price at around $400 you don't get the large drive space, the larger screen, the DVD burner...etc. For a $100-150 more, you can get a nice laptop that will last her a lot longer. I'm sure she'll be at the age of downloading music soon and wanting storage space.

Sherardp

Netbooks are awesome, I have the MSI U210. Offers 2gb RAM, 250gb HDD, 12 inch screen. Awesome netbook and highly recommended.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152141&cm_re=MSI_U210-_-34-152-141-_-Product

cnh

Ok..

ACER and ASUS are the two top and probably best netbooks out there...value wise.

You should look into the newer 11.6 inch screens...that's almost 12" there and it does make a viewing difference...unless your daughter is thinking 14 or more.

We have 2 ACER...Aspires...one with the 8.9" screen--my 12 year old loves it....going on a year, knock wood..no problems...you do have to disable all the extras they have running on their machines or it will run like molasses.

I'm currently typing on the 11.6 inch version with the FULL SIZED keyboard...you can get this with 2 gigs of ram...and the 6 cell lit-ion battery that provides 6 hours of power on near full brightness...and almost 8 hours under low light condition...the battery though is huge and protrudes an inch out of the back of the netbook.

Haven't had any real problems with this either...the XP versions have been very reliable.

Expect the 11.6 versions to drop in price and to see a 12 inch if it is not out already with a faster CPU, more ram, and Windows 7, etc. soon.

cnh