looking for cheap/small laptop

[fryc86]

I'm thinking about selling my dell inspiron and getting something smaller. I love the 17" screen that I've got on the dell, but I never take it anywhere, which is what I originally intended to do by getting a laptop. My campus is hooked up to free wireless all over campus and I'd like to take advantage of that. I don't do any gaming, and all I really need is something that has a good battery life and that doesn't overheat like my dell does. I do have a LOT of music and I like to watch movies online, so a good-sized hard drive would be preferable, but I'd be okay with getting a separate hard drive if I had too.

I'm thinking maybe something 11-12" inches would work fine.

As for price, I don't really want to spend any more than what I can sell my dell for, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that or not. The cheaper, lighter, and less fancy the better. Under $400 or so would be ideal, but might be able to swing a little more.

edit: I would like it if I could connect it to a larger external monitor as well and be able to take expandable memory if it doesn't come with enough out of the box. thanks

What do you all think of the ASUS Eee PC 1000HA 10-Inch Netbook? Seems to be decent for what I need and fine price. - Newegg.com - ASUS Eee PC EPC1000HA-WHI001X Pearl White Intel Atom N270(1.60GHz) 10.0" WSVGA 1GB Memory 160GB HDD Netbook - Netbooks

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The eeepc 100ha is nice, that's a good price on it too. I have the MSI Wind that is similar and I have been very happy with it.

If you can find one in a store to look at before you get it I would, I was planning on getting the eeepc but I liked the screen on the wind better when I saw them in person.

 

[saltynay]

Msi wind +1 love that little baby

 

[fryc86]

I'm trying to look at the specs but what is the difference between the asus 1000H and the 1000HA? Something to do with the wireless connection?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The 1000h has wireless b/g/n and the ha onlyy has b/g. Personally I don't think wireless N is worth the extra cost of the 1000h.

 

[fryc86]

okay. thanks. I'm not going to get anything probably until I sell my Dell, so if anyone has any other suggestions I would appreciate it.

does the white, or black, look better? I don't have any preference

 

[DoubleHelix]

There's a big difference between watching a movie on a 17" screen and watching a movie on a 10" screen like say, oh, about 7 inches. If watching movies is an important feature, you won't be at all happy with that system. It's also a netbook meant to be used only for basic computer functionality.

And of course you can't watch DVDs since there's no optical drive.

 

[Ethan_Kaizer]

Definitely go with the MSI Wind, and Black is the best in my opinion, but I suggest you just browse google images, and see what you like.

You said you want to stay under 400, which is fine. There's 2 MSI Winds (On Newegg):


Newegg.com - MSI Wind U100-432US Black Intel Atom N270(1.60GHz) 10.0" WSVGA 1GB Memory 160GB HDD Netbook - Netbooks
-This one is 430 bucks, and has a 160GB hard drive, and a 6 cell battery.

Newegg.com - MSI Wind U100-420US Black Intel Atom N270(1.60GHz) 10.0" WSVGA 1GB Memory 120GB HDD Netbook - Netbooks
-This one is 350 bucks, with all the same specs as the other one, but a bit lighter, a 3 cell battery, and a 120gb hard drive.

A 6 cell battery will give you better battery life, but I don't know how often or how long you need to use it at one time. It's up to you. You can always change a battery later, but apparently there's a big difference.

Check out this article. It's a similar netbook, and there is a big difference in battery life:
Acer Aspire One 6-cell vs. 3-cell battery comparison unitstep.net

I'd also recommend adding 2gb of some quality ram, because with good ram, you can overclock the Atom CPU to 1.9 GHz with just 1 click in the BIOS, and that supposedly gives a 30 percent performance boost. Also 2 gb is just a huge difference from 1gb, and you'll have more video memory and smoother media playing/multitasking.

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Laptop Memory - Laptop Memory
-Good ram for 22 bucks.

There's a big difference between watching a movie on a 17" screen and watching a movie on a 10" screen like say, oh, about 7 inches. If watching movies is an important feature, you won't be at all happy with that system. It's also a netbook meant to be used only for basic computer functionality.

And of course you can't watch DVDs since there's no optical drive.

That can be solved with a USB DVD Drive, and a 17 inch laptop will be twice as much, with less battery time, and probably not much better performance. And they're on a budget here, and fryc wanted a small/cheap laptop, so that's not much of an option at all.

 

[fryc86]

The movies isn't as important, but if I wanted to would it be at all possible to hook up one of these systems to a larger external monitor? I usually only watch movies at home (and when I don't its on the equivalent of something the size of an ipod, so 10" isn't a big deal), so would the Asus be able to connect to a larger external monitor?

I would like it to be able to play music decently, but I may not be able to do that with one of these. I'd be okay with a slightly bigger laptop (12-14) if it could play and store music ably at a somewhat similar price.

Can you guys tell me why you prefer the MSI model to the ASUS? I'm open to both but am just curious as to why people tend to prefer the MSI. From what I'm seeing the Asus tends to have better specs for less, i.e. at $350 (on newegg) the ASUS has 160 GB hard drive, 6-cell battery. While the MSI at the same price has 120 GB hard drive and is 3-cell battery. Is the screen display that much better on the MSI to warrant the difference?

I don't mind paying for the more expensive MSI model to match the ASUS memory/battery specs but I'm just curious as to why the difference in price? I am somewhat familiar with the Asus brand and have been told that they seem to be a good company, and don't know anything about MSI.

thanks

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The screen alone was worth getting the Wind In my opinion, it' just looked better than the eeepc's. The build quality is exceptional on the Wind, it's very solid and the materials are very high quality. MSI makes very good laptops overall, I would say they are every bit as good as Asus. I recommend trying to find a local store that has them so you can look at them in person and decide for yourself.

Both the Wind and the eeepc have vga outputs so you can connect them to a larger monitor using it.

They shouldn't have any problem playing music, the built in speakers are decent but you can always pick up a good pair of headphones to use that will sound better than any laptops speakers.