Netbook Help

ceccil · Post by **ceccil** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 12:13 am

Does anyone know if the little netbooks have or can have an option to hook to a phone line for dial up? My sis inlaw thought they looked cool but dial up is her only option for internet.

Jeff

djackman · Post by **djackman** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 12:44 am

I have an Acer Aspire One, and no built in modem. Don't know about the other ones.

A USB modem would be the logical solution.

http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?p ... 60U&cat=51

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 7:21 am

USB Modem.
External DVD drive.
Net books are nice for surfing but...
it may be cheaper to buy a 'regular 14" or 15" laptop that includes these two parts.

ceccil · Post by **ceccil** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 2:25 pm

Thanks, she does a lot with photography also. A regular laptop might be the better option. I just don't know that much about the netbook units to give her any good advice. One other question I have is about these solid state HD's. Are they really any faster than a standard hard drive? I have read that they were faster, but are they fast enough to make it worth the added cost? She has a desktop that I built at the same time as mine and I just used the HD out of her old computer. Was an old HP. Takes forever to start up or start any programs. I bought a new drive when I built mine and I was thinking if it would be worth it to put a solid state drive in mine and put the regular one from mine into hers. She would think it was a new computer. Thats how slow hers is. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Jeff

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 7:33 pm

Thanks, she does a lot with photography also.

I would stay clear of a netbook for her.
Get a laptop.
64-bit vista, 4GB memory, 16GB thumbdrive combined with Vista Speed-Boost and a WD scorpio black drive http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=477
SSD are not 'better' because of speed but because they have no moving parts.
Lots of drive failures due to movement before heads get parked, SSD solves that problem.
SSD have a limited 'write capacity', they are just a big old flash drive and can only do so many 'writes' before they fail.

WD’s patented SiSMART technology is the industry's first early warning system,
able to self-monitor storage system usage and accurately forecast useable life

Big SSD is not cheap.
Use the 320GB listed above to replace the cheap 5400 rpm drive the laptop comes with.
Dell surcharges for the upgrades, do them yourself and save a bundle.
For the desktop...
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=503
Install a SATA controller if there is no onboard SATA.
A good cleanup of her old computer and add some ram along with the WD RE3 drive will bring the computer back.

djackman · Post by **djackman** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 10:14 pm

ceccil wrote:Thanks, she does a lot with photography also. A regular laptop might be the better option. I just don't know that much about the netbook units to give her any good advice.

Think of a netbook more as an "internet terminal" than a full-powered computer. Good for on-the-go web/email and/or MS office usage. They're a great fit for those who need more email capabilities (eg, Outlook) than a Blackberry can provide yet don't want to drag a full size notebook around.

The Atom cpu benchmarks to about the same as a 2.x ghz P4, and while not an exact comparison it's good enough for an estimate.

coalmeister · Post by **coalmeister** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 11:20 pm

As netbooks don't have DVD players I load a bunch of Hogans Hero's & movies on my 160 GB hard drive in my netbook for travel. Uses less power to play and I can get my stated 7-8 hour of run time if I am not powering an external DVD player.

ceccil · Post by **ceccil** » Tue. Jun. 30, 2009 11:41 pm

Thanks everyone. Maybe I'll just get a new HD for hers. Is there any way to just copy everything ( including OS) from the old to the new? Or would I have to back up all of her files somewhere and install the OS on the new HD then transfer all of her files back to the new drive? I know, lots of questions. I just wanted to know if there was an easier way other than moving everything back and forth. Thanks.

Jeff

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Wed. Jul. 01, 2009 8:35 am

Clone the drive. Very easy to do.
Use a Drive Imaging program. This is the perfect application for these programs.
The only time a clean install of the OS is needed is when you suspect a true rootkit or the OS is horribly corrupted.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/trueimage/in ... l#features

ceccil · Post by **ceccil** » Wed. Jul. 01, 2009 9:27 am

CapeCoaler wrote:Clone the drive. Very easy to do.
Use a Drive Imaging program. This is the perfect application for these programs.
The only time a clean install of the OS is needed is when you suspect a true rootkit or the OS is horribly corrupted.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/trueimage/in ... l#features

Thanks, this sound like the way to go.

Jeff