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General discussion (archive)Confused whether to buy a netbook or not...(10 posts)(10 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 16, 2011
I have been considering to buy a netbook for basic applications like
-web browsing
-typing and editing documents
-watching movies and listening to music
-downloading stuff(download a lot of movies)

I am considering Degee I8B11D4 10.2" Netbook

something about Degee I8B11D4 10.2" Netbook

Model I8B11D4
Operating System Windows2000/XP/Windows7
Processor Intel Atom D425 1.8GHZ
Display 10.2'' Wide-screen
1280*600 WXGA
Graphic Processor Intel GMA X3150
System Memory DDRII 1G
Max Memory Maximun to 2G
Memory Slot 1×So-DIMM
Hard Drive SATA 160G (250G/320G)
Max Storage Maximun to 320G

My prime concerns are:

-How much of multitasking can it handle?
For instance how comfortably can it pull web browsing (with multiple tabs on),
editing documents,a download in progress while a movie is running simultaneously?

-Would a netbook be able to pull maximum internet speeds?

Please help me decide if netbook is a good choice at all
Posted March 16, 2011
Netbooks are pretty good and for the most part your uses sound like the kind of things they're good for. Never used mine for video but I've got a 16GB SSD in mine so its not really got the storage space.

Mine is a dell mini 9 and is notably weaker than the one you describe and it'd probably do the job you need so the one you list should be awesome for it
Posted March 16, 2011
It's not bad but the graphics processor is a bit of a weak point. You should go for a model with an Nvidia Ion chip if you can, as the Intel chips don't support a lot of things due to lacking certain shader technologies etc; they're also insufficient to run most HD video like h264. If you want performance, especially for gaming then you'll want Windows XP on it with Service Pack 3 which improves the performance a little more.

The processor itself is a single core so less good at mulitasking. On my overclocked HP 311c (oc'd to 1.8ghz) I can get away with running a video in VLC player and Firefox open but anything else strenuous and it starts to slowdown. As for net speeds; it should do.
Finally the memory will probably be upgradable to 3gb but you'll need to do some research into compatible RAM boards as a lot of netbooks are tetchy.
Post edited March 16, 2011 by serpantino
Posted March 16, 2011
Well, the Thinkpad R32 I use is an outdated, full-fledged laptop. Your netbook has vastly superior specs (plus, it probably has a working battery and can go 30 minutes without overheating).

It's got 512MB of ram, a 1.8GHz Pentium 4M, 16MB of video memory, a 40GB hard drive and DVD player, and USB 1.1, among other less important features.

It can run my usual 20+ tabs in Firefox while watching a video and downloading at usual speed while running through ethernet (it has no built-in wireless, I use a 150mbps USB adapter, still perfect for web browsing and YouTube). I don't use it for games because it's a piece of shit that's on the end of it's rope (Which legitimately concerns me. I was lucky to get it as a hand-me-down from somebody who didn't need it anymore, but I'm still trying to get a desktop that's not Pentium 4 and AGP, so I'd be very lucky if I could replace my laptop within the next decade and a half!), but when I did, it ran Starcraft, Half-Life, pretty much everything pre-Y2K (i.e. a good number of GOG games).


It struggles with DOSBox, though, and some games run great, like Commander Keen and X-Com, while Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, Blake Stone, and TimeShock are unplayably awful, and Master of Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic II, and some others run unenjoyably slow.

Conversely, it'll run them outside of DOSBox at good speeds (Of course, you'll have problems like CD checks and no sound. I only did this to experiment), and running games natively in Windows, like ZDoom, EDuke32, WinRottGL, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Big Race USA\Fantastic Journey and so forth run beautifully. Minecraft Beta runs pretty bad, even at max fog, but Classic runs just fine.


I'd think this netbook of yours would be at least a little more capable than this old laptop, and I can still use it just fine for all of the purposes you'd want to use a laptop for. You'd be surprised how little power you really need outside of gaming, you may be giving it too little credit. Hell, my laptop could run Starcraft in Ubuntu through Wine at nearly fullspeed. Perhaps it could've been perfect had I any idea and interest in how to tweak it.

I dabble with Linux, toying around with dual-boots, virtual instances, and live cds\pendrives, but even after all these years know very little and don't think I can improve without help in person. Ubuntu is simple enough for me to be able to enjoy to some almost useful degree, and is somewhat kinder than XP for the machine's weaker specs, in non-gaming aspects, of course. It's fun. :P


Are netbooks really as weak as people suggest they are, that so many people wonder if they can multitask sufficiently and have maximum internet speed? I know stuff like the processor is designed to be low-power, and I don't know how much video memory it has, but just reading the specs makes it sound like it blows my laptop out of the water.
Post edited March 16, 2011 by LordKuruku
Posted March 16, 2011
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silent_night: Maximun to 320G

My prime concerns are:

-How much of multitasking can it handle?
For instance how comfortably can it pull web browsing (with multiple tabs on),
editing documents,a download in progress while a movie is running simultaneously?

-Would a netbook be able to pull maximum internet speeds?

Please help me decide if netbook is a good choice at all
A good netbook will easily cope with these requirements.

However, you may want to check
- the type of battery included and the autonomy you can get out of it. With netbooks you could get anything between 90 minutes and 5-6 hours....
- how easy it would be for you to get support in case of need.

Depending on your budget, you also might want to consider
- dual core Atom ( D525 instead of D425) or, even better, an Ion based netbook
- a second GB of RAM
Posted March 16, 2011
Sorry to break this to you guys, but this is actually spam. Subtle and clever, but spam nevertheless.
Posted March 16, 2011
avatar
LordKuruku: Well, the Thinkpad R32 I use is an outdated, full-fledged laptop.
That's what I had before I got my netbook (this year) stunning laptop! Very very speedy once you put 1gb of RAM into it :).
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bazilisek: Sorry to break this to you guys, but this is actually spam. Subtle and clever, but spam nevertheless.
Damn it. Seems kinda pointless for spam lol. Oh well, at least it shows how helpful this community is.
Posted March 16, 2011
I think you'll be fine, just expect some slowdowns if you're multitasking heavily. If you want to edit documents using a noticeably ressource-hungry software (MS Office for instance) while performing other demanding tasks, a single core Atom CPU and only 1GB of RAM will probably lead to below-average performances. The screen real-estate might also become an issue in MS Office and similar softwares, where you can have quite a few toolbars on the screen at the same time : 600px height is not that much.

You might also want to check which OS is provided. XP will run significantly faster than Seven on this hardware. If you're really after performance gains, you could install a lightweight linux distribution, but that might be incompatible with your document editing requirement, depending on the type of documents that you need to edit.

:edit: Damn, it's the first time that I fall for such a trick... Well, forget it then...
Post edited March 16, 2011 by Nnexxus
Posted March 16, 2011
avatar
bazilisek: Sorry to break this to you guys, but this is actually spam. Subtle and clever, but spam nevertheless.
With no links, that is a bit clever. Well done bot, you got me at a helpful time
Posted March 16, 2011
The bots are getting too damn clever.
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General discussion (archive)Confused whether to buy a netbook or not...(10 posts)(10 posts)
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