netbook advice

[KaiserJ]

so yeah, i'm thinking of getting one... i have at least a 20 minute transit commute every workday, and it's a bit ridiculous lugging around books and a mp3 player etc... much nicer if i could play xcom ufo defense on the train.

so advicewise...

-how is the sound on a netbook? could i plug in speakers and use it as a mini stereo? (not expecting anything amazing mind you)

-decent for reading e-books?

-any particular brands or models to avoid?

-could i run 3d max on it? (not for renders etc but just having a muck; plus i sometimes design stuff for work on the computer at home so this would mean a timesaver)

-can has run xcom?

(also you could take all the pressure off me and pick one from this site that doesn't suck and won't light on fire)

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... n-&-Above&

[Jazcash]

Well, I bought my EeePC a while ago for a good price. I only wanted it for basic documentation and communication purposes but ended up playing Quake and all sorts on it. Very portable, 10.1" screen isn't as bad as I thought it'd be and with a RAM upgrade I even ended up doing graphic and web design work on it.

Great battery life, mine lasts around 6-8 hours when fully charged and left on Standby/Hibernate instead of using 5% every boot up...

Mind you, they shouldn't be a primary choice if you're looking for a good machine to play games on. I found that most Netbooks use really terrible Intel cards which can't even load Spring at all...

But again, I'm glad I bought mine, well worth the money.

[==Troy==]

All netbooks are the same.

I had an EEEPC, and it was great, a bit of problem with LCD screen, but thats just bad one I guess (the LCD had delay on refresh in part of the screen).

Xcom runs perfectly (played myself). World Of Good runs perfectly well too. You can even play some 3D games on it (Q3 runs with reasonable FPS).

no idea about 3ds, but blender runs well.

[zwzsg]

Are there EEE that can run Spring? I don't mean playing a 16v16 on full settings, but just barely loading up, just enough to test and dev.

[Coresair]

I am sure any ion equipped netbook should be able to at least load up spring and get ingame.

[aegis]

ion handles spring well (decent fps), especially MT spring with dual-core atom 330, the only issue for me was pathing lag with large amounts of units

[==Troy==]

Non ion EEEPC has 20 fps with 50-100 units on the screen, the land texture is entirely white though.

I managed to watch LLT complex 8v8 up to 12 minutes into the game, but, honestly, "watch" is the wrong word, I was watching the minimap, while camera was pointed at the least intensive part of the ground, still gave me 8-10 fps though.

[Jazcash]

I remember Car or Neddie or somebody saying they could play low intensive Spring games on their Netty. Probably Car.

[Wombat]

notebooks sux, if u are bored on train buy fake vagina.

first of all use linux, i can tell u later what notebook i got, works like a charm

[Jazcash]

notebooks sux, if u are bored on train buy fake vagina.

first of all use linux, i can tell u later what notebook i got, works like a charm

Not notebook, netbook.

[JohannesH]

I managed to watch LLT complex 8v8 up to 12 minutes into the game, but, honestly, "watch" is the wrong word, I was watching the minimap, while camera was pointed at the least intensive part of the ground, still gave me 8-10 fps though.

Should just maximize the minimap for that, it gives good fps boost :D

[hoijui]

indeed, there is not much variety on netbooks, except unimportant stuff like finder-print censor and stuff like that. best is to get a non-special one there, eg.. one that is sold in the multi millions. For them, you can usually get a linux distro that works from the start, including all the extra sensors and special keys (eg, EEEbuntu). Spring (for testing) runs on the intel 945 netbooks even, though...
i would only consider it enough for testing for engine devs, not mod devs. you'll get 5fps from start, white map texture, and that with really every GFX setting on lowest/off. on windows though, it might be enough for mod dev even.

[==Troy==]

indeed, there is not much variety on netbooks, except unimportant stuff like finder-print censor and stuff like that. best is to get a non-special one there, eg.. one that is sold in the multi millions. For them, you can usually get a linux distro that works from the start, including all the extra sensors and special keys (eg, EEEbuntu). Spring (for testing) runs on the intel 945 netbooks even, though...
i would only consider it enough for testing for engine devs, not mod devs. you'll get 5fps from start, white map texture, and that with really every GFX setting on lowest/off. on windows though, it might be enough for mod dev even.

My EEE came initially with WindowsXP. It was nearlly unusable due to horrible load times and XP constantly doing something not relevant to the task required. It helped a bit to turn off the Intel's fake multicore (name escapes me here) but I had 1-2 fps in spring on Windows.

Archlinux performed a lot more fluently than windows in that respect

[CarRepairer]

I remember Car or Neddie or somebody saying they could play low intensive Spring games on their Netty. Probably Car.

Nah, my netbook is weak. It's got a via c7m processor (a learning computah). I can spectate spring at about 10 fps for about 20 mins into a game and then I'm out. Unlike other people I have no graphical problems with it in Spring.

It's one of the the few 10" screen netbooks on the planet that has wxga resolution (1200x800 [1200x768 effective] ) which is why I got it for just browsing the web and the occasional small app.

[Pxtl]

Are there EEE that can run Spring? I don't mean playing a 16v16 on full settings, but just barely loading up, just enough to test and dev.

If you have more cash than brains, there's the (Dell) Alienware M11X - costs about $800US (but they charge us Canucks $1000 because Dell are dicks that way) but it's a bonafide 11" gaming rig.

[KaiserJ]

thankyou dudes!

[Neddie]

I am posting to you from a 1000HE EEE which I've had for about a year and a half. There is quite a lot of variance among netbooks these days - this is now a middle of the road non-gaming netbook.

This shipped with XP, which runs fine. Ubuntu and Debian have independently bricked themselves once each, but I'll probably reinstall Debian when I swap out my 100 GB drive for a 500 GB. You can play a passable 1v1 game with limited unit counts on this hardware, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'll have an easier time on a linux operating system, but it still won't be terribly satisfying, even at minimal settings.

If you want a cheap mobile work platform for writing, web design, browsing... pick up an Asus, Acer or MSI netbook in the two hundred to three hundred dollar range. These should come with 1024x600 10.1" screens or better. The smaller netbooks aren't really worth it; you seldom gain in terms of battery life, and the reduced sizes of screen and keyboard limit use. If you want to play games, you shouldn't expect to on a mobile computer, but if you really must have such - an ION backed netbook is usually a good option.

[Pressure Line]

Acer Aspire One, coming up to a year old now. Got a 1.6 Atom, and a gig of ram, 1024x600 10.1" screen.

I bought a netbook because I didnt want/need a laptop that was capable of doing everything my desktops can. I mostly use it for reading ebooks, lurking on MSN, and watching movies while hooked up to my TV/stereo. Havent tried much gaming on it, but i dont imagine its performance would be stellar.

[Licho]

Isn't it better to read ebooks on a phone? You carry it with yourself all the time, it has better battery life and it wont break if you lie over it as you fall asleep during reading in bed.

[Pressure Line]

I don't have a smartphone. The reason being... I'm a little clumsy. Had to replace my last phone after i dropped it into an open manhole while i was working. Plus all the phone options here are terrible.