Netbook recommendations please

Zan Usi Quan

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2006

Brussels - Belgium

Temple of Love

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14 Jul 2010 at 13:35 - 1
Hi there, thanks for reading this

I'll be going to university in October and I'm planning on buying a netbook since my handwriting skills aren't that impressive. I'm very much interested in the ASUS EEE PC 1005PE, but its price is floating around my top budget.

So maybe some of you have similar recommendations?

I can get this netbook + External DVD±RW WRITER for €345 (£288 or 440 USD).

Thanks in advance

Edit:
You'll probably want to know why this one on particular;
250GB
VGA
1 GB RAM (not uncommon but oh well) (either way 2GB is better !)

Elder III

Elder III

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio

I Will Never Join Your Guild (NTY)

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14 Jul 2010 at 23:53 - 2
I know Europe is more expensive than the USA for computers, but i would think you ought to find something in the 300 Euro range if you look around abit. 345 seems pretty steep to me..... you can find a good netbook on sale here in the USA for $250 for example...

Lord Sojar

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

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Irrelevant

Mo/Me

15 Jul 2010 at 03:48 - 3
Look for a netbook that uses nVidia's ION or ION2 technology. It will greatly increase the performance of the netbook, while sacrificing no battery life (in many cases, it can improve).

This way, you can use it for Flash 10.1 acceleration and HD Video playback. Without ION, this will tax the netbook severely, costing you significant battery life (if you will even be able to do it with reasonable performance that is...)

Zan Usi Quan

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2006

Brussels - Belgium

Temple of Love

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15 Jul 2010 at 06:59 - 4
ion2 being the next gen ion I suppose?

+ Yes, battery life is - ofcourse - vital... The EEE 1005PE can last up to 14 hours so it seems, I don't need that much, but at least 6-ish...

Lord Sojar

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

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Mo/Me

15 Jul 2010 at 18:38 - 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan Usi Quan View Post
ion2 being the next gen ion I suppose?

+ Yes, battery life is - ofcourse - vital... The EEE 1005PE can last up to 14 hours so it seems, I don't need that much, but at least 6-ish...
Yeh, ION2 is the slightly improved ION platform from nVidia.

The Asus Eee 1201PN and the Acer Aspire One 532G are ION2 netbooks.

I know that the Acer Aspire One is 379 Euros or less. As for the ASUS Eee, it might be more, unfortunately. See if you can dig around for the Acer Aspire One 532G, as it's an amazing netbook, and will serve you for quite a few years.

Burst Cancel

Burst Cancel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Dec 2006

Domain of Broken Game Mechanics

16 Jul 2010 at 06:41 - 6
I'm not sure what prices are like in Europe, but at 400 USD I start looking at laptops rather than netbooks.

Zan Usi Quan

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2006

Brussels - Belgium

Temple of Love

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18 Jul 2010 at 10:45 - 7
I can buy the 532G for €360, which is still quite steep, but it's the only Ion2 under €400...

Should I go for this one then?

Edit:
Make that €299 from Pixmania

Lord Sojar

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

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Mo/Me

21 Jul 2010 at 20:47 - 8
Absolutely. The ION2 can actually play GW at low/medium settings. It will also allow you to stream HD video, etc. It enables GPU acceleration thanks to CUDA, for applications that support it. Overall, it's vastly superior to the Atom + Intel IGP solution.

At €299 , that's very reasonable. Netbooks are generally disappointing, but the ION platform helps eliminate that feeling of "OMFG THIS IS SO SLOW!"

Zan Usi Quan

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2006

Brussels - Belgium

Temple of Love

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21 Jul 2010 at 21:19 - 9
Nice ok, I'll take that one in consideration then, thanks alot - still got some time left to think it all through so suggestions are still welcome