Mac Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 That's what I thought when I swapped - but I'm still getting 4 hours out of the Macbook which is plenty enough for me, and I haven't noticed any heat or vibration issues with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppetboy Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 So what is a netbook? I mean is it just a small laptop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Pretty much. I think originally there were quite cut down laptops with low performance and typically running a linux disti but now they're pretty powerful units at a pretty good price point. Like I say, mines on Vista & Office Ultimate and is a cracking bit of kit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busby Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Great review Mac. Sounds like a neat bit of kit! My gf’s Vaio went pop at the weekend and your review has pushed us towards replacing it with one of these as 90% the time she will be using it with a screen anyway. Her usage would be word, excel and web so could probably leave it running XP home and live with the RAM as is. She would need an external cd/dvd drive (preferably writer) – any suggestions as to what would be best for this? PS- anyone know the best place to pick up Office XP on the cheap? I am an Apple bod now so the latest Office I have is 97 apart from the Mac version! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Just go and download v3.0 of OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite for Windows for free. And for your Mac, you can grab a copy of it too - or even better (same basic code base but MUCH better interface and doesn't crash) - http://www.neooffice.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 I can't stand either of those - have tried but they just right get on my nerves. I just find them incredibly clunky :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Sorry Busby didn't answer your question - instead I just slated Rachel's Sorry Rachel, I still think you're lovely If you don't need Outlook you can get office 2007 for pennies nowdays - even at PCWorld: MICROSOFT OFFICE HOME & STUDENT 2007 OFFICE HOME & STUDENT 2007 - Buy Microsoft OFFICE HOME & STUDENT 2007 OFFICE HOME & STUDENT 2007 at PC World Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busby Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Bought one on the way home! Also found Office Professional 2003 at the bottom of a drawer :D Just need to pick up an external cd drive now and the gf will be all set and I earn major brownie points :grin::assfecking: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Pretty cool hey Would be interested in your views of it. I'm finding the keyboard a little difficult but then again I can touch type and I'm used to the fantastic Mac keyboards - for some reason I'm finding the smaller keyboard almost as if it's partially offset and also the 'home' markers (the raised bumps on the J&F) are not very prominent. Still, it's only for demos so can't complain - guess it would be easy to get used to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busby Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 First thoughts are that it is a really great little bit of kit. In a couple of hours playing around I have been nothing but impressed. Initial impression is that it seems to be put together well too. I guess only time will tell on that front for sure! I know what you mean about the keyboard - I have only done small amounts of typing during set up but always seemed to be one key over from where I expected! I am sure that with a bit of use that would soon become a non-issue though. Really impressed with it connected up to a larger monitor - looked fine which I was a little worried about to be honest! Not got too much on it just now but for the things I did install over the web it ran and installed everything more than quickly enough. Should be ideal for her to be honest. 95% of its use will be in chambers with a screen/keyboard so the size won't be an issue. Plus it is so small and light that dragging it around when she needs a laptop with her at court will be such a doddle that the odd typo is not an issue. I'll let you know how she gets on with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D1MAC Posted January 18, 2009 Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 The Samsung looks like a very nice piece of kit (at least from a playing around in a shop perspective). The only thing that put me off was the price - @ 300 sheets is a little too close to fully fledged laptop for my liking & likely use. So, having stumbled across a serious deal, I picked up an Acer (with 160Gb hdd but only 512Mb memory:( and Linux (??? at the moment - as a non techy but not quite 100% technical idiot)) for £150 from Asda. Absolute bargain IMO, more so if you are confident in terms of upgrading the memory and are in a position to play around/update the OS. Sure the battery ain't that great but for what I will be using it for (i.e. not sitting in an uncomfortable chair @ the desktop surfing the net at home) it doesn't really matter. Hell it doesn't even matter if I trash it trying(and failing) to stick another version of Linux on there. Just throw it away and buy a new one. Sign of the times/progress but can't really believe that decent computing has got so cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicknick Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Just ordered a blue NC10 from Dixons - just under £280 delivered with SALE25 discount code and 3% cashback Read about the Acer - at £150 that's a good price and typically comes along just after buying the Samsung. Before I ordered the NC10 I compared the difference at £200 for a basic (acer / asus) Linux machine to the £280 for the NC10 and was happy to spend the difference which for me more than covered the memory / hard disk / xp and battery...but I'm not so sure I'd have the same view now when at £150 the Acer has 160gb disk.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobK Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 I picked up an Acer (with 160Gb hdd but only 512Mb memory:( Extra 1GB of RAM for a tenner here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D1MAC Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Extra 1GB of RAM for a tenner here. I am tempted by that so I can go down the vitual machine route (and bang Windows 7 beta on there) but 'tis a complicated process by the looks of things, especially for someone like me who is totally crap at pulling anything apart and then getting it to go back together correctly.. Lego was about my limit:grin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted January 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Like I say above, I was massively surprised how functional this little NC10 is. I have it up & running Windows 7 with a 320Gb hard disk in and 2Gb of RAM. Works a treat, more of a ultra portable laptop than a Netbook I think, fantastic for the money. GBP 250 + VAT GBP 15 + VAT Memory GBP 80 + VAT Hard Disk Absolute bargain considering how capable it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burble Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Complicated process? Definitely not, it's a 30 second job, tops. It's just a case of remove a screw, pull off a small panel, remove the original DIMM and replace it with the new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waylander Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 ggggrrr I need to find an extra £150 notes down the back of a sofa quick-smart or else down to Asda for the Acer Aspire One it is.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobK Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Complicated process? Definitely not, it's a 30 second job, tops. It's just a case of remove a screw, pull off a small panel, remove the original DIMM and replace it with the new one. Not on the Acer One unfortunately. Looks like a bit of a faff: YouTube - Acer Aspire One Intel Atom installing 1 gb ram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burble Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Ah, good point. I didn't noticed it was related to the Acer One, I assumed it was for the NC10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waylander Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 Bump please. I have just ordered the NC10. A few quick questions please MAC and co: 1) Upgrade to 2gb: does it have a spare dimm slot for another 1gb or do you swap out for a 2gb dimm? 2) installing s/w - did you use an external drive? flash drive? network share? 3) Windows 7 install - where did you get the drivers from please as I am hoping to install this as well. 4) recommeded accesories? 5) firewall/Antivirus - which did you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Bump please. I have just ordered the NC10.A few quick questions please MAC and co: 1) Upgrade to 2gb: does it have a spare dimm slot for another 1gb or do you swap out for a 2gb dimm? 2) installing s/w - did you use an external drive? flash drive? network share? 3) Windows 7 install - where did you get the drivers from please as I am hoping to install this as well. 4) recommeded accesories? 5) firewall/Antivirus - which did you use? 1. It's a 2Gb SODIM. It replaces the existing one. Correct chip is here: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-144-CS 2. Ah, my set up is quite a complex one. Firstly, I upgraded Win XP Home to Win XP professional by copying the files from my network share. Next, I resized the drives to create 3 partitions, one for XP, one for Windows 7, and one for data. I then copied Win7 files to the data drive and ran the installer, ensuring that I chose the Win7 install partition.... If you're not up for that kinda skulduggery I would suggest that 60 quid on an external DVD drive would be a worthy investment 3. Drivers are a bit difficult to track down, however I've already done it. I'll upload them to my share area and let you have the link Save you doing the ground work. 4. Decent bag, bluetooth mouse. I don't get on with the touchpad really, I find it a little fiddly. 5. I use Avast, works well enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waylander Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Thanks Fella that would be very useful. I can't wait to get it! So if I copy the Win 7 files across to the machine can I just run the installer from within the installed XP? I just want a basic 1 partition setup on it. I will see how I get on with the trackpad for starters but yep a padded sleeve/bag is a must. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted February 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Not on a single partition. You cannot upgrade from XP Home to Win 7 Ultimate (I.e. the Beta), it has to be a fresh install to a new partition. If you want a single instance of Win 7 (single partition) you'd have to install from DVD. You can do it with a smaller secondary partition and install from there but it's quite involved if you haven't done it before. PM me your email address Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waylander Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Just been having a rethink about partitions and I think I WILL keep a data drive so I guess I will create 2 more partitions etc running the installer from the data partition. Few more questions about this: 1) what is the benefit of upgrading from XP Home to Pro on the netbook? 2) I have Pro installed on the desktop - I a presuming there is more it than simply copying some files across as both flavours will have different keys etc? 3) What partition sizes do you recommend? 4) When you boot up do you have to select the OS on each occasion or does it auto-boot into Win7 by default? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted February 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 1. The main reason I need pro for my Windows XP set up is that it needs to be part of my work Active Directory - you cannot do that with Home. Also, you get some extra stuff with pro. Summary here: Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows XP Home Edition vs. Professional Edition, What's the difference? 2. Oh yes it's far more involved than that Copy the Win XP Pro CD to a second partition on the Netbook and run setup - you'll have the option to upgrade Home to Pro. 3. Hmmm. You could get loads of different answers on this. Mine is setup for 40Gb WinXP, 40Gb Win 7, and the rest data (80Gb). You'll also have a small 'RECOVERY' partition from the Samsung install. The Samsung utilities are actually pretty good and they're handy if you need to recover without a CD drive, so I've left mine on. Now, if you look at those partitions though.... Size - Used- Free WinXP: 40Gb - 12Gb - 28Gb Win7: 40Gb - 15Gb - 25Gb You could make XP & Win 7 smaller if you wanted to. Mine above include a full install of Office Ultimate, Visio, and Project. In effect there's a fair bit of wasted space on my install. Then again I don't hold any 'active' data on my netbook - it gets used for testing & travelling. 4. You have a choice, although remember it uses the newer BootMgr method of booting than the traditional Boot.ini. It'll default to Win 7 but you can choose the other XP installation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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