Xmas Post III: Hardware Dorkery (NetBook)

Yeah, I know--"What about Chicago with Sarah! What about Alinea? What about the food porn!?" Yes, yes, yes... getting to that in a bit. But first, a bit of hardware dorkery... I got a new NetBook. Kawaii computer desu, ne? I thought I'd share some of the experiences of using it, too.


Technical details: ASUS Eee PC 1005 HA; Atom N270 processor; technical details here.

Reason why I got it: it's not just a toy! My main computer (BatBook III, above) has been showing serious problems--to get it to start up, you have to unplug the power adapter, torque the case slightly, and ~50% of the time it boots up (otherwise, it just stays black screen). I needed to get it fixed--fortunately, it is under 3 year warranty, so Fujitsu gets to buy me a third replacement mainboard (no lie--color me unimpressed with Fujitsu reliability).

I had a non-work-critical window over the holidays to take my old machine in for service, but going for two weeks on the road without a computer sounded really frustrating. So browsing around Newegg, I found this machine--open box sale, $250. Woot!

One first important step: upgrading from 1 GB to 2 GB RAM; go Crucial, yeah! (fast, reliable).


However, my machine did not recognize the upgrade at first. Thankfully, the intarweb is a wonderful thing--for instance, the research on this page--to get it to "see" 2 GB, you just need to boot into BIOS on startup (F2), save changes, and continue with startup.

So how does it perform? Well, it's shockingly like a real computer. I have loaded up all of my usual applications on it; it's a bit like working on a slightly slower/older machine. Also, it slogs noticeably when many windows are open. But overall, if you're not throwing too many challenges at it, the performance is just fine.

But where it shines: it's fantastic for traveling; very light and tiny. I could get used to having a carry on bag this big under the seat in front of me (i.e., an oversized butt pack). The small screen has no problem being open in the most painful of economy-class seat pitches.



Also, having an actual (if underpowered) computer is pretty nice on the road, even with great devices like iPhones and BlackBerries. A real keyboard, and a real monitor make life a lot easier--e.g., buying theater tickets online from a hotel room.

A little bit of extra awesomeness--the touchpad does the whole iPhone style pinch/stretch with two fingers for zoom in/zoome out. A bit klunky at times, but works.

The native LCD is 1024x600, which is okay at times, but otherwise frustratingly small (scrolling around web pages; etc.); it appears that you can get NetBooks with larger displays. However, one nice thing--if you plug it into an external monitor, it is smart enough to immediately drive that monitor at a decent resolution (i.e., full size screen), instead of the dumb, "Hey, we'll blow up your small display onto a big screen, a la Duplo Blocks!."


I have not done any tests of battery life yet--I'm going to try out watching a movie (stored on hard drive) on a bus ride from New York to Boston on Sunday. They claim 8.5 hours... but I'm wondering how little the machine is running in those tests.

Also, the lack of an optical drive was occasionally annoying--I needed to install some software directly from CD, and could not do so. So I'm buying a USB-to-IDE DVD drive enclosure, to use an unused internal and make it an external unit.

Overall, I'm very happy--strong recommend. I wish this could be my replacement on-the-road computer, but I'm guessing that I'll need to do enough work on the road that I'll need more processing power. Ack.