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I'm thinking of getting Meghan a netbook but am concerned that they are too slow (Intel Atom).

I went to Best Buy to see how the machines handle flash intensive websites (Disney.com), but BB won't let you surf the net on a netbook (the irony).

Anyone out there have a netbook? If so, can you go to this URL and tell me how it handles?

http://disney.go.com/princess/index.html

If it is horrible (which it has been on anything I own that isn't a (Core2 Duo), then I don't need to buy a netbook.

As an aside, my conversation at BB went like this:

Me: "Is there some way I can connect to the internet on a netbook."
BB Guy: "If you want the internet, you have to use a Mac."
Me: "I've already got one of those, I need to see how a netbook handles flash intensive websites."
BB Guy: "Sorry, we don't allow any Windows(TM) machine on the internet for security reasons."

Me: Face-palm

Scott

Try one of the warehouse clubs, or CompUSA/Tiger Direct?

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

My kids watch Playhouse Disney, and my wife and I watch Netflix and Hulu on 8-year old Intel P4 PCs...I think it probably has more to do with your bandwidth, then secondarily your GPU than the CPU. Indirect experience (a friend has one) says the Atom CPU and netrbooks work fine, but he doesn't use it as a mobile broadband connection--more of a small PC on a home network.

good luck.

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

A little more investigating shows that the flash performance in OS-X is the bottleneck, not the CPU/GPU.

Flash on a netbook running XP seems to benchmark about the same as a dual core 1.6GHz machine with OSX.

What a shame.

Looks like Meghan will be getting one of these:

EEE is a good choice. We got a model 901 for Malia earlier this year, but opted for the Linux version with SSD drives. Our primary purpose was a durable movie player for the car, and with the 8.9" screen and SSD it works great - not too big or small. My only complaint with the EEE/Linux is the Wireless driver - it's flaky on an encrypted network, but I think it's stated to work better under Windows. The downside to Windows, besides the obvious, is that the SSD drive on the EE is actually 2 drives, a 4GB faster drive and a 16GB slower one. The Windows XP 4GB partition fills to capacity as soon as MS Updates are downloaded, so some effort in remapping stuff to the second partition is required.

Edit: Oh, and while I haven't tried disney.com, this netbook spends plenty of time on nickjr.com without issues.

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Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --

saw this online today and thought I'd mention it, not sure if you've gotten one aready or not but this is a pretty decent deal on a 10.1" netbook on woot today (w/ XP).

http://www.woot.com/

_________________
2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

Go for a Snapdragon powered unit.
1+GHz processor; low power

http://www.netbookchoice.com/2009/06/01/asus-snapdragon-powered-eee-pc-running-android-hands-on-video-round-up/

http://www.gosmartbook.com


plus you'd be helping me keep my job.

Chris Suich
Qualcomm, Inc
ASIC DFT Engineer

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"Ruttin' is racing"

Chris Suich
Apex, NC
AutoX 2012 Nissan Leaf (Quietly changing the world)
AutoX 2003 Mini Cooper S (on sabbatical)
RallyX 1993 Nissan Sentra - "Le Tigre"
FunX 1970 Camaro LT1 ('95)

You can't do fullscreen flash movies (hulu/youtube/etc) without studder because of how resource intensive flash is.

They're a gimmick and are pretty slow, but they work in a pinch if you just want to browse the web and type up a few things.

Quick update:

I'm posting this from a new ASUS Eee 1005HA, and it performs just like a regular notebook for general computing and Web 2.0 uses. The 92% scale keyboard takes a little getting used to, but the 9 hour battery life is pretty nice, as is the 3-lb weight. 3USB ports, so connecting an external drive doesn't take up all the ports like some competitor's models.

BTW, it uses a 160GB HDD with 2GB standard notebook memory. Hulu and Netflix stream just fine over my wireless network (TWC is the ISP)

Prices for the N270 version of the 1005HA are in the $350 range, and will surely be closer to $300 by Christmas, so it may pay to wait. My old desktop mobo bit the dust, so I had to buy now otherwise I would've waited...

Next task: building an HTPC, then a gaming PC...

$0.02,

_________________
Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86