Need to buy netbook fast... (Samsung NC10 vs. ASUS 1000HE) [Archive]

View Full Version : Need to buy netbook fast... (Samsung NC10 vs. ASUS 1000HE)

kompulsive

02-17-2009, 04:07 PM

I need to get a netbook, fast...like I need to order it tonight. I am going out of town next week and I want to have the netbook during my trip. I will be doing a lot of moving around so my usual beast of a laptop will not do. Ideally, I would've liked to wait until this summer to purchase a netbook as there are a lot of very exciting offerings on the way. Unfortunately I don't have the time. However, I can always get a new netbook this summer and give the old one to my girlfriend. Anyway, down to business...

I'm leaning towards the NC10. It doesn't appear as though ASUS has addressed the keyboard issue that plagued their earlier netbooks and I don't mind paying a bit extra for comfort. I believe that the 1000HE has about a half hour more battery life than the NC10, which really is not enough to be a dealbreaker for me. I would love some input from owners of either netbook or anyone who thinks they know of a better netbook.

MikeMurphy

02-25-2009, 12:53 PM

I would buy the 1000HE due to the superior battery life (7:15-7:45 of actual usage). I suggest you read up on the following forums:

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=55

People are loving their 1000HE's.

In a perfect world I would wait a few months until the release of the GN40 Express chipset. Best of luck,

cdawall

02-25-2009, 04:15 PM

why not the MSI windbook?

http://www.jr.com/msi-microstar/pe/MSR_U100432US/

$379.99
Atom 1.6
160GB HDD
wireless N
webcam
10" screen
overclockable :rofl:

LagunaX

02-25-2009, 04:24 PM

1000HE FTW.
It is cheaper and has a longer battery and n wireless.

I bought a Samsung nc10 a month ago and am pretty happy with it though.

Same weight, screen size and resolution. G wireless is ok.

I like that it came prepartioned in split hard drive capacities.

I just flew from east to west coast and it played avi movies straight for 5hrs with decent volume and screen brightness with 1 hr battery life left just prior to landing.

But if it is cheaper and just as good with a longer battery life for the same weight, go for it.

But you can't go wrong with the samsung either - workmanship is very good.

I don't know where you live but I got mine from jr.com no tax and free shipping to california.

Frank M

02-25-2009, 05:08 PM

why not the MSI windbook?

'cause either of those two is better? ;)

Unfortunately, the worksmanship (wimpy, flexing plastic chassis) - while
better than some other netbooks *coug* Acer *cough* - is not on par
with those two. The Samsung NC10 is said to have a chassis that is
better put together, a more comfortable keyboard and a bit longer
battery life. However, it's not as readily available as the others...
The new 1000HE is said to have a more comfortable keyboard than
previous 1000-series (at last they fixed the right shift location), and
has much longer battery life than most netbooks (but it still doesn't
exceed my Vaio's battery life despite the larger battery, which is a
shame).

Either of the two is a good choice, which did you go with?

RejZoR

03-01-2009, 07:03 AM

There's nothing wrong with Aspire One casing. Except the fact it cannot be opened from bottom side and CPU fan that seems to get noisy rather quickly (at least factory one, maybe later ones are more durable).

Bobsama

03-01-2009, 01:01 PM

I have an Asus EeePC 900. I'd say go with the 1000HE--I think you'll really enjoy the larger touchpad and the multitouch feature. Other than that, the NC10 is an excellent netbook as well, of course.

Loser777

03-01-2009, 01:35 PM

I got 900HA, $300 with 160 HDD = sold.

Cooper

03-02-2009, 10:03 AM

ebay is full of Dell D420/D430 for the same price

Cpl Ledanek

03-16-2009, 09:42 PM

picked up the Asus 1000HE also, and now just waiting to charge the battery.

so far:
--- I've updated the XP Home
--- installed AVG Free
--- SpyBlaster
--- Portable FireFox (my thinking it should use less memory than Full Version)
I could be very wrong about this
--- installed plug-in/add-on for Portable FireFox
--- Flash
--- VLC 0.8.6

tomorrow:
--- OpenOffice
--- SpyBot
--- portable GIMP is still undecided

Please offer suggestion on what programs to load up and what to uninstall

The netbook did not come with XP Home on disc....I'm assuming its on the partitioned HD.

I've never done a BARTPE disc before...was wondering if I should/ could do a BARTPE without a XP Home disc.

I have a USB External DVD Burner (Sony) to burn if need to.

Going to be used for surfing/email/music/mini-flash games (Yetisports, pinball, etc)....entertain myself at the food court while waiting for wife to finish shopping :rolleyes:

...my question with mp4, never done it...first one I did to practice was my old Batman (Tim Burton) and used Handbrake to make an mp4 (using PS3 setting) so I can transfer to my HE netbook.

Problem was: I can't pause or fast-forward to a scene on VLC.
Question: is that how mp4s are? you can't fast-forward or select a scene? or is that my VLC?

thanks

Bobsama

03-17-2009, 03:03 AM

Frank M

03-17-2009, 03:40 AM

--- SpyBlaster
--- SpyBot

--- Portable FireFox (my thinking it should use less memory than Full Version)
--- portable GIMP is still undecided

--- VLC 0.8.6

BARTPE

...my question with mp4, never done it...

Short question: what for?

Detailed:
both spyblaster and spybot -- what for? Why both? You use it once a
month or even less, so why two?
Portable firefox, gimp -- what for? don't you have a gig of memory?
Bartpe? seriously, what for? that's a repair/troubleshoot tool, not a
day-to-day os!
mp4 -- can't you use a decent container format?
also, get rid of that crap vlc and put something like mpc-hc or smplayer
on it.

Cpl Ledanek

03-17-2009, 02:34 PM

Short question: what for?

Detailed:
both spyblaster and spybot -- what for? Why both? You use it once a
month or even less, so why two?

----extra security? like a shotgun...make it double-barrel...to make sure.

Portable firefox, gimp -- what for? don't you have a gig of memory?
---- minimize memory usage? does upgrading to 2G void warranty btw?

Bartpe? seriously, what for? that's a repair/troubleshoot tool, not a
day-to-day os!
--- exactly, repair/trouble shoot...might be doing some modding to it.
would nLite be better?

mp4 -- can't you use a decent container format?
--- mp4 is the only one I just learned today. I didn't know what mp4 until yesterday...trying it on Matrix Reloaded and fit well in my 16GB Corsair Voyager, 977MB...what do you suggest? I only have Handbrake.fr for movie converter/compressor...

also, get rid of that crap vlc and put something like mpc-hc or smplayer
on it.
--- does mpc-hc or smplayer have wallpaper feature?....sometimes I like playing Planet Earth or Shark Week episode as my desktop wallpaper video.
I'll d/l mpc-hc or smplayer to give it a whirl...:up:

thanks for your suggestions

Frank M

03-18-2009, 11:24 AM

----extra security? like a shotgun...make it double-barrel...to make sure.

Okay, up to you :)
IMO 1 is enough and less trouble.

Portable firefox, gimp -- what for? don't you have a gig of memory?
---- minimize memory usage? does upgrading to 2G void warranty btw?

If it has a warranty sticker over the back compartment's door, then
it woids the warranty. If not, then you can replace it.
BTW it will work fine with just 1GB. My Vaio came preloaded with
bloatware, so it has higher mem-use than usual; and Ff is running now
with 12 tabs, IE with 2 tabs, and the machine has not been turned
off for a couple of days, just hybernated (so programs were not
thrown out of ram). Current mem use: 510MBs. So 1GB will be fine
for web and office programs.

For photoshop-like stuff, I still recommend using a desktop: the
netbook's resolution is not quite suited to the task.

Bartpe? seriously, what for? that's a repair/troubleshoot tool, not a
day-to-day os!
--- exactly, repair/trouble shoot...might be doing some modding to it.
would nLite be better?

Yes, nlite would be better; though even a plain, non-nlite xp-pro-sp3
will be fine. BartPE is not a day-to-day os, it was trimmed down a
lot to fit on small pendrives, and lacks some services.
For repair/troubleshoot with BartPE, I recommend putting it on a
pendrive, and booting a machine from that pendrive, as is it's intended
use.

mp4 -- can't you use a decent container format?
--- mp4 is the only one I just learned today. I didn't know what mp4 until yesterday...trying it on Matrix Reloaded and fit well in my 16GB Corsair Voyager, 977MB...what do you suggest? I only have Handbrake.fr for movie converter/compressor...

.mp4 is a container: it contains a video and an audio stream.
.avi is also a container, also video and audio stream.
.mkv, another container format, has separate subtitles and the video
and audio streams. That way, you can select subtitles, or switch them
off in a movie.
The video's size depends on the compression/encoding format used
(mpeg2 - mpeg4avc aka h264 - etc) and on the resolution.

As for converter... I used to use the mplayer's mencoder-based "super",
which is a free converter with a wide range out output format and
settings. There may be some other better ones, but I heard this is still
quite good.

also, get rid of that crap vlc and put something like mpc-hc or smplayer
on it.
--- does mpc-hc or smplayer have wallpaper feature?....sometimes I like playing Planet Earth or Shark Week episode as my desktop wallpaper video.
I'll d/l mpc-hc or smplayer to give it a whirl...

:shrug:
All I can tell you is that currently mpc-hc is the only free player that
has support for hw decoding acceleration; also, it runs out-of-the-box,
with the necessary codecs already by it's side; and mplayer is probably
the most popular open-source player, it has lots of settings available in
its commandline, an own set of codecs, and can be tuned to run well
on weak hw -- smplayer is a skin/gui for mplayer, which gives it a
simpler but useable gui menu.
I recommend these, they work better and with less trouble than all
vlc and the like.
As for wallpaper feature, I never tried that. If I want to watch a movie,
then I watch the movie, not the wallpaper :D

If you watch you wallpaper (:p:), I also recommend Fences.
It can arrange icons, and make them appear/disappear at a doubleclick.

Cpl Ledanek

03-18-2009, 02:35 PM

Okay, up to you :)
:shrug:
All I can tell you is that currently mpc-hc is the only free player that
has support for hw decoding acceleration; also, it runs out-of-the-box,
with the necessary codecs already by it's side; and mplayer is probably
the most popular open-source player, it has lots of settings available in
its commandline, an own set of codecs, and can be tuned to run well
on weak hw -- smplayer is a skin/gui for mplayer, which gives it a
simpler but useable gui menu.
I recommend these, they work better and with less trouble than all
vlc and the like.
As for wallpaper feature, I never tried that. If I want to watch a movie,
then I watch the movie, not the wallpaper :D

If you watch you wallpaper (:p:), I also recommend Fences.
It can arrange icons, and make them appear/disappear at a doubleclick.

I've d/l smplayer and Fences...that is one kewl app:up:...what is difference between Stand Alone Filters and HomeCinema?
I'll be d/l both and wait till what you recommend :up:

Frank M

03-18-2009, 03:22 PM

MPC-HC is the whole package, mpc-hc stand-alone filters are just
the filters (codecs).

Cpl Ledanek

03-18-2009, 04:28 PM

MPC-HC is the whole package, mpc-hc stand-alone filters are just
the filters (codecs).

thanks Frank M for all your help :up:

Frank M

03-19-2009, 03:39 AM

No problem, have fun :)

ToTTenTranz

03-20-2009, 07:29 AM

If it's a 10-incher and price isn't really a problem, why not the Asus N10J?

You get a Geforce 9300M G that should cope really well with MPC:HC in rendering high-definition content.
And when you don't need it, just turn it off and you'll have the same 7 hours as the 1000HE.

AnXioZ

03-20-2009, 07:48 AM

Because

Need to buy netbook fast...

For me if time wasn't a factor, than most certainly I would wait a few months till summer till ION notebooks pop out.

Also a lot of speculations on Apple netbook recently. That is nice in concept, but Apple and low priced notebook/netbook just doesn't go together. It's like Mercedes releasing a 10,000$ car to compete with Saturn :confused:

Frank M

03-20-2009, 08:47 AM

If it's a 10-incher and price isn't really a problem, why not the Asus N10J?

Around here, it's just too darn expensive.
For it's price, you can get two run-of-the-mill 8.9" netbooks or a 12.1"
subnotebook with a C2D and higher resolution screen...

If they released it with the newer chipset (Z530 + US15W), a larger
battery (these are currently sold with a 3-cell :rolleyes:), an 11.1"
non-glossy 1366×768 screen, then it would be just great; especially
since it also has an hdmi slot; but as it is... well, I guess they don't
want to cannibalize more profitable subnotebook-sales for netbooks...

Kean

03-20-2009, 10:39 AM

U100 has nice design and good performance, I think it good idea.
In the future will be U115 which has great battery -> 10-12 and even 15h on it.

Cpl Ledanek

03-20-2009, 06:52 PM

learning more about Rainlendar and its weather sidebar and RSS feature....finally happy I got my weather apps

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9395/60347021.th.jpg (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=60347021.jpg)

top: RocketDock.....still looking for a darker set of icons to match my dark tone theme...could use help there
side: current version of free Rainlendar
bottom: Rainmeter with Enigma config found in Lifehacker.com

@Frank M, the media player recommended had less static vs VLC when I was watching Bourne Ultimatum (using PSP settings for Handrake.fr)...very glad you recommended it....

love using the EasyGesture add-on for my portable FF...it makes easier for scrolling/tabs/bookmarking when at work....though I find myself (at home) with my USB wireless notebook mouse (MS) better and less strains on the wrist.