Atom vs. Dothan... might be time to move on from a Vaio T. *Netbook help*

[ZeroOne]

Curious what everyone would get in this situation... or if there's anything out there THAT much better, yet. Any comments or opinions are appreciated!

I've had a Vaio T250 "netbook" for around 5 years now. It's been a GREAT laptop, but it is starting to show its age. Namely, the 1GB max memory combined with a 1.8" SLOOOOOWWW hard drive (with IDE interface) and deteriorating battery. Down to around 1.5hr with light usage now. (Used to be around 5hrs.) Can't even answer a Skype call on the first try. If you don't catch it immediately, the lag from the HD is so bad, you miss the call in skype.

Anyway....
How does the Atom compare to the 1.2Ghz ULV 753 Dothan (Pentium M)? I've heard the Atom has to be significantly faster in speed to be equal in performance... any truth to that? Should I go for a Z or an N Atom? Not really understanding the difference there.


I don't know if I'm being too demanding for a netbook, but it doesn't seem to hard to put these specs together in one package:

• 10-11" lcd backlit screen higher than 1024 rez. 1366 would be nice. (T250 is 1280x768 @ 10.6")
  
• at leats 2GB memory (or upgradeable to)
  
• SSD (or at least be able to swap a nice one in myself. so, sata-II needed?)
  
• Win7 (any version, can upgrade later if need be)
  
• LOTS of battery... 6hrs and up. 10+ would be sweet.
  
• 3 lbs or less... and thin if possible. The one thing thats been annoying about the T250 is the way the battery sticks off the back. Totally blows the look and feel of it, making it seem clunky.
  
• The icing on the cake would be LIT KEYS!! Using full size laptops with those, I'm addicted. Absolutely love those.

Has anyone seen the new Sony X series? They seem nice, but the price tag is a little ridiculous, and not really "netbook" territory. (Though, on paper, it's pretty serious.)

2Ghz Z550, 2GB mem, 11.1 screen (1333x768), 14hrs battery (12@max brightness), 64GB SSD, 1.6lbs, .5" thick, win7 home prem. wifi-n, built-in gps, 2 batteries (3.5hr + 14hr extended)

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...specifications

[3dfxManiacz]

I have a 6 years old Toshiba R100, love its design and portable stuff, im still carrying it around whenever i travel oversea. The only thing that bugged me alot was the 1.8 4200rpm HDD performance, it caused so much of lags. I wanted to ditch this laptop and get a netbook for replacement. But there was this last hope from an ebay seller that sells KingSpec 1.8 IDE 50pin ATA 32GB SSD for $170. So i took a risk and tried it... YES, i still love this laptop that's why i dare to burn some money for experiment.

So yeah, after I received the product, I reformatted my winXP and reinstalled everything the way it used to be as in the old harddrive. and BAM! my winXP boot time was totally changed, it took only 5 secs after the fresh format, and 10secs after several windows usage compared to 22 seconds on the old HDD!! Accessing applications and file folders are no longer lagging, God i love SSD. If you happen to have SSD replacement for your old sony vaio HDD why don't you try it as well? it's just worth it!

[ZeroOne]

I totally agree with you! Only problem is... I cannot find the 1.8" IDE SSD anywhere! Been looking around for quite a while... but can't seem to find anything that looks reliable or would work. Seems like a very small niche market. With laptops having such a bottleneck with poor hard drive performance, it seems like a company could make quite a bit of money providing this kind of upgrade.

[Gautam]

I've heard good things about the Mtron Mobi 3000, and am intending on buying one myself soon...but it is indeed very expensive. Since it'll breathe new life into old hardware that I like though, that doesn't bother me that much.

[shoota]

Take a look at the 11.6 Acers on Amazon. I forget the exact model number but there's one that has a dual core ulv CPU, 2gb ram w7 64 bit, etc. Pretty close to the specs u listed. Its like five hundred something, my mom has two and really likes them

[ZeroOne]

Thank you both for that info! That SSD looks awesome... though... the price is half way to a new netbook!

Speaking of which... the acer looks pretty nice... if that HD is a 2.5 sata (to swap to an SSD) and the memory is upgradeable.. it might be a good option as well.

Sorry for the delayed post... haven't been on in a while.

[BababooeyHTJ]

This was $150 at Newegg not too long ago, apparently it's a rebagded 80GB Intel Gen1. I would like some confirmation on that one but still seems like a solid 1.8" ssd.

Much better deal than that Mtron imo.

[miahallen]

This was $150 at Newegg not too long ago, apparently it's a rebagded 80GB Intel Gen1. I would like some confirmation on that one but still seems like a solid 1.8" ssd.

Much better deal than that Mtron imo.

It's not re-badged...IT IS an Intel 80GB drive...it's just distributed by DANE-ELEC with adapters for various usage.

Packaging Content:
1. 1.8" 80GB Intel X18-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive
2. Adapter and Case for 2.5" SATA internal drive
3. 2.5" Dane-Elec Enclosure and USB cable for data migration and to re-use your old internal drive as an external back-up drive
4. 64 MB USB with migration software for both PC and Mac
5. Quick Start Guide

I use a 2.5" version of this drive in my desktop, and although it's much better than my Velociraptor, it has started to have "SSD stutter" problems. Nothing like the jmicro controller based SSDs that stutter for 2-3 seconds at a time...but mild stuttering (maybe 0.1s to 0.2s stutters) now that the drive has had heavy usage for about a year.

edit - problem is, your IDE interface won't work with these newer SATA drives. So an upgrade is your only good option I think (especially cause you want your battery life back).

[YukonTrooper]

Are you stuck on the small screen sizes? There are some real nice 12.1" and 13.3" options.

[BababooeyHTJ]

That Dane-elec drive is back at $150 with promo code DaneElec80GB at newegg, btw.

[>HyperlogiK<]

I doubt that any of the single core Atom systems would be much more powerful. A couple of people with hardcore SMT soldering equipment upgraded the first gen Atom netbooks with Pentium Ms and found a significant performance boost.

But sticking a new SSD in an ancient dying portable machine probably isn't the ideal answer either, if you are set on a really SFF mobile machine I would either go for one of the few dual core Atom based machines like the Eee PC 1201N or spend a bit more and get one of the smaller CULVs. The new Alienware M11x is pretty tiny and I just ordered one with an upgraded CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 7200RPM HDD for $200 off the usual price and this would surely kick the ass of any Atom or Dothan based machine.