What do you think of netbooks with intels Atom?

[Snafu]

I came across some "netbooks" using intel's atom processor (1.6GHz, 533MHz bus, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM).

I was wondering if anyone has one and what people think. They look like they would be handy to have for mobile processing/surfing. I started to think that one of these might be handy around the house because:
- all my computers are downstairs so this would let me use the computer around the house.
- with its portability I thought it might replace my puny 13" tv in the bedroom (hook it up to a nice 22" LCD screen to watch some movies or tv that is streamed through a media server downstairs).
- when I am out camping and such I am still able to stay "connected" (if there is a net connection).

The down side with these devices is that they seem pricey as they are sub-$500 which is about the same price as a low-end laptop. The netbooks do not have any internal optical drives. Thumb drives could upload stuff to the netbook but more hassle than a laptop.

Just wondering what people thought.

[yamawho]

I purchased the original Asus EeePC about a year ago and it's still going strong.
My kids use it mostly now to chat from the bedroom.
I installed easy peasy on it ...

I am also using an Atom based intel mobo with 1GB of ram running XP on the TV in my kitchen.
Used a 100GB laptop hdd and it runs fairly well, it little slow at times.
I do steam videos from the server using a wireless usb dongle without issues on my 22 inch LCD TV.

[Snafu]

I thought these were pretty cool little devices. At least on the surface. Glad to hear yours is holding up well.

What is easy peasy?

Were you able to up load movies to it or just stream them off your server?

[yamawho]

Originally Posted by Snafu

I thought these were pretty cool little devices. At least on the surface. Glad to hear yours is holding up well.

What is easy peasy?

Were you able to up load movies to it or just stream them off your server?

Easy Peasy here ...
Main Page - Easy Peasy wiki

Both, I am able to load them on to it and stream off the server.

[ipaine]

I got a Asus EeePC 1000HA and generally my wife likes it very much.

I currently have Vista Ultimate on it (well a slightly stripped down version thanks to vlite) and it runs it not too bad. We do have a 160GB drive in it but of course no optical, but really you don't need one. Daemon tools, and being able to boot from the USB key or SD card. Heck that is how I installed Vista, right off of the SD card.

So yes the price is a little high considering you could get a 15" notebook for basically the same, but man these are small but still usable and nice and light.

All in all I like it.

[gingerbee]

wifes got a acer aspire one and loves the thing go every where with her

[JD]

My mom has an Acer Aspire One. You can read my little review here: Acer Aspire One - Mini-Review

I had Windows 7 Beta on it as well and it ran surprisingly well. A touch slow at times but nothing serious. Ran all the effects fine too. However I'm sure the final Windows 7 will run perfectly on it considering the Beta runs so well.

I'd suggest getting one with a hard drive so that you can install Windows easily and not have to worry about the SSD dying.

[Snafu]

Thanks folks. Appreciate the input. These do look like amazing little machines.

Easy Peasy is bookmarked. Looks pretty good.

[MacJunky]

I have an aspire one with 1GB ram, 120GB HDD and XP. Yes, for light things it is ok, takes a bit of time to start gimp for quick image re-size though and to be perfectly honest browsing the web at 1024x600 does really suck some of the time. I think the biggest bottleneck for me is the HDD because whenever it seems to be doing something slowly the HDD light is solid at least 95% of the times I check. I have watched a few movies on it with no issues but the screen is really a bit small for that sort of thing in my opinion.
Love the SD card slots though, I never use USB to transfer pics from my camera to computers anymore, I just pop out the SD card and stick it in one of the two slots. :)

Overall, I would still buy it again given the choice and $400. If I had $100 or $200 more to spend on a portable computer I would get a regular sized notebook.

*Edit
I am using it right now to poke around HWC as well as chat in the IRC channel. By the way, get into the IRC channel now people!

[CMetaphor]

I'm waiting for the Samsung N20 - From what I've heard, a VIA nano @ the same freq. as Intel's Atom slaughters the Atom in just about everything. And the VX800 chipset thats supposed to go with the Nano is far far better than the Atom's 945-whatever-old chipset. So in short, I'm waiting for Nano.