Netbook + SSD + Battery?

[ExcaliburMM]

Greetings Anand,
I recently started college and wanted to throw together a nice Netbook and SSD combo. However its always best to do some homework before buying anything.

For the netbook
Originally I had planned to just grab something that had decent battery life and could handle notes and various BS tasks, but since its portable and I don't have a dedicated lappy, I wanted to squeeze in a little more. Movies, older games, things of that nature. So this led me to ION, and since ION 2 is now out, and I've heard it improves HD playback, I decided to go with that. My current choice is the ASUS 1201PN, seen here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220760

I hear complaints of bloatware but I figure I'll wipe it and throw on Win7 x32 Ult.

For the SSD
Since battery life is a concern, and I figure it'd make the netbook a bit more responsive on its rather low hardware, it'd be nice to have an SSD. I wanted a little bit of space, but not much. OS, a few movies and games, and a little bit left over for school stuff which is obviously not going to take up much room. However the 32GB just doesn't cut it for this in my mind, so I went with the OCZ Onyx Series 64GB, seen here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227525

And finally, the battery.
By all reports the batteries on most netbooks are rather small and wimpy. I was wondering if I could put a larger (denser?) battery into the netbook, that would occupy the same space but have more cells, or however they're measured. I have no idea where to get one or if this is possible, so I figured I'd ask. Newegg doesn't say what the cell count of the included battery is, but if its a 6, I'd like a 9. Any improvement would be welcome really.

So that's where I'm at. I'd love some recommendations, and thoughts on anything I might've overlooked.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

No comments? Come on guys. At least a 'LOL UR DUMB' or 'Nice choices' would do.

 

[RaiderJ]

I have a netbook and considered an SSD for it... but honestly with the overall cost I'd rather get a CULV notebook. I've put Windows 7 on mine, and it actually runs pretty well with 1GB of RAM, although 2GB would make it run much better I'm sure.

 

[ther00kie16]

yea, get a culv. only reason for better than intel integrated graphics is gaming as even the old 4500m will do hd.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...226&CatId=4965 $540 for su7300 (competent cpu as opposed to atom with 33% oc capability), switchable graphics, 10hr battery life is no-brainer compared to a netbook unless size is an issue. then there's its smaller brother ul30vt, which you have to look up for pricing.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...829&CatId=4938 is a good buy.
basically, i'm saying that atom won't cut it, especially when you start adding all sorts of programs.
probably best to look into new i-series cpus as the integrated graphics is comparable to ion and ion 2 is no better than ion. personally, i think sony z series is the best but that's so much more expensive that even the 13.1" 8-bit 1080p panel doesn't justify it.

 

[Zap]

You should make a decision on what you value more:

Long term usability
vs
Battery life

I've owned a netbook for nearly two years and I pretty much no longer use it, especially after I got my 12.1" CULV notebook. I was always feeling constrained by the netbook, whether due to the low resolution or the low performance. The CULV fixes those two problems nicely and matches my first gen 10" netbook in battery life.

Of course the newer netbooks get much better battery life. If you want really good battery life, get either the Asus 1001P (supposedly has the best netbook screen) with claimed 10 hours or the Asus 1005PE (higher end with higher price but includes stuff like Bluetooth) with claimed 12 hours. They get the battery life by dynamically underclocking the system (making it even slower!). On the flip side they can overclock as well, for a bit more oomph.

BTW my CULV is the Hannspree that ther00kie16 linked.
PRO:
Great keyboard (becoming a rarity these days).
Reasonable performance - able to play most 720P w/o jumping through driver hoops.
Reasonable battery life (I've gotten over 5 hours on a number of occasions).
Tiny button between touchpad buttons to disable/enable touchpad - great for typing.
Really low price.
CON:
Glossy everything. OMFG just... make... it... stop...
Even touchpad is glossy, which is fine until it takes on finger oil and then starts to get sticky (WTF am I doing while using it ).
Hannspree doesn't have over/underclocking utility like Asus does, so performance never gets better and battery life never gets better, unlike Asus CULV offerings.
Because of 12.1" screen (versus more common 11.6" screen) it is a touch heavier/bigger than most other small CULVs.
No Bluetooth.
Intel GMA4500 still not very good. 3D gaming is still painful.

Anyways, the CULV has completely replaced the netbook for me. Unless I decide I need 10-12 hour battery, I'm never going back to a netbook.

It could be argued that ION or the upcoming dual core Atom netbooks make them more powerful, however both those take away from one of the two netbook strengths: Battery life.

 

[Kivada]

I say go the AMD netbook route. Acer has a few decent ones based around the Neo and the HD4225. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115801

I'd pop an SSD in that.

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

Does an SSD in a laptop make it that much more bearable, even on the lowly netbooks? Or is it really CPU limited? I find that whenever the HD is chewing away, the CPU will throttle all the way up to 100%, I wonder if SSDs will eat up the CPU as the hard drive would.

 

[Kivada]

Allot of that is the request process, the rest of the system is twiddling it's thumbs while the HDD is still seeking the requested files scattered around it.

It does make a difference, and you don't have to drop the big bucks on a top end SLC model, just a half decent MLC model with trim support.

 

[vbuggy]

Does an SSD in a laptop make it that much more bearable, even on the lowly netbooks? Or is it really CPU limited? I find that whenever the HD is chewing away, the CPU will throttle all the way up to 100%, I wonder if SSDs will eat up the CPU as the hard drive would.

I don't know about lowly netbooks since I had an Asus netbook for all of half an hour before I said "This is a joke" and gave it to someone, but SSD's make a major difference to me especially on a laptop.

I run SSD's on all of my notebooks, either factory or 3rd party, and use SSD arrays on all of the desktops I sit in front of (servers, etc - yes, still have HDD's), and every time I use someone else's machine I almost literally groan at the poor response, even on a machine similar in CPU class to what I normally use - You just get used to most things happening immediately. And these aren't super-duper solid state storage but regular ones, like the oft-factory-specced Samsungs (encrypted and otherwise), X25-M G2 and the Vertexes.

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

We are far far away from a point in time where SSDs become standard in most laptops sold.

 

[Kivada]

Eh, the only 2 reasons for anyone to not have an SSD in a notebook are cost and if they don't have a desktop, keeping 500Gb of files on a laptop is an epic fail waiting to happen should you drop the laptop. While the SSD will survive it.