Just Brought a Inspiron Mini 9

[riceboy]

I am so excited about getting this new laptop. It has 1GB of memory, 16 GB SSD, 8.9 inch LED display (1024 X 600), XP Home SP3, LAN and Wi-fi, weights 2.28 lbs and is pretty small to boot. I can't wait to get this thing in and try it out. Battery life isn't that bad at 3 to 4 hours as well.

[krrm]

Congrats and have fun with your new toy. What do you plan to use it for?

I have mentally ordered an ASUS 901 w/Linux, mostly due to increased battery life. They will be released here on the 16th. it seems.

[riceboy]

Thanks krm. I was looking at that Asus 901 as well. Have fun if you do get it.

I'm probably going to use it to surf the web, but I will definitely be using it more for the ability to have all my networking and security tools on it. It is easier for me to go to a site with a smaller laptop to evaluate a network. Don't need a powerful laptop for that.

[deepak]

Dude you're getting a Dell guy approves!

That's a pretty sweet looking laptop

[aardvark baguette]

dibs on the pencil

[en480c4]

Isn't that Richard Hammond for "Top Gear" and not the Dell guy

[riceboy]

I'll definitely let you guys know how I like it. I was looking at the ASUS 901 that krm mentioned as well. It does have 8 hours instead of 4 hours of battery life and another USB port with wireless at g and n. I just got a good deal from Dell so it was hard to pass up. The guy I purchased it from at Dell is going to waive the restock fee if it doesn't work out for me and pay shipping back on their dime. Overall I am trying it out for about for free I guess. I was also looking at the Asus N10 that will be coming out with 10.2 inch screen but it looks to be more expensive. I hope this works out for me as I'm wondering how it will perform in a real world setting as I haven't had any experience with the new Atom processors from Intel.

[slwiser]

I just ordered one as well. I plan on using it with my USB HD 320 GB and DAC/Amp. This one is dead silent and should work well as a music server.

[aardvark baguette]

my small hp has spoiled me for all other laptops now. Its so damn convenient around the house, like surfing the web on the couch in front of the TV. Our 17" lappie feels gargantuan now.

Oh, and pics or ban.

[slwiser]

My Dell Mini is suppose to ship in mid-Oct.

[naamanf]

I'm quite happy with my Dell M1730. All 15lbs and 30min of battery life:eek:

I am waiting till something slim like the MB Air comes out.

[JimP]

This thread and an incoming PICO motivated me to pick up a netbook. Ended up with an Asus 1000H, bumped up memory to 2gig and HD to 320gig and 6-cell battery (uh...not cheap anymore, but I figure this will allow me to carry around 200gig+ of pure flac music). Still charging up battery and loading key programs (eg Foobar, etc). So far, I like.

[tkam]

I hope this works out for me as I'm wondering how it will perform in a real world setting as I haven't had any experience with the new Atom processors from Intel.

It should be ok for doing very basic work, minimal web browsing, email and word processing. Other than that don't count on being able to do much very quickly. While Intel has hyped up Atom a hell of a lot it's really designed more for UMPC's and other ultra mobile/portable devices not laptops and netbooks. Via's Nano cpu is a much better cpu than Atom and hopefully will get more use in laptops and netbooks in the future.

[n_maher]

For me the Macbook is as small as I need to go. The screen is big enough for just about everything, the chassis is small enough to be highly portable and the battery life is great.

[morphsci]

This thread and an incoming PICO motivated me to pick up a netbook. Ended up with an Asus 1000H, bumped up memory to 2gig and HD to 320gig and 6-cell battery (uh...not cheap anymore, but I figure this will allow me to carry around 200gig+ of pure flac music). Still charging up battery and loading key programs (eg Foobar, etc). So far, I like.

I also have a 1000H (1G, 80G HD and std battery). Had it for a month and I love it. It is exceptionally useful and I find myself reaching for it more and more often.

I'll probably bump up the memory to 2G and I may opt for the 6-cell battery if it doesn't add too much to the bulk/weight. I'll just use an outboard HD because I want to eventually put in a 64GB SSD when the prices descend from the stratosphere.

[riceboy]

This thread and an incoming PICO motivated me to pick up a netbook. Ended up with an Asus 1000H, bumped up memory to 2gig and HD to 320gig and 6-cell battery (uh...not cheap anymore, but I figure this will allow me to carry around 200gig+ of pure flac music). Still charging up battery and loading key programs (eg Foobar, etc). So far, I like.

I just brought the Asus 1000H as well about the same time as the Dell. Amazon had it for $449.00 with free shipping . I just got it in yesterday and I am loving it. It boots up quickly and is running all my programs just nicely. The 2GB memory is coming in today and I can't wait to get it in. I just used it at a client's site and it was just perfect. Even typing on it isn't bad at all. I'm still want to use it for a longer time before I make my conclusions about it, but so far so good.

My Dell Mini is suppose to ship in mid-Oct.

My Dell should be shipping out tomorrow I hope. I called them yesterday and they let me know that it was on time for shipping tomorrow. I did order it on the first day it was on Dell's site which was 9.4.08. Let us know when you get yours slwiser

[riceboy]

It should be ok for doing very basic work, minimal web browsing, email and word processing. Other than that don't count on being able to do much very quickly. While Intel has hyped up Atom a hell of a lot it's really designed more for UMPC's and other ultra mobile/portable devices not laptops and netbooks. Via's Nano cpu is a much better cpu than Atom and hopefully will get more use in laptops and netbooks in the future.

I haven't used my Asus 1000H a bunch yet but for browsing the web and doing word processing it works plenty fast. I haven't tested out much just yet but I will try and keep the thread updated on my results .

[krrm]

It should be ok for doing very basic work, minimal web browsing, email and word processing. Other than that don't count on being able to do much very quickly. While Intel has hyped up Atom a hell of a lot it's really designed more for UMPC's and other ultra mobile/portable devices not laptops and netbooks. Via's Nano cpu is a much better cpu than Atom and hopefully will get more use in laptops and netbooks in the future.

Via cpu's FTW. I've had a VIA cpu in my home server for seven years (was a 833 MHz C3, now a 1.5Ghz C7). Uses next to no power (less then 30 Watt for the whole system). Needs very little cooling and takes very little space and it has enough cpu power.

That said, I would not put it in my desktop machine.

Asus has delayed the delivery of the 901's here for another 14 days.

[Beefy]

Via cpu's FTW.

Ugh! After the dreadful KT133 chipset, I vowed to never use a Via product again

[morphsci]

.... The 2GB memory is coming in today and I can't wait to get it in. ....

Just out of curiosity, where did you order your RAM from?

[grawk]

I get mine from newegg or crucial.com

[gallimaufry]

I bought an ASUS EEE 901 a few weeks ago, the 20GB Linux version (16GB + 4GB, really). The default Linux installation, Xandros, is buggy and very tinker-toy; the first thing I did was install ArchLinux on it. I also bumped up the memory to 2GB, and bought an 8GB SDHC card for it.

The battery life is impressive, I'm getting around 5 to 6 hours out of it, with normal use. You can underclock the CPU pretty easily to boost battery a bit (not much) more, and turning off WiFi buys you even more time. I've been able to watch movies, listen to music, browse the web, without any noticeable lags or speed problems.

The keyboard is tiny, and takes some getting used to. The mousepad buttons are also very stiff, to the point of being almost unusable (but you can tap on the mousepad).

The default Ralink wireless driver for Linux is moderately broken; one of the first tasks most Linux users do is get the patched version of the driver. There's source code available to compile the driver yourself, or a compiled version available for most Linux distros (Ubuntu, ArchLinux, Debian, Gentoo, etc.)

The Pico I ordered should arrive any day now, I think it will be a good match for it.

[blessingx]

Yeah keep us informed. Curious of your experiences. Although I haven't yet convinced myself the size (main selling point for me) difference between a net/cloudbook and my MacBook is enough to warrant, I have been following the MSI/Asus/Aser/HP/Dell offerings. Found out yesterday my employer offers a Dell Mini discount. $7 off!

[krrm]

I bought an ASUS EEE 901 a few weeks ago, the 20GB Linux version (16GB + 4GB, really). The default Linux installation, Xandros, is buggy and very tinker-toy; the first thing I did was install ArchLinux on it. I also bumped up the memory to 2GB, and bought an 8GB SDHC card for it.

I almost have a 120GB 1.8" external drive I sort of wanted to use with my 901 to come. Almost because there was two connector "strips" with the enclosure, one for Hitatchi disks and one for Toshiba. I got a Toshiba disk. Guess which strip I can't find?

Did you test if there was any noticable performance gains by increasing memory? I got a feeling that Linux is very good at utilizing "spare" memory, but I've never seen any numbers for that.

Which (if any) desktop enviroment do you use?

[Iron_Dreamer]

hehe, the KT133 was pretty damn bad. all the old Via chipsets were bad, though.

Hmmm...I have a system running a KT266A chipset, and it is going into year 7 of service here in a month or two, completely problem free. Though I did go through a few not-so-hot VIA based boards as well.