Are Netbooks Good for Music?

[The Monkey]

My laptop is dying. I want a MacBook Pro, but I'm not sure that's in the cards right now. So I'm considering a Netbook. I wouldn't be doing much more than surfing the ol' internets and some light MS Office stuff. But I would also want to be able to load the thing up with tunes and be able to use it as a portable listening/server solution. Is a Netbook in the $300 range capable of this?

Oh, and I want it to be reasonably fast.

[screaming oranges]

Dinny, it can do everything you asked except for one thing: be fast.

I have a netbook I use when i just surf the web and listen to music (see my setup in the Dec meet thread). The music doesn't suffer. At least, not that I can tell. Mine is an Asus eeepc that is over a year old, so I am sure it is not the latest tech-wise, but it gets the job done. I forget the exact specs, but I can get those when I get home after work. I attach an external drive to it and access all the music therein. My eeepc has a small solid state drive for the OS, and a slot for SD cards that I use to store documents I work on. It boots up quick due to the solid state drive, but it is a little slow opening programs, closing them, streaming... etc.

As I said, for music playback straight out of an external, it does the job.

I got mine from Pangaea over at head-fi. Here is the link to that:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f43/fs-like-new-eeepc-901-xp-414424/

It's truly a worthwhile investment for me. I use it much more than I thought I would.

[aardvark baguette]

*fast

*affordable

*light/small

-------------

pick any two

[n_maher]

*fast

*affordable

*light/small

-------------

pick any two

Add to that (in some way) the fact that you are most definitely getting what you pay for and that no $200/$300 netbook is ever going to "feel" as nice as a proper laptop. My Asus, which is similar to SO's I think, is quick enough to not be annoying doing light task work and within a few weeks I hope to have it setup as my music server running the Slimserver software. I'll report how it does at that but I expect it'll be just fine.

[GPH]

It might be worth it for listening to music and watching videos, but if you plan to do any serious work, it won't replace a real laptop. I have a MSI Wind U100 and I find that just browsing the internet on a 10'' screen is a tedious task, and I never get as productive as on my MacBook for writing documents. The slower speed doesn't bother me so much compared to the screen size/resolution. I liked the idea of getting a netbook and the tech gadget freak inside me wanted one so I bought one for cheap to see if it would suit me, but in the end I think a 13''-14'' laptop is best compromise between portability and good computer experience.

Edited December 11, 2009 by GPH

[jp11801]

the asus that I owned now with Nate was great as a music server for windows programs. I had mine set up with foobar and a plug in to bypass the kmixer. Not a machine that I would want to perform cpu intensive tasks but playing music is not a cpu intensive task by a log shot. Matched with the pico map/dac it was a nice transportable set up.

[Dusty Chalk]

I wouldn't do both. Go ahead and get two.

[grawk]

a netbook is fine for light office/web/music use. That's what i use my toshiba for. The build quality is lower on the cheaper ones, but they're still perfectly functional.

[blessingx]

Dinny, no interest in waiting until the possible Apple tablet* announcement in four weeks? Course who knows what your server options will be (at least likely NAS and Airport Express).

*or various Androids tablets.

[atothex]

I think my netbook is reasonably fast. I can run foobar, Opera, standard def vids, and SNES games, so I'm good. It won't run modern games or movies, but I assume you don't care about that kind of functionality on a netbook. The only issue is that web browsing is a bit iffy.

[mypasswordis]

It won't run modern games or movies, but I assume you don't care about that kind of functionality on a netbook. The only issue is that web browsing is a bit iffy.

I'm waiting on the Nvidia Ion chips to become more prevalent, and/or the new AMD CPU to come out. I'd prefer more processing power than an Atom with integrated graphics, though it is enough for foobar and web browsing for the most part.

[padam]

There is also the option of a Broadcom Crystal HD chip on a few netbooks which provides accelerated Flash and H.264 video playback and costs much less than the ION.

[The Monkey]

Dinny, no interest in waiting until the possible Apple tablet* announcement in four weeks? Course who knows what your server options will be (at least likely NAS and Airport Express).

*or various Androids tablets.

Oddly, I'm not that psyched about the tablet. Kinda strikes me as neither here nor there. In the end, what I really want is the MacBook Pro.

[mrarroyo]

I am looking at the Toshiba T115-S1100 for $449. Anyone here use it?

Satellite T115-S1100 Laptops - PST1AU-00S005 | Toshiba Direct

[jinp6301]

I suggest you do not get the celeron processor.

[deepak]

I'm waiting on the Nvidia Ion chips to become more prevalent, and/or the new AMD CPU to come out. I'd prefer more processing power than an Atom with integrated graphics, though it is enough for foobar and web browsing for the most part.

The Ion should be pretty nice from everything I've read.

[mypasswordis]

It should definitely be very nice, but the Atom is still what's holding netbooks back. This, on the other hand, is almost laptop level:

Asus Eee PC 1201T to feature AMD Congo processor

New AMD Congo dual core with ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics. Tradeoff will be battery life, though.

[luvdunhill]

the asus that I owned now with Nate was great as a music server for windows programs. I had mine set up with foobar and a plug in to bypass the kmixer. Not a machine that I would want to perform cpu intensive tasks but playing music is not a cpu intensive task by a log shot. Matched with the pico map/dac it was a nice transportable set up.

yeah, but how can you get the "minimum requirement" of 8G RAM in there?

[n_maher]

The problem that I have is that at 12" it's not a netbook anymore. They are ruining their own concept...

[mypasswordis]

I think the current trend is toward larger netbooks and into the "ultraportable" realm which bridges the gap between netbooks and notebooks, since some people don't like cramped keyboards and small screens. My dad's 10" Aspire One really is a bit hard for me to use, but I agree that 12" is only 1" away from MacBook Pros and some Windows/Linux based notebooks.

[jp11801]

yeah, but how can you get the "minimum requirement" of 8G RAM in there?

if you are referring to amarra well it will not run on a windows book so no need and 4 G is just fine btw on the apple mini or macbooks

[ZoNtO]

I suggest you do not get the celeron processor.

The Celeron in netbooks and ultraportables is different than the old Celeron processors and is faster than the Atom.

[Vodka]

I bought an EEE 900 off a friend and I was satisfied enough with it to sell my laptop. The 4GB thing doesn't really matter to me since my files/music's on my server.

[deepak]

netbooks are terrible for music. really the only things you could do with it are hit it with drumsticks, and i imagine that the hollow plastic most of them are shelled with will make it unsatisfactory as a percussion instrument, or maybe produce some kind of squeak if it had bad hinges. i suggest instead that you get a banjo, or something similar. much better for music.

Have you double blind tested this?

[GPH]

netbooks are terrible for music. really the only things you could do with it are hit it with drumsticks, and i imagine that the hollow plastic most of them are shelled with will make it unsatisfactory as a percussion instrument, or maybe produce some kind of squeak if it had bad hinges.

Sounds perfect for covering Metallica's latest albums.