I absolutely love this new EeePC I bought from Asus. My laptop at work died, and seeing as it was over 6 years old I decided I didn’t need to replace it with anything too powerful. Most of my heavy lifting is done by other computers. The computer I use most often I use for Microsoft Office, web browsing, and controlling other computers. So, my needs were simple. I didn’t need the latest 3D graphics for gaming. I thought – well what about these little netbooks that run Windows on them?
I’d been using something similar for a month or so at the office (a self-built nettop, uses the same kind of processor) and was pleased with the results. So I thought, what they hey and took the plunge. $360 (I added RAM) later, I have this awesome little netbook as my most-used computer. I’m not worried about its small size, because usually when I’m using it its hooked up to a large LCD flat panel, keyboard and mouse. When I’m on the road with it, in meetings etc, the keyboard on this model is large enough to type effectively. It has WiFi, wired NIC, 3 USB ports, 160GB of hard drive space, 2GB of RAM… sweet little machine.
One thing that was starting to bug me was the number of things I had to plug into the machine when I sat down at my desk. I’ve been able to reduce it to 4: network, monitor, power, USB hub (for headphones, keyboard, mouse). I could, if I really wanted to, move the network and monitor over to a USB replicator and only have to plug in two devices – but I’ll wait on that. Another thing that was bothering me was the monitor setup. Whenever I was in the office I was reconfiguring video settings every time – that was before I found the scheme settings in my graphics adapter (Intel) that allowed me to save many preferences. And I can even have a program run when I choose a scheme – like mapping all of my drives (since its Windows XP Home, its not added to the domain – but I can still access the devices if I put in the right username/password).
I specifically didn’t buy this unit from a cell phone provider because doing so signs you up for a 2-year contract for $40 (or more) a month to get Internet service from them for it. Almost everywhere I go I have access to WiFi, so I didn’t think this was necessary. Also, having the Internet built into the netbook would have been limiting for me. I can always get one of their new MiFi devices or get the USB wireless adapters for more portability between devices. This way I can just buy 1 of these for the company and hand it out to whomever needs it the most at any given time. Or tether my phone (Verizon lets you do that for a fee…. AT&T doesn’t with their iPhone – another reason for me not to switch).
Anyway, I vote yes to netbooks. But I have a lot of other computers, too. So, for gaming I have my home PC set up to game on. This will still play some good games ,but not the new intensive 3d graphics ones.
