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The guy is right, they all do that.

Personally I think the HP netbook is a better machine for the price, and I really like their customer service. Also, if you are going to screw around on the internet, you will want antivirus, unless you get the HP with Ubuntu on it.

Zata wrote: I'm on the internet quite a bit without any protection and I've never had a problem.  Some may think its stupid but I think that antivirus stuff just slows down a computer.

I would guess your antivirus experience thus far has only been with the bloated stuff that comes with computer (norton, mcafee, etc).  Try something like Avast!, which runs completely in the background, uses almost no processing power, and you only really notice it when it has a security alert or when it announces that it has updated your virus database.  It's also free.

Acer Aspire One 8.9".

I would stay away from HP notebooks only because their touchpads (on the models I have fondled) use a horrible material. The surface does not allow ones finger to slide with any ease. The same goes for their touchsmart computer screen.

IMO, stay away from Acer. My friend/ classmate that I do all my work with had one and it was HORRIBLE, and the customer service/"repairs" he got were entirely useless until the thing was a complete brick. My gf also has one and its almost more cumbersome than a desktop and incredibly slow. I know it's just personal experience but I'm just not a fan

mbro wrote: Man you've been putting your "my friend had an acer and it sucked" story in every computer thread for the past fourty-six years.

Fine. I'll help him out. I have an Acer laptop and it sucks.

The Acer monitor I have, on the other hand, is pretty damn good.




Edited by Tolgak - 14 June 2009 at 10:26am

I'm not too concerned about the touch pads, I hate them and plan on getting a mouse.

mbro wrote: Man you've been putting your "my friend had an acer and it sucked" story in every computer thread for the past fourty-six years.

Sure do

Rofl_Mao wrote: Zata wrote: I'm on the internet quite a bit without any protection and I've never had a problem.  Some may think its stupid but I think that antivirus stuff just slows down a computer. Thats because you dont have anything to show you the viruses. I bet if you had a program then you would see alot of trojans and spyware.

Most likely. I've seen some pretty horrid infections on systems that had Norton or McAfee installed without the latest updates. And, honestly, the worst ones are often the ones that you don't notice. Think about it. If somebody wants your credit card or SSN, they'll try to trick you into downloading a trojan and then probably use that to put a keylogger on your system. Both of which will likely be unnoticeable but will allow somebody to see everything you type which could include account names/numbers, passwords, SSN, etc. Then they can steal your identity and really screw things up for you. It may sound paranoid but it's actually getting more common as things like online banking get more popular. If you run windows, you need something to keep that kind of crap off your system. Even if you just use free stuff like AVG, Spybot, and Ad-aware (all 3 have paid and free versions), you need something. I run all 3 of those and have never had an issue or serious slow-downs. AVG is much less intrusive than Norton or McAfee and there are other good ones too.

Anyway, back to what computer to buy. Your situation is exactly what netbooks were created for. They're small, powerful enough for basic computing, and they get great battery life. Since netbooks are such a new thing, they pretty much all use the Intel Atom processor and nearly identical hardware. The difference between them is basically just the case the hardware comes in. I think Asus (the company that started the netbook craze) just released a new version of the EeePC which is supposed to be pretty good. My friend and his girlfriend both have the MSI Wind which they seem to like. Verizon and possibly some other phone companies are offering netbooks cheap but I believe they make you pay for the Verizon wireless internet stuff for a certain length of time. It's basically the same deal you get with the phones. They pay for the device or part of it so long as you sign a contract to use their service for some period of time. I haven't looked into it much but I do remember hearing about it and I think that's how it worked. I would just go on a site like newegg or just google some reviews on some various netbooks like the Wind or EeePC and see what people say about things that aren't in the specs like build quality and customer service.

just go to the store and play around around with them. then compare prices and buy the one you want, since they are all going to do what you want. and i would spend more than $350. but that's just me.