kevielumps wrote:Anyone out there know how well these work as Hackintoshes? Will Steve Jobs hunt me down and kill me for asking such a question?

Netbook Compatibility Chart

another chart

instructions at hackintosh.com

Six Months With a Hackintosh Netbook: It Ain’t Pretty

"Their compact size probably comes in handy for people who, like, have things to do and places to go and some kind of purpose in life. Not that I would know. Actually, I kinda hate people like that." Yea, but the wooters DO have a purpose now. They can carry one of these netbooks around while fetching coffee of Jeff Bezos!

HACKINTOSH : Asus Eee PC 1005HAB

I just Bought this and here's what I am doing to upgrade / hackintosh it.

Upgrade to 64 GB SSD:
Tutorial:
http://eeepc1005.blogspot.com/

Part:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=50540&vpn=SNV425-S2%2F64GB&manufacture=Kingston&promoid=1053

Upgrade to 2GB RAM
Tutorial:
http://cegeekbook.blogspot.com/2009/12/asus-1005hab-disassembly-tear-down.html

Part:
http://ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=CORSAIR+VS2GSDS800D2+2GB+PC2-6400


Needs new wifi card
Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yehHh0GmnU0&feature=related

Part:
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=Dell+1510+Mini+PCIE+Half+Height+Wifi+card&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Tutorial to hackintosh'in it:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=617&showentry=803

My total is looking to be around 410 CAD. not bad for a juiced up Asus 1005HAD.

I'll post to let you know how it all comes together. Feel free to post your own upgrade and/or Hackintosh ideas for the Asus Eee PC 1005HAB.

csimmon1 wrote:this is the way to do it woot
i would advise you to get the asus i have seen it last and have very few problems and i see them all the time
and asus has software to change your desktop picture which is one of the draw backs to windows 7 starter.

I bought an Asus from woot a while back and it is still working fine. You can remove Win 7 Starter and just put XP on it. It will perform better too. There are instructions on the web on how to prep it for install without a CD drive.

Didn't anybody mention CVS selling a $100 Sylvania netbook starting next Sunday?

My kids have had 3 of the Acers running windows 7 since last Christmas and I have not had any issues with them at all. I upgraded the memory to 2GB and they are very fast snappy little machines. They do everything they ask of them, including playing some of the games on Steam.

I highly recommend them if you are in the market.

I'm looking for a little machine to do some Python and Java coding on. How do you guys think the eMachine will handle it?

Purchased the D250 Acer refurb w/the case, external DVD, and wireless mouse awhile back. Have not been disappointed in the least. Fast enough for generic work, enough capacity to function as a hub for my photographs, allowing me to stay connected on the go.

Attached an 18 dollar set of Altec-Lansing speakers from Staples, and it functioned well as a movie player using VLC Media Player. Produced surprising results playing movies like Saving Private Ryan while on vacation in the cottage.....

KeplerNiko wrote:Why would you buy a netbook without a SSD? Why on Earth do you need a 250 GB hard disk drive?

Ah, well, if you're seriously considering buying these things you're already hopeless. The last thing I'd want to do is have to contend with Windows 7 Starter (if that's correct) and the miserable specs if any of these netbooks.

MacBook + SSD FTW (but you could probably guess that)!

My Dell Mini 9 now runs Ubuntu from a stick, because the SSD died a horrible death with no real warning. A little research turned up the fact that the SSD has a high fail rate, because it doesn't do well right up against the heat-producing components of a laptop.

My next netbook will NOT have a SSD.

I would have considered the Gateway, but dithered since we're plunking down $$$ on some home improvements this month and next. And now it's gone, so that decision's made for me.

DaHarder wrote:Suggestion: Go for the Gateway as it's the fastest, most powerful of the lot with easily the best battery autonomy.

... and don't forget to dual-boot it to Jolicloud.

That Is All

jolicloud... ahhh, why?!

I have had the slightly older version of that Gateway netbook since last november (black friday purchase at B*** B**). I love it. Incredible battery life. Reliable. Easy to hold. I would recommend it in a second... especially if you have an Olympus camera that uses XD cards. Not a lot of other netbooks can read those built-in

webmonkey1 wrote:Didn't anybody mention CVS selling a $100 Sylvania netbook starting next Sunday?

It runs on Windows CE.

webmonkey1 wrote:Didn't anybody mention CVS selling a $100 Sylvania netbook starting next Sunday?

Have you ever seen the poor quality of a Sylvania... well... ANYTHING?

Which one of these can I turn into a fully functional mac? None of these are listed in the chart here.

http://www.mymacnetbook.com/compatibility-chart/

beware of refurbished products from woot they could be all scratched up and not refurbed as new by manaufacturer I laready have been burned by this by woot read carefully to see if it is reurbed by manufacturer or just a bunch of used laptops someone else says are refurbed and resells them as a refurb but are really used

Smorgas Borgas!

jonartz wrote:I'm looking for a little machine to do some Python and Java coding on. How do you guys think the eMachine will handle it?

Programming should be OK. The main problems are too little ram out of the box, and incredibly short screen.

Some IDE's like Visual Studio or Eclipse have a hard time being used at 600 pixels high. Another problem is some of those IDE's suck up 1 Gig of ram just by starting depending on what modules or plugins you have active. You can plug in an external monitor an increase the resolution to something usable. I've never used win7 starter so it's possible that's disabled, but Ubuntu Netbook Remix is rock solid and MUCH better, and has almost every open source programming tool or language you could imagine easily available.

95% of coding is just typing though and they are decent for that if you've got an external keyboard or little hands. The keys are decent, the touch pads suck or are annoying in my experience. Get a nice mouse.

I like notepad++ or vi myself, I have a bunch of the Acer Aspire's in various colors and they work well. If you transcode your videos to iPhone formats they work well as portable HTPC for long trips for kids. XBMC installs and runs without problems.

DO: use Windows 7. It's fantastic.
DON'T: buy a netbook with an 8GB SSD. One of the worst purchases I've ever made.

oye660 wrote:Which one of these can I turn into a fully functional mac? None of these are listed in the chart here.

http://www.mymacnetbook.com/compatibility-chart/

The ASUS looks to be the closest you'll get from the Woot offerings (I don't know about the eMachines). If you a truly looking for full functionality, I'm afraid none of these will quite do that - you'll need a Dell Mini 10v, which means you'll have to spend more.

What do you guys think of the ASUS model if I added this:

2 GB Memory
64 GB SSD
9-cell battery

The total would be $428. Is that a nice machine for the money?

SeanCon66 wrote:What do you guys think of the ASUS model if I added this:

2 GB Memory
64 GB SSD
9-cell battery

The total would be $428. Is that a nice machine for the money?

I think the answer to that depends on what you want to do with it.

The memory upgrade will almost certainly help, but for some applications, it isn't necessary.

The battery will certainly give you more life, but in effect you're throwing away the purchase price of the included 6-cell battery (which is already better than a 3-cell), for it. Of course, you can carry the other battery as a backup, but you'll be doing a lot of swapping (whether for charging or use).

The SSD drive is the hardest to comment on without knowing what you want. It's expensive, but it will offer better performance. However, netbooks aren't performance beasties to begin with, so it won't let you do magic.

If you want power, get a laptop. If you want convenience/portability, get one of these. Don't expect that tricking out a netbook will allow you to do everything you can on a bigger machine.

I love my Asus EEE. Love it, love it, love it. The battery lasts for several hours, and the performance is just fine for working out of the office (i.e., email, word processing, and some simple web browsing). I've had mine for a little over a year, and I have no complaints at all. I just put the thing in my briefcase and move on.

I did expand the memory as soon as I got it, though, and I do recommend that.


DF

nichademus wrote:Would anyone happen to know if any of these would be good enough to say watch the video from a Slingbox? Without it skipping frames or choppiness?

They are. I used to have the Asus one (since sold it to a friend) and I used it to run Slingplayer. Slingplayer is pretty forgiving, it doesn't need a wicked fast processor. It won't be choppy, but it won't be the highest possible frame rate.

Heads up everyone... I worked at the US refurbishing outlet for 3 months; it's a scary place. The test techs they have are fired every 3 months to avoid having to pay them bennies and the repair techs are required to "clear" 40 units in an 8 hour shift, working at breakneck speeds. I'm not sayin' NOT to buy... just let it be known that the place that's fixing these is a craphole and they only pull 1-2 machines out of every 1000 that go out the door for QA checks...

(Company name is Revonate. They are a sister spring-off of a larger company called Seneca Data, located in Syracuse, NY)

cowboyesfan wrote:Do any of these run OS/X??

According to this chart some of them will run it just fine.

in effect you're throwing away the purchase price of the included 6-cell battery (which is already better than a 3-cell)

Looks like it comes with a 3-cell?

NightGhost wrote:It runs on Windows CE.

There have always been companies trying to foist a "not ready for prime time" OS on an unsuspecting public. Ten years ago it was Brother with a line of laptops running DOS covered over by GEOS. Not a bad system, but it could not run Window 3.1 progs, etc. Doomed to fail. Watch for Sylvanias at $39.95 after Christmas...trust me.

Stop whining everyone. It's only $199.99 plus a mere $5 shipping. Either buy one that suits you or don't.

I've had refurbs in better shape than new and used to be afraid of the refurbs.

I'm a gambler at heart I guess but what's with the whining all the time lately? I can imagine the Woot staff getting a good laugh at times because in the end, they're bought or sold out. If not, they'll delay the next woot off and sit there through lunch. ;-)

As a computer consultant, I won't buy ANYTHING from Gateway or its sister companies e-Machines or Acer. The Asus is the one to get, or get nothing at all.

NightGhost wrote:It runs on Windows CE.

Wince!

ps885 wrote:in effect you're throwing away the purchase price of the included 6-cell battery (which is already better than a 3-cell)

Looks like it comes with a 3-cell?

Oh - some of the models come with 3-cells, and some with 6-cells. See the item page.

shortcode wrote:Heads up everyone... I worked at the US refurbishing outlet for 3 months; it's a scary place. The test techs they have are fired every 3 months to avoid having to pay them bennies and the repair techs are required to "clear" 40 units in an 8 hour shift, working at breakneck speeds. I'm not sayin' NOT to buy... just let it be known that the place that's fixing these is a craphole and they only pull 1-2 machines out of every 1000 that go out the door for QA checks...

(Company name is Revonate. They are a sister spring-off of a larger company called Seneca Data, located in Syracuse, NY)

Thank you for that insight into the refurb process. Since this isn't strictly on topic (I suppose it would be if we knew these netbooks were being refurbed at Revonate), I won't post the usual links, but you can find out a lot by Googling "Revonate." Even their own website (particularly the job descriptions) confirms a lot of what you just said. And other websites do more than confirm...

On the other hand, a whole lot of refurbished items never had to be fixed in the first place - they're just returns or open-box items that can't be legally sold as new.

I've said it before - if you want a refurb with peace of mind, better get that SquareTrade warranty.

shortcode wrote:Heads up everyone... I worked at the US refurbishing outlet for 3 months; it's a scary place. The test techs they have are fired every 3 months to avoid having to pay them bennies and the repair techs are required to "clear" 40 units in an 8 hour shift, working at breakneck speeds. I'm not sayin' NOT to buy... just let it be known that the place that's fixing these is a craphole and they only pull 1-2 machines out of every 1000 that go out the door for QA checks...

(Company name is Revonate. They are a sister spring-off of a larger company called Seneca Data, located in Syracuse, NY)

I bought one of the Gateway 2104's a few weeks ago when woot was offering them. The machine is pretty nice and looks nice overall, but there is a single stuck red pixel. I called Renovate and they said I was SOL for a single pixel.

Unless Woot wants to swap me for one of the 2104's they are selling today?

I would say the Gateway is the better of the PCs in my opinion. I bought the LT2106u a little over a month ago and it's been a solid purchase. It's a netbook, so don't expect too much past being an Internet machine. I average 5+ hours of battery on a full charge, with my screen turned down to dim, but not dark. With a media card reader, larger HD and $20 cheaper than mine, I wish I'd waited but still very happy with mine.

I'm looking to upgrade and max the memory on mine. I saw someone say not to go with the PC5300 DDR2 that is already has. Something about there being an issue and suggesting adding PC6400 instead. Anyone else have that issue?

Do these come with a MANDATORY data plan from some cellular provider like AT&T or Verizon? I want to buy these but I OH GOD, THEY CAN SEE ME! to be locked into a contract with a cell company, I just wanna use the WiFi at my house. Is that possible?

kpatrick06 wrote:The price of those upcoming models will be astronomical for the level of performance they'll provide(not to mention the lack of battery life due to the GPU). Prices are estimated to be in the $400-$500 range for the dual-core Atom and ION netbooks.

Netbooks gained their popularity by being a widely affordable, extremely portable, no frills device for basic computing needs. Trying to cram marginally better than low-tier components into a miniature form factor while dramatically increasing the price shows that the manufacturers have lost touch with what made the netbook niche what it is. Anyone who's looking to spend $500 on a portable solution is not going to be in the market for a netbook.

There leaving in the intel GPU along with the ion so it can choose which to use and save on battery. They are gonna hit the shelves at around 400 i think which is about what these cost when they were new. And they are gonna be way more than marginally better. The ion is 10 times more powerful and in this benchmark you can see that the n550 is gonna crap on the n450. http://gadgetmix.com/netbook/atom-n550-benchmark/

Only use 5300 on the gateway. I bought 6400 first, and had to return it, would not boot. 5300 worked perfect - $40 on amazon for 2gb stick

I'm looking to upgrade and max the memory on mine. I saw someone say not to go with the PC5300 DDR2 that is already has. Something about there being an issue and suggesting adding PC6400 instead. Anyone else have that issue?[/quote]

ruf1o wrote:DO: use Windows 7. It's fantastic.
DON'T: buy a netbook with an 8GB SSD. One of the worst purchases I've ever made.

That is what newegg is for

Question re: netbook.

Most netbooks come with an outdated Windows Trial Office version (2007) and expect you to buy it via a key. Hence, it doesn't come with Office, to speak of.

Anyone know the cheapest way to get a working Microsoft Office (specifically, Word and PowerPoint)? Any version (within reason)? I plan to use my netbook for portable PowerPoint presentations and have very little cash.

bryozoan wrote:Question re: netbook.

Most netbooks come with an outdated Windows Trial Office version (2007) and expect you to buy it via a key. Hence, it doesn't come with Office, to speak of.

Anyone know the cheapest way to get a working Microsoft Office (specifically, Word and PowerPoint)? Any version (within reason)? I plan to use my netbook for portable PowerPoint presentations and have very little cash.

On the computer you made powerpoint on save as a presentation and download a powerpoint viewer if you don't want to buy office