So my wife's computer is probably dead
Not that I mourn its passing, exactly. It was a pretty darn ancient system, my old AMD Athlon XP 1800+ that I bought in 2003. Clocking in at about 1.18 GHz and backed up by 1.25 GB of RAM, it wasn’t exactly the powerhouse of the house. It did have a pretty decent video card, though. But anyhow, the system would appear to have well and truly “snuffed it”, as they say. The power supply is fine and everything is connected, but neither the processor nor the hard drives show any sign of life when the system is powered on.
So I’m thinking it might just be time to upgrade. As such, let’s haul out the old format for a bit and contemplate options. I’m thinking it’d be sweet to hook her up with one of these new “mini” computers that are becoming quite common these days. She doesn’t exactly need the computing horsepower, since she doesn’t use the computer for much more than a bit of music playback, checking her email, and checking various newsfeeds. Once in a while, she’ll watch an episode of House online.
Netbook guts!
Specs:
- nVidia ION graphics chipset
- Intel Atom N330 Dual Core 1.6GHz processor
- 2 GB DDR2 RAM
- 160 GB 5400RPM SATA II hard drive
Price: $429 (Memory Express)
Pros: Asus Eee computers are pretty well-known as far as miniature PCs and netbooks go. Asus itself makes pretty reliable hardware, in my experience, and the Eee Box itself can be fitted almost anywhere, so as to be unobtrusive.
Cons: Price, primarily. Though not the most expensive unit on this list, the Eee Box does cost $80 more than the Acer Aspire Revo, despite having essentially identical specs thereto. We can argue over brands, but since I’ve personally no objection to either Acer or Asus, I don’t exactly see why — if I am to choose between just the two — I should opt for the Asus.
Also, as Petrell pointed out in the comments, there’s no optical drive. I don’t see this as being the biggest obstacle, and I don’t imagine the Dragoness would either…but you never know. It’s worth consideration.
Also netbook guts!
Specs:
- nVidia ION graphics chipset
- Intel Atom N330 Dual Core 1.6GHz processor
- 2 GB DDR2 RAM
- 160 GB 5400RPM SATA II hard drive
Price: $349 (Memory Express)
Pros: Price, for one; the Revo 3610 is identical to the Eee Box (above) in terms of specifications, yet comes in at a lower price. That’s an important consideration for me these days! Personally, I’ve only ever had good experiences with Acer computers. And the size of the thing…sheesh, it’s tiny! I could hide it almost anywhere near the Dragoness’ monitor, and clean up the cable mess I made when I set up her tower, and she’d have a better computer at the end of it.
I don’t imagine she’d complain.
Also, the Revo boasts one additional USB port. That sounds trivial, and I would generally agree that it is…but at the same time, I think we’ve all been in that situation where we have one more device to connect than we have ports available. Am I right? Nevermind.
Cons: The lack of an optical drive, again, as Petrell pointed out.
I look like a Mac Mini!
Specs:
- ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chipset
- AMD Athlon 2650e 1.6GHz processor
- 3 GB DDR2 RAM
- 250 GB 7200RPM SATA II hard drive
Price: $399 (Dell.ca)
Pros: This system offers more memory than either the Revo or the Eee Box, and a larger/faster hard drive as well. The hard drive capacity is a worthwhile consideration, since the Dragoness is always happy to have more space to work with; the extra RAM would certainly improve system performance a little bit.
Cons: For one, the HD 3200 graphics chipset…isn’t really that good. In fact, as a general rule, it’s worse than the ION chipset. For $99 more, I could jump that to the HD 4330 chipset, which is markedly better (heck, the Dragoness could probably run Mass Effect, which I’ve been encouraging her to play lately).
But that would of course boost the price of the unit from something that falls happily between the Revo and the Eee Box to something that far exceeds both units. And considering the fact that this unit boasts what appears to be a single core processor, rather than a dual core, it doesn’t seem to be that great of a deal overall.
I *am* a Mac Mini!
Specs:
- nVidia GeForce 9400M graphics chipset
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz processor
- 2 GB DDR3 RAM
- 160 GB 5400RPM hard drive
Price: $649 (Apple.ca)
Pros: Well, it’s a Mac, for starters, which means the beautiful, easy-to-use thing that is OS X. Overall, this is a much higher-performance system than any of the other entries on this list, and yet is quite compact (smaller than the Dell, I think). The processor is a Core 2, rather than a netbook Atom-type chip, and the 9400M graphics are…decent.
Cons: The hard drive is nothing special. And then there’s the price. The Mac Mini is easily the most expensive computer on the list here (not that I’m surprised), and probably the hardest overall to cost-justify. Yes, it’s a beefier system overall, but does the Dragoness need the power? Given her current usage profile, I’m doubtful.
In Closing
My gut feeling is to go with the Revo, both because it’s the cheapest system on the list and because it offers what will probably be the best system overall for the Dragoness’ needs. Still, I’m open to some debate on the matter, so if anyone wants to chime in with a suggestion, please do so.
Well Eee Box and Revo do have one Con you’ve not listed: Both lack optical drive so you need to get an external one in order to install any commercial games/programs on it.
Oh and Revo boasts 1 more USB port than Eee Box ;-P
Hmm…good considerations.
Though I guess it just goes to show you how much use I have for optical drives these days. And come to think of it, I don’t really ever see my wife using CDs anymore, either.
But it’s still a legitimate consideration; I will add it in.
How about HP Mini 5102?
It comes with…
+ Touchscreen
+ Win7 Home Premium (not Starter!)
+ Atom N450 (new lightweight CPU)
+ 2GB, unlike most netbooks with 1GB
+ High HD Ready resolution
+ 250GB HDD
+ Integrated 3G modem (for SIM card)
+ Compact, 10.1″ screen
+ 10h of lifetime without recharge
Consider it. 😉
He’s looking for mini desktop, not netbook and that one boasts shitty intel integrated graphics card (Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3150) that is worse than anything in above setups. If I’d want netbook, I’d go for one of Asus’s Eee PC models like 1201N that also boasts Nvidia ION and is similar in setup to Eee Box and Revo. It’s more expensive being priced around 520$.
And sorry but I was mistaken. Both Eee Box (3 front, 2 back, 1 top) and Revo (2 front, 4 back) boast 6 USB ports. I missed that Eee Box has one on top. BTW, Eee Box 1012 price seem to have dropped, it’s $389.99 now.
Here are the specs for Eee Box and Revo newer models and latest Eee PC
Asus EEE Box EB1501
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX26901%28ME%29.aspx
* nVidia ION graphics chipset
* Intel Atom N330 Dual Core 1.6GHz processor
* 2 GB DDR2 RAM
* 250 GB hard drive
* Slot-in Super Multi DVD-RW
Price: $499.99
Pros: same as older model exept for that this one has optical drive (and remote if you ever need one).
Cons: Even more expensive than earlier model
Asus Eee PC 1201N
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX27107%28ME%29.aspx
* nVidia ION graphics chipset
* Intel Atom N330 Dual Core 1.6GHz processor
* 2 GB DDR2 RAM
* 250 GB hard drive
* 12.1in WXGA monitor
Price: $519.99
Pros: It’s netbook so it’s portable unlike it’s mini desktop counterparts. No need for separate monitor.
Cons: Only Mac Mini is more expensive (but only 20$ difference to newer Eee Box), all the cons of laptop versus desktop, only 3 USB ports, no optical drive.
Acer AspireRevo 3610-E9012
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX26525%28ME%29.aspx
* nVidia ION graphics chipset
* Intel Atom N330 Dual Core 1.6GHz processor
* 4 GB DDR2 RAM (!)
* 500 GB hard drive (!)
Price: $419.99
Pros: This one crushes both newer Asus models in specs and is still less expensive.
Cons: Still no optical drive (but you can get external one for less than 80$, the price difference to newer Eee Box)
Now, now, Petrell…let’s not crap in anyone’s porridge. As I note in my above posting, ION is a spec that I prefer to include, but which is still probably more graphics “oomph” than my wife needs. And I’m not averse to considering netbooks; I can easily rig up a setup that allows my wife to use a ‘book as a desktop when at home, and then take it on the road when she wants to.
That said, thanks for the updated specs and alternative suggestion. I’m open to all advice, and am basically looking for the most amount of power per dollar.
Thus far, the Revo still seems to be on top of that particular pile. Of course, there’s still selling my wife on the idea, and who knows? She might prefer something else. Her current laptop is one of my old iBooks; she might just want the Mac. Or a netbook (let’s face it; the iBook was good in its day, but its 66 MHz system bus is pathetically slow by modern standards).
Sorry if my comment was intepreted as offensive/hostile, it certainly was not my intention. Must remember to use smileys next time 😛 😉 to avoid misunderstandings.
I do admit that I’m bit biased against Intel ‘graphics chips’, well, because I see them as underpowered for basically any task (I swear I’m going to strangle next salesperson who offers me a rig with one for gaming purposes even if it has 16 GB ram and 4 GHz 8 core CPU :P, or any other underpowered part that they usually conveniently either ‘forget’ to mention or pass over quickly during their con… err I mean sales speech 😉 ).
Oh and I probably don’t need to point this out but it’s generally better to buy bit more powerfull rig than you need because you never know what you may want to use it for in future. Nettop and netbooks (and laptops in general) are not very upgradable and the parts that are tend to be expensive.
Oh and check some of the unpacking, review etc. videos about each model on youtube to get better understanding what you get and how they look and work. I’ve looked a few and Revo looks and feels better from the videos than Eee Box.
Petrell’s reply was quite hostile, but I’m used to in several forums with religion discussions. 🙂
As I understood, she needs a lightweight small web browsing laptop, rather than powerful gaming pc. So I’d look into long battery life, light weight and usability, rather than horsepower and big screen, desktops are for that purpose. Thus any GPU should do the trick.
My wife has MSI Wind, a netbook with Win7 and she really enjoys it. It’s easy to use and has enough battery life (with 6cell battery) for half a day.
Aww, come on. Don’t go mixing religion into this ;). You should know it’s THE easiest way to start a flamewar. :P.
I should have writen “He SEEMS to be looking for mini desktop/nettop ;), not netbook.” All examples he provided were either nettops or mini desktops after all.
I also got the feeling he wanted ION or similar as all of them had about that level GPU. The outbrust about Intel GPU(‘s) was due to personal bad experience both in store (as I pointed out in my next post) and having to troubleshoot rigs that had them. I did find it weird that you pointed high HD resolution and the netbook in question had GPU that is probably only barely capable of displying it. 🙂
… And all Ultima games will still run on Intel’s chipset. 😉
@Petrell
Myself as well; my reply was intended as more tongue-in-cheek than it reads as. Oops.
I don’t disagree in general, though “any task” doesn’t include most of my wife’s computer usage profile. One doesn’t need the graphics chip for audio playback, and Intel graphics are actually sufficient to the tasks of word processing and email, and photo viewing (not necessarily editing, but the Dragoness doesn’t really edit photos).
Indeed, Intel graphics are even fine for most video tasks, assuming one isn’t attempting to do anything HD-related. Which, again, matches the Dragoness’ typical usage profile.
That said, I don’t particularly like them…but I can recognize that it’s me that’s making that the issue.
This is my general policy, yes. Though to be fair, it is a policy that assumes at least some level of need for high-performance hardware. That’s certainly my usage case, what with my NWN2 development and Mass Effect addiction. It is not the Dragoness’ case in the least; she was perfectly content with her old system and its performance, and would probably have gladly used it for 5 more years if it hadn’t opted to die when it did.
Good to know.
While I don’t generally disagree, you do remember that this is my site, right? I may not exude religion from every sentence, but I seem to recall that I have a battery of Christmas and Easter posts in the archives, none of which (to my knowledge) has ever touched off a series of flaming comments.
It would seem, then, that Ultima fans (at least the ones who come by the site here) are generally classy sorts.
I’m looking for something small with moderate performance. Nettops intrigue me, and would almost perfectly match my wife’s needs…and their small form factor is almost ideal for the space I intend to work with on this.
Not an incorrect assumption; I looked at ION-equipped machines for this, because I’m the sort of guy who’d buy at least some sort of “better than basic” 3D hardware in a system. I didn’t mention that I was ambivalent on the Intel issue. I did talk down about the default Radeon card in the Dell…but again, that was my bias creeping in, rather than an articulation of the end user’s strict needs.
Actually, doesn’t the netbook that Ergon recommended also have that Broadcom HD accelerator chip? There’s a few netbooks coming out with it these days, which have dedicated HD video acceleration hardware that is distinct from the graphics subsystem.
@Ergonpandilus
I never thanked you for offering the suggestion that you did. So let me begin there: thanks for the suggestion! We’re discussing all the options that everyone has given, and should settle on something in a bit here.
I don’t believe I know where you are at religiously speaking, but I sympathize with you in regard to this remark.
That is roughly the impression I was hoping to convey by my original post, yes. She’s not particularly a gamer, and is much more of a console gamer than a PC gamer. Actually, since writing this, I’ve let her try Mass Effect on my PC a couple of times. She likes it…but can’t master the keyboard/mouse controls for the life of her. That, and it gives her a headache (all the movement, I guess).
Not an invalid argument, to be sure, and certainly a decent summation of things that would be of more important consideration to my wife. Myself…yeah, I need a power system. She doesn’t. She was, as noted, perfectly content with a 7-year old system that ran (to my eyes) like a drunken cat missing its two hind legs. It ran “just fine”, according to her. And she’d probably have gone on using it for five more years.
So yes, it’s more those other considerations — longevity (if it is to be a portable system), compactness, ease of use — that will be key for her. Even the HD capability (or lack thereof) is not a huge concern here, since she more or less boycotts YouTube anyhow and prefers to watch DVDs (and then just traditional DVDs, rather than Blu-Ray discs) on the television that is in the same room.
I do like MSI systems. Didn’t look at any here, because I wasn’t looking at netbooks per se. I might think about a Wind Top for her, assuming she’d be okay with getting rid of her extant monitor. Of course, the question then becomes what I’d do with said monitor…
Very true. Of course, these days (and with the availability and versatility of e.g. VirtualBox), I could probably run everything except Ultima 9 (and even then, maybe) on pretty much any of these systems…in a VM if not in an actual Windows installation. That’s even true of the Mac Mini.
I like the Mac Mini 🙂
Since I switched from Windows to Mac last year, I never regretted that (though I’ve now become the OS X supports guy for Exult :)). For my gf’s birthday I bought her a mini and she’s enormously happy with that 🙂
The Mini does appeal; her current laptop is, as I believe I’ve noted, one of my old iBooks, and she loves it. Although she doesn’t much care for the MSN client on Mac, which is kind of a problem.
Maybe she would like Adium’s implementation of MSN better http://adium.im/
Adium is a multi-messenger that I use (even though I use the current beta version because that also supports IRC)
I’ve tried Adium before, and quite like it. But for the Dragoness, it’s pretty much WinLive or nothing. She likes what she likes, I guess…
Now, “nothing” is not necessarily an obstacle, I should hasten to add.