Question One:

I'm looking for a netbook. I've already got a desktop, which is plenty for pretty much anything I actually need to do, but, obviously, I can't stick it in a backpack. From what I've heard netbooks can be a bit hit and miss, so I figured I'd see if anybody's had particularly good experiences with any.

Key points are decent battery life, enough power to do all your basic stuff, (music, web browsing, basic video, you know the drill) and not making my bank account hate me any much more than it already does. Yay Eng tuition going up again....


Question Two:

Pie. Seriously, is there anywhere at Mac where you can get decent pie? I'm not terribly interested in going to every single place on campus to find out, especially if the answer turns out to be "no." I figure at least one person here will be able to tell me, and save some major hassle. Secondly, if there's no good pie to be had on-campus, any places nearby? I know it's a totally weird question to ask, but hey, everybody's got their addictions.



Thanks All

I too have a desktop so recently decided to get a netbook. I have an MSI netbook and it was under $200 (some clearance thing)! The battery life isn't amazing -- 1.5 hours but I believe you can get a better battery. It functions almost as a laptop (minus the lack of a CD-ROM). Very light and portable. You can still do the same stuff. I love it

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-netbooks/?tag=

That's a good starting point

I don't have much experience with on-campus food as some, but I can safely say that you won't find any decent pie on campus. You can try the William's across the street, but I don't think the pie there would be much better. If you don't mind whole pies, I'd recommend checking out Westdale bakery (its by the Westdale library), and if that doesn't live up to your standards you can check the Hamilton farmer's market (plenty of baked goods, not just veggies!). Or you could always try a grocery store pie from Fortino's or Metro- sometimes they aren't that bad...

I've had good experiences with my Asus Eee netbook, I bring it everywhere with me.
It has a great battery life, I can get 8.5+ hours with it on minimal settings, but with the higher settings I use I still get 7 hours on average.
It's good for all the things you mentioned, which is all I really use it for as well.
I think it is one of the more expensive netbooks, but I have had it for over a year now and have had no major problems with it.


As for pie, I know you could get slices from Commons (Centro now?) and Bistro...but I think you'd probably want to venture off-campus for your pie fix...

You can also look into a laptop. Its not much bigger, and a 15.4" fits in all lecture and tutorial rooms ive needed it or been in. You'd also get a more solid system that would last you a while..

check my sig for a link to some recommendations

As for pie - you could go to fortino's and buy some?

^ Yeah, but netbooks aren't generally hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

^ Yeah, but netbooks aren't generally hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

True, but if you look hard enough you can probably find an okay laptop for under $400.. if you look refurbished its more likely to find under $400

Originally Posted by blackdragon

True, but if you look hard enough you can probably find an okay laptop for under $400.. if you look refurbished its more likely to find under $400

But then you get to the point where you're getting a laptop that'll only be marginally better than your netbook even though it's refurbished, bigger and less portable, and likely worse on battery. If you only have $400 for a portable computer, a high-end netbook makes more sense than a bottom of the barrel laptop.

I would suggest looking at this netbook if you are seriously considering one: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&Sku=A50-10108

ASUS EEE 1001/1005, MSI U135, and one that I suggested to a friend (Acer 521) are good choices. The Acer even has HDMI, if you need that.

HDMI is an amazing thing to have

Just to clear it up: I'm not *looking* for a powerful computer. I've got a desktop for that. The reason for looking at netbooks is that they're cheap and light. If I've already got one computer going out of date, I want to make sure the second one's gonna be cheap to replace. While I could certainly get a more powerful laptop that might last better, anything I'd be doing that *needs* the power is something I probably shouldn't be. Reality is, I'd rather not have the temptation to be gaming during lectures.....if I can, I might, and that would pretty much suck for me when exams come around. It's already tempting enough with just the desktop, don't want to add to it.


I've seen some concerns about a couple major things, first is battery life. Quick question, do any/many/most of the lecture and tutorial rooms have a place to plug in if I'm finding I have some trouble with the battery life? I mean, worse comes to worse I just have to absolutely remember to charge it at lunch, but in my case it's all about 25wpm writing vs 100wpm typing with short breaks for diagrams.


I've seen the ASUS EEE 1005 and the Acer Aspire 521 come up. At first glance I'd lean towards the ASUS for a couple reasons. Number one, it's cheaper, which means that if I don't like it, or it breaks, it's a lesser investment. While I actually had trouble doing a quick price-check with the Acer, it seemed to come in at about $350 as opposed to the ASUS which was closer to $280. Not a big difference, but it's about 25% more. Major thing that came to my attention was that the ASUS has HDMI, and purports to handle HD video and such. To be honest, I'm not really sure how much that's worth to me. HDMI would probably come in handy, but who knows. I'm sure someone will step in to give me a lecture.

The biggest thing, though, was battery life. The ASUS says it'll get somewhere around 7-10 hours on a charge, while the Acer came in at more like 3-4. Depending on the day, that may well not be enough to get through without recharging, and that's not good. There's an extended battery option, but that's looking to be somewhere around an extra $100....pretty ridiculous, tbh. If I'd be able to plug in in most classes should I need to, lower battery life really isn't a big deal. Otoh, if not I really don't like my computers dying on me.

Lastly, most of the reviews I read seemed to recommend the Acer Aspire One 721 over the 521 for being slightly larger, which takes better advantage of the HD video capability. Also, a slightly larger screen makes for better multitasking. On the other hand, that's $430, about $160 more (50$% pricewise) than the ASUS. Not sure if it'd be worth it for slightly better graphics, slightly larger screen and HDMI, or whether I'd then be getting back into laptop territory.


Yes, I talk too much. Sorry....

Oh, Marlowe, was this the bakery you were thinking of? I've never been there, but I'd say it looks promising. Didn't even know Hamilton *had* a farmers market though....probably worth the look, as they'd probably have a decent butcher around too and good meat for when you want to actually take the time to cook is so hard to find.


Thanks for being patient with my relative lack of techiness. Gimme a year or two with the other engineering geeks and it'll straighten me out.

Make your own pie?

Where are you seeing the Acer 721 for sale in Canada? I know the Acer 521 is at BB right now for 349, which isn't too expensive. And here's a review of it:
http://www.liliputing.com/2010/07/ac...21-review.html

Says the 521 gets about 5~ hours, which could be improved by lowering the brightness, undervolting, etc. I'm really doubting the 1005 can handle 720p+, unless it has the Broadcom HD chip.