Is This A Good Deal? Good Cheap Laptop.

[aaron11193]

Hey guys,

I have just discovered the DreamBook Lite IL1 on www.pioneercomputers.com.au, they custom build computers pretty cheap.

I was just wondering if you guys think this is a good deal.

$529 (inc. GST) for:

VIA C7M 1.2Ghz processor

8.9" WSVGA 1024x600 LCD

Integrated VIA Graphics

1GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM

40GB Ultra-ATA (60GB for a little more $$$)

802.11B/G Wireless

No Optical Drive

Ubuntu preloaded (I plan to dual boot XP and Xubuntu)

1 Year Warranty

Notebook Carry Bag



Aaron.

EDIT: Price in $AUD, I'd rather not order from overseas.

 

[___]

Hmm... although I am not a market expert, I wouldn't buy this one. 1.2Ghz is a joke. I bought my laptop almost 5 years ago and it came with 1.8Ghz while not being all too expensive (about 900 euros). Also the graphics card really sucks ass and I wouldn't be surprised if it caused a lot of trouble when you are trying to get decent hardware acceleration to run under linux. If you don't need that and you are fine with the horsepower go for it, but if I were you I'd keep looking or buy a second hand machine with better specs. Just my 2 cents.

EDIT: No optical drive aswell? Hmm... I dunno, doesn't seem like a good deal to me.

EDIT2: Seeing that it is sort of an eepc concept design and the 8h of battery life it has, makes me think this is not such a bad deal. Still... I would rather go for a full fledged laptop.

 

[aaron11193]

Hmm... although I am not a market expert, I wouldn't buy this one. 1.2Ghz is a joke. I bought my laptop almost 5 years ago and it came with 1.8Ghz while not being all too expensive (about 900 euros). Also the graphics card really sucks ass and I wouldn't be surprised if it caused a lot of trouble when you are trying to get decent hardware acceleration to run under linux. If you don't need that and you are fine with the horsepower go for it, but if I were you I'd keep looking or buy a second hand machine with better specs. Just my 2 cents.

EDIT: No optical drive aswell? Hmm... I dunno, doesn't seem like a good deal to me.

I mostly like it because it's compact, do you think it's better value than an eee pc 1000?

 

[Squirrel61]

It's a netbook and for a netbook with these specs, it's a fair price. The VIA processor should not really be a problem, it is said to be superior to the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom that's usually mounted in netbooks.

Netbooks are small, easy to carry around but slightly limited computers that look like laptops and offer most, but not all, of the functionality of a laptop. The most well-known netbook (because it's the one that started the hype) is the Asus EEE pc.

One thing to keep in mind is that a netbook is not a full-blown laptop. It has most of the features, but the screen is some alien format. The width of 1024 pixels is ok (some cheap netbooks feature 800 or even less pixels which means that you have to scroll horizontally in most websites) but the height of 600 pixels means that you have to scroll vertically much more than you're used to.

The processor, memory and harddisk are all up to par for XP, but don't expect Vista to run smoothly (not that you want Vista ). For a dual-boot system, you should seriously consider the 60Gb upgrade.

You should also consider buying some kind of external optical drive, since you definitely need it. This adds to the price of the netbook.

So summarizing, it's a good deal but take into account that you're not buying a real laptop.

 

[aaron11193]

It's a netbook and for a netbook with these specs, it's a fair price. The VIA processor should not really be a problem, it is said to be superior to the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom that's usually mounted in netbooks.

Netbooks are small, easy to carry around but slightly limited computers that look like laptops and offer most, but not all, of the functionality of a laptop. The most well-known netbook (because it's the one that started the hype) is the Asus EEE pc.

One thing to keep in mind is that a netbook is not a full-blown laptop. It has most of the features, but the screen is some alien format. The width of 1024 pixels is ok (some cheap netbooks feature 800 or even less pixels which means that you have to scroll horizontally in most websites) but the height of 600 pixels means that you have to scroll vertically much more than you're used to.

The processor, memory and harddisk are all up to par for XP, but don't expect Vista to run smoothly (not that you want Vista ). For a dual-boot system, you should seriously consider the 60Gb upgrade.

You should also consider buying some kind of external optical drive, since you definitely need it. This adds to the price of the netbook.

So summarizing, it's a good deal but take into account that you're not buying a real laptop.

Yes i was planning on buying a cheap usb CD-RW drive.

I was talking to one of my friends from the school i got kicked out of last term (lol) and he said I could get an acer aspire gemstone or a compaq presario for about the same price with better specs. But IMO acer and compaq laptops = FAIL. But if I can find one of those gemstones for $500-$600 with good specs, I'll get it.

If anyone can tell me where I can buy a custom built, no-name brand laptop in Australia, it will be much appreciated

 

[Squirrel61]

Yes i was planning on buying a cheap usb CD-RW drive.

Make it a DVD-RW drive. The price difference is next to nothing, if you search well and you won't regret it. Even if you never plan to burn DVD's with it, you will still get software DVD's that you want to open on the netbook. And rewriters read much better (in case of damaged discs) than DVD-ROM players do.