Pick up a Netbook with SSD for Under $200
Pick up a Netbook with SSD for Under $200
Posted 02/27/2009 at 8:11am
| by Paul Lilly
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For the most part, netbooks have nipped at the heels of standard notebooks in terms of price, with some models running upwards for $500. Consumers have been willing to pay the premium for an ultra-portable, low-power PC, but weren't these things supposed to ultra-affordable, too?
Dell says yes, who now offers the Inspiron Mini 9n for just shy of two C-notes. On the outside, the Mini 9n comes with a glossy 8.9-inch LED display with a 1024x600 resolution and 'Obsidian Black' chassis. Underneath the hood sits a familiar Intel Atom N270 processor (1.6GHz, 512KB cache, 533MHz frontside bus), 512MB of DDR2-533, a 4GB SSD, Intel GMA 950 graphics, WiFi, and Ubuntu 8.04.1 pre-installed.
For a little more oomph, the standard Mini 9 runs $100 more and trades in Ubuntu for Windows XP, beefs up the RAM to 1GB, and doubles the SSD storage capacity to 8GB.
The customizable Insprion Mini 9n starts at $199.
Image Credit: Dell
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Baer
March 02, 2009 at 12:29pm
There is a market for netbooks. It would not replace my laptop but there are many times when I need more than my smartphone and yet do not want to carry a notebook. The one thing that would keep me from buying this unit however it the glossy screen. I avoid these mirror like displays as I find them distracting.
unixfool
February 28, 2009 at 9:46pm
These machines are not meant to functiion as a normal laptop. If you need something beyond 4gb, upgrade to 8gb. If you need something beyond 8gb, get 16gb. And so on. The machine can be customized, or you can go out and buy a 16gb USB flash key, or carry your own external drive. It's not up to Dell to make these types of determinations...its the buyer's responsibility to determine if the machine fits their needs (factoring in the customization options).
The whining is getting OLD. If a netbook met everyone's needs, it wouldn't be a netbook...it'd be a laptop! There IS a difference. Netbooks are meant to be durable and light. HDDs aren't as durable as SSDs. They are also heavier than SSDs. They are also noisier and hotter than SSDs.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Keith E. Whisman
February 27, 2009 at 10:13am
Are these companies that offer Linux as an option are they fixing the printing features build into Linux? What I mean is that anyone that has messed with linux knows it's next to impossible to get any printer to work in Linux. It's a small issue that I'm sure that with large companies it can be quickly overcome and fixed.
Keith E. Whisman
February 27, 2009 at 10:10am
My desktop has 8gigs of ram and 2Tb of HDD storage. I agree with the other poster. Get rid of that crappy SSD in favor of a HDD. Ipod HDD's would work great for these netbooks with 2gigs of ram and Ubuntu. Use a modified version of STR sleep to get an instant on feature.
Tekzel
February 28, 2009 at 11:22am
Why get rid of "that crappy SSD" when there are scenarios in which SSDs are far better than an HDD? Consider a machine that you want to be able to carry around a lot while running and not be worried about destroying the hard drive? Buy what fits your usage, don't just universally crap on everything that doesn't fit your particular needs.
Asterixx
February 27, 2009 at 8:28am
Nunc est bibendum!
Right. Now ditch the SSD, put a cheaper, higher capacity HDD in, and knock another $50 off. 4GB? LOLZ! My $30 Chinese MP3 player has twice that much capacity and still wouldn't hold all of my MP3's...
Bender2000
February 27, 2009 at 12:49pm
What CAN you fit on 4GB of storage? Would the 1.8" HDDs in th iPod raise the price that much? Why aren't they being used in the first place?
Asterixx
February 27, 2009 at 1:46pm
Nunc est bibendum!
What can you fit on 4GB? Let's see. Figure at least a gig for XP (I think my last XP Home installation was actually a gig and a half, but I'll give Dell the benefit of the doubt - isn't the Netbook version of XP somewhat stripped down?). With 512MB of RAM, figure another gig for the swap file (Maximum PC has long recommended a swap file double your RAM size). Add half a gig for temporary internet files, unless you want to re-download the Youtube of granny falling into the wedding cake every time you view it. Figure another half gig for the Windows Backup (or roll-back, or whatever) folder. Toss an antivirus program on, sprinkle some spyware protection, mix with some basic office apps (Word at the very least), and you answer is:
Diddly squat.
The worst thing is I can remember when having a 20MB HDD meant you had all the storage in the world...
Tekzel
February 28, 2009 at 11:29am
The 512mb/4GB version has Ubuntu not Windows XP. The XP version has 1gb/8GB. Its your own fault if you put XP on the 4gb version. Who in the world would keep system restore at anything other than minimum or off settings on this unit? Antivirus, just but antivir or avg free and call it a day, they don't take up much room. Other than the swap file (which, depending on your usage pattern, you can probably limit quite a bit with 1gb of physical ram) you can actually strip XP down to a pretty lean configuration. These are special purpose machines folks, if you try to trick them out to be a desktop alternative you are only asking for heartache. I think these configs are just fine. If you want one with a 160gb HDD, go get an AcerOne or something.
Edit: Speaking of MP3s, if you want a large amount of storage, buy an external 2.5in HDD that can run solo off the USB port and load it down with your various "things you want on it but don't have to be there full time" like MP3s, pictures, etc.
Asterixx
February 28, 2009 at 3:43pm
Nunc est bibendum!
...Or, instead of carrying extra items about and having a bunch of wires hanging off a computer that is supposed to be ultraportable (items that would not be free, I might add), I could do as you suggested, and buy an Eee PC. Thing is, that`s not really a solution that Dell would like me to take. Doesn't do well for their bottom line when customers have to shop elsewhere. $300 for an 8GB Dell plus $100 for an external HDD doesn't make sense in the face of a $350 Acer with a built in 160GB HDD.
Even 8GB is not enough. That only matches my cheap Chinese MP3 player`s capacity and wouldn't even hold its own against a $30 thumb drive, storage wise. Really, is it worth giving up 152GB of storage (and paying more for the privilige) just to have a SSD, especially since read/write speeds likely aren't going to be an issue on a netbook?
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