Diamonds might be a girl's best friend...

[FastCargo 412]

"When I grow up, I want to be a big computer just like my dad..."

 

 

For Christmas, got my wife a Netbook from Dell...it's the smaller laptop you see in the photo.

 

It's been an interesting exercise as an example of 'how much do you really need'.

 

Now, of course the following does not apply to those who use computers for anything involving massive amounts of data, floating point equations, or high speed graphics (ie games, video editing/rendering, etc).

 

You take those out of the equation, just how much of a computer do you really need? And how does this apply to the development of the personal computer?

 

I've advocated for the last couple of years that the average computing power curve that a person needs is beginning to flatten out, resulting in the entry cost for the average computer to get lower and lower. This Netbook is the prime example of the result.

 

It used to be that to get a 'thin and light' notebook would cost you upward of $2k or more, and result in a computer that couldn't do everything you needed to. But several things have changed that equation including:

 

1) Raw computing power has continued to increase

2) Power requirements have lowered

3) HD space has gotten cheaper

4) Flash memory has gotten cheaper

 

This combination has resulted in even a base computer with integrated graphics being able to do most things users need with reasonable speed (web surfing, office work, movie watching, picture viewing and light editing, etc). So a new market can be created...the 'cheap' thin and light computer. This computer was less than $500 USD, but fully loaded with things like multiple USB ports, integrated webcam, external monitor port, WiFi and Bluetooth, internal flash card reader, etc. Yet, is the size of a trade paperback novel, weighs less and has 4 hours of battery life at heavy usage (easily thrown into a purse, diaper bag or backpack).

 

The funny thing, it takes very little to make this small computer very close to a 'real' desktops capabilities, including adding an external monitor, full sized keyboard, and external HD and DVD drives. We had migrated over to laptop computing sometime ago for personal use because we found desktops were fairly overkill for our needs (the exception being our server and HTPC)...we found the Netbook as a logical extension of this policy.

 

Anyway, this isn't an advocation for such a computer (and as such, even the makers of said computer say these aren't meant as primary computers), but it shows just how far computing has come along, and that the evolution of computing continues to throw out new permutations.

 

FC

[Thog10 0]

The only thing that I do that requires more than a netbook's power involves the wares of Thirdwire. That said, I do like my desktop for flying around the Dhimari skies.

[+streakeagle 871]

My wife thought she wanted a small laptop for checking email, facebook, browsing the internet, etc. while sitting in the living room watching TV...

Then she discovered the main tradeoff... it may be fast enough to do routine chores, but it is much slower and the relatively low resoltion of the display doesn't give you much real estate to work with for browsing or reading documents.

So now she has flipped 180 degrees.

She wants a laptop that will let her play World of Warcraft while watching TV in the living room... and to give her the speed and quality of graphics she is used to, that means a 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 display with a graphics chip strong enough to drive the game at that resolution.

 

Work gives both of us laptops (and her work laptop is probably strong enough to do what she wants), so I prefer to build my own desktop as a pure hobby/gaming machine.

[+JonathanRL 974]

Thoose small ones are pretty damn nice. I keep one for myself, for typing on the fly and for watching movies when I travel.

[JediMaster 451]

I got a 15" Dell model with an 8600GT and a C2D @ 2.4GHz for a balance between power and size. The 17" were just too big for traveling easy, but I wanted something that I could at least play some games at moderate power on.

 

TK's sims are out, though, because I use a Cougar and that's not portable! I use it primarily for RTS and older (pre-Crysis!) FPS.

[Gr.Viper 131]

Well, I may be running SF2 at lowest settings and a 10" screen on my tiny black box

But that's "Guns!" on hard FM with easy HUD

[kct 5]

Funny. I want a laptop with a better-than-mid-range graphics card and a 15.4" LCD (14.1" acceptable, to replace the very laptop I have been torturing because of WoE), while my brother wanted a tablet PC (since he would not game with a laptop).

 

Reason I don't feel like having a desktop for gaming is that because I sit in front of a desktop for less than 2 hours a day, and coursework means I would use a laptop most of the time.

Edited December 31, 2008 by kct

[JediMaster 451]

You fly TW sims with a gamepad???

Sacrilege! Blasphemer!! Burn her at the stake!! BURN HER!!!

[Gr.Viper 131]

I'm sorry, but X52 Pro with pedals doesn't quite qualify as a portable device. And ST90 is impossible to find now. So I rigged one stick to work as flight sick, another for view panning, D-pad for extra buttons and analogue triggres make a fine rudder control. And this pad has a fan inside for cooling hands in hairy situations.

[Viper6 3]

No way in .... would I ever want a slaptop, I love the ability to EASILY reconfigure hardware and upgrade and since i don't

travel a lot and just love really big monitors make mine a honking desktop baby!!

[eraser_tr 29]

You fly TW sims with a gamepad???

Sacrilege! Blasphemer!! Burn her at the stake!! BURN HER!!!

 

Uhhh...Gr.Viper is a guy.

 

Maybe for the average use a tiny laptop can suffice, but it simply won't do for all the games I play. But that's all we need, women carrying around little laptops in their purse and more s**t we have to buy them

 

Better off just getting an iPhone instead of a tiny laptop, even less bulky for about the same functionality.

[JediMaster 451]

Historically, far more women were burned at the stake than men.

 

Plus, the witch in MP and Holy Grail was a female, which was where I was getting that line.