Small pc for touring

[PrettyboyTim]

I have an Advent 4211 (A rebadged MSI Wind), and I like it very much - it's one of the 10" netbooks, and runs Windows XP. It's £279 from PC World but if you're touring you'd probably want to get a better battery as the ones that comes with it will barely last you two hours.

I've heard very good things about the Samsung NC10 though (£299), which is very similar but comes with an excellent battery life as standard (over six hours).

If touring, I'd guess it's worth getting one with Bluetooth (both the Advent and the Samsung have it) so that you can connect to the internet through your phone if you find yourself somewhere without WiFi.

 

[yello]

Is it my imagination or has this term 'netbook' been invented to describe something that already existed?

I have an Eee too. I replaced the Xandros unix os with Ubuntu and I find it a darned useful little laptop but not a laptop replacement.

 

[MarkF]

The only problem I have is finding an air/water tight box to keep it in. The last few tours we were on it was raining for several days streight.

Mine goes in a kiddies snap together pvc sandwhich box Just tall enough to take the plug then and some socks/undies wrapped round my EEE.

 

[Danny]

The first Asus EEE has a broken screen as I stepped on it by the bed!!

Not entirely robust then

 

[ufkacbln]

Mine goes in a kiddies snap together pvc sandwhich box Just tall enough to take the plug then and some socks/undies wrapped round my EEE.

I use a "PeliCase"

There is enough room to store the power unit and my other electrics underneath the computer , with more than enough padding to protect the unit from any mishap.

PeliCases are bombproof!

 

[xilios]

Mine goes in a kiddies snap together pvc sandwhich box Just tall enough to take the plug then and some socks/undies wrapped round my EEE.

After some searching (at http://forum.eeeuser.com/index.php) I've found this http://www.pelican.com/cases_detail_print.php?Case=1080. It's water tight and can handle quite a lot of rough handling. He cut out the soft foam padding himself.
In the picture below, this guy even put a silicon gel satchel to absurb any moisture that gets in. Even has room for our AA battery charger and phone chargers.

"Edit" Just checked it wont fit in our front panniers.

 

[jay clock]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jay clock
The first Asus EEE has a broken screen as I stepped on it by the bed!!

Not entirely robust then

As robust as any other laptop.... I left it open on the floor. The screen was lying with its back on the floor. I got out of bed and 14 stone of me transferred its weight straight through my heel into the centre of the screen..... Bad times!

 

[Sittingduck]

I am just setting up my new toy right here

Advent 4212 8.9" 1GB XP Home 80GB - picked it up this afternoon from PCWorld for a penny less than 250 notes. Very happy so far - its pretty cool looking and I wanted something XP based.

 

[hackbike 6]

I've got a Samsung Q40 Pretty in Pink.

Although I have had this for almost two years now.What is it with Samsung and Pink?

I knackered on of my cameras out here trying to tape it to the handlebars so I bought a Samsung S860 Camera,(Second Choice,First choice was sold out)...it's also in pink. If this goes on people will talk.

Anyway my Q40 has no internal cd rom (the external is at home) just like the above and has been great.Also had a great little protective case purchased off of ebay.12.1 inch laptop and display but it's light.Probably something smaller is needed on a bike tour although I can fit it in my rucksack with no probs.


I like the look of the Advent 4212 im going to pop round PC World when I get back at 250 notes that's a snip,my Q40 machine was 4x that when I bought it nearly two years ago...something like that.Looks very compact to me.

 

[Sittingduck]

Yes, I can report that the battery life seems good Hackbike - does around 3.5 hours. There's also a neat little webcam built-in!

 

[MarkF]

The Advent has a good spec for the price but I very much doubt it would have survived the fall from my scooter (40mph+). I would not want the worry of a hard drive, no moving parts and flash drives "sold" the Asus to me.

 

[hackbike 6]

I doubt if many would have survived that fall unless they were bomb proof.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

The Advent has a good spec for the price but I very much doubt it would have survived the fall from my scooter (40mph+). I would not want the worry of a hard drive, no moving parts and flash drives "sold" the Asus to me.

The main danger to hard drives is that they are dropped while they are in operation; the read/write heads are suspended very close to spinning disk surface so that if they get jogged there is a danger that they will hit it, scraping off the magnetic covering that stores the data. However, when the disk is turned off, it parks the read heads away from the disk surface so that a jog will not harm it. Recent Apple laptops have a accelerometer that can detect if the laptop has just been dropped, and will instruct the hard drive to do an emergency park so that the read/write head is parked before it hist the floor.

Obviously a very heavy impact may damage a hard drive when it is off, but it'll be the kind of impact that's likely to damage most other parts of the laptop too. I don't think having a solid state drive will increase the durability of the laptop a great deal; the main thing it would protect against would be a small drop off the side of a table while the computer was operational.

 

[MarkF]

Interesting post PBTim, however I'd still rather not have an HD.

 

[MarkF]

I doubt if many would have survived that fall unless they were bomb proof.

The EEE did, my bag fell off the rack and the EEE was sent tumbling down the tarmac, it then got ejected from my sandwhich box and came to rest in the gutter. It was badly scratched but works fine, I was amazed. Things like that encourage brand loyalty