Acer Aspire One

[benjgvps]

Thanks mom and dad!

I think they thought it was time that I got a portable computer that wasn't outpaced by a graphing calculator, then there is the fact that it doesn't look too good in public...

Well, this nifty blue computer is certainly VERY handy even though the battery is a little small (Going to grab a new 6600 or 7800 mAh battery once I get some cash). I paired it with my external DVD drive and reinstalled a copy of XP that a person on aspireoneuser.com slipstreamed the drivers into.

As long as you don't expect to run any new games on it, the machine will do great. Need for speed 2000 runs quite well, Team Fortress classic runs great if I turn the settings down.

 

[QuadSix50]

This one still is on the top of my list out of all the netbooks I've seen. The only ones that are matched for second place are the HP Mini 1000 and the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. I'm curious to check out the Compaq one (which is just a rebadged HP Mini 1000), but I haven't seen it yet. I plan to get the GNU/Linux models, but the ones I tested were with XP (which I used as a benchmark when comparing). I figure if they can run XP reasonably well, then GNU/Linux should be snappy on them.

 

[John8520]

Congrats! The aspire one is one svelte machine, I picked up a 160/XP/Blue model a few weeks ago and absolutely adore it. The problem I found with running ubuntu on it is that gnome absolutely doesn't work right at all on a screen with a height of 600.

As long as you run XP, this utility is pretty mandatory - http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/a1ctl/

 

[QuadSix50]

Congrats! The aspire one is one svelte machine, I picked up a 160/XP/Blue model a few weeks ago and absolutely adore it. The problem I found with running ubuntu on it is that gnome absolutely doesn't work right at all on a screen with a height of 600.
As long as you run XP, this utility is pretty mandatory - http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/a1ctl/

There's always the remix version. 8.10 also now has a MID version as an alternate installation (I wonder if this is the UNR).

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mid/intrepid/current/

 

[Christopher]

I don't understand why the Acer's have the mouse click buttons on the side of the trackpad.

 

[joshc]

Funny that this thread pops up now. I almost bought an Asus eee netbook today, but I didn't because the one on offer (for just £150) was the 7" 701 series with a Celeron M processor - eww. Need the Intel Atom for Leopard to run smoothly! I'm waiting until next year to see what pops up...

 

[John8520]

I don't understand why the Acer's have the mouse click buttons on the side of the trackpad.

Aha! That reminds me!

To get two finger tap + scroll, download and install this - http://code.google.com/p/two-finger-scroll/downloads/list

See this for more info - http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6010&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=two+finger+scroll#p39726

I use it on my aao and it works beautifully, but make sure you disable all the side scrolling crap that synaptics supplies.

EDIT - Also, if the buttons are on the bottom, you end up with a trackpad that is waytoofreakingsmall. As proven by the Lenovo S10 and some others. In reality they're not hard to use at all, they just take a few minutes of use to get used to, much like the smaller keyboard.

 

[benjgvps]

Thanks John! This is very handy!

 

[MrMacPlus]

Nice conquest.

Now add it to your sig.

 

[John8520]

Thanks John! This is very handy!

Yeah no problem! If you have any questions or whatever, feel free to hit me up on AIM or the IRC channel. I've taken mine apart a few times and upgraded its ram, as well as run a handful of operating systems on it. They're surprisingly capable machines; I've found mine to be no less than a standard laptop other than the fact that it lacks an optical drive- something I almost never need on a mobile machine.

 

[Christopher]

But will it blend?

 

[MrMacPlus]

But will it blend?

Lets find out.

 

[benjgvps]

Yeah no problem! If you have any questions or whatever, feel free to hit me up on AIM or the IRC channel. I've taken mine apart a few times and upgraded its ram, as well as run a handful of operating systems on it. They're surprisingly capable machines; I've found mine to be no less than a standard laptop other than the fact that it lacks an optical drive- something I almost never need on a mobile machine.

Yes, by any chance have you gotten an extended battery? I am looking at a 6600 mAh or a 7800 mAh battery and am worried about having a battery that is too thick. I can't seem to find any side views of the computer with batteries attached to them.

I found a great battery program that will work with any laptop, not just the Acer Aspire One.

http://majorgeeks.com/Notebook_BatteryInfo_d4995.html

 

[slimac55]

The only experience I have with Acers is my mum's Acer (a Travelmate) and the Acers in my old school. The Acer my mum has is so bogged down with anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-adware and firewalls (my mum is quite paranoid about malware) so it takes approximately 6 minutes to get from pressing the power button to being ready to use. The Acers at school, well what more is there to say. Schools (well at least my old school) usually bog down the install with networking, filters and kiddy games so it's not fair to compare a school computer to a different computer. So overall I don't really have any fair opinion on whether Acers are good or not.

 

[John8520]

benjgvps, I've yet to purchase a battery as the 2.5hours mine goes for suites me just fine. The guys at the Aspire One user forum have tested almost all of the, and I'm completely sure you could find the most recommended one there.

slimac55, while the Aspire One does come with some crapware, it's hardly anything worth complaining about. If I remember right I had three or four things, stuff like google desktop, intervideo dvd player, and something else. I run XPpro on mine with none of that crap installed, and I get to a usable desktop in around 30 seconds, which is, in my book, pretty good.

All in all, what comes on a computer when you buy it is an absolutely atrocious way to judge how "good" the machine is, build quality, reliability, and how well it suits the buyers needs are far more important. Crapware can always be removed, in one way or another.

EDIT - BTW, I just gave notebook batteryinfo a spin, and man oh man is that a fantastic piece of software!

 

[benjgvps]

The acer aspire one is not made by acer, so it can be considered safe and sturdy. There is some crapware on it, though I have found and mirrored an image of Windows XP Home with the drivers needed for the computer to run and use all the functions slipstreamed in. If you want the link you can PM me!

I will have another look on aspireoneuser.com for the batteries. I need it to get through a day on battery for school.

 

[chris]

Heh, I got the EeePC 1000, four hundred bucks from NewEgg. I've been playing around with it - TFC and Half-Life work with high settings, Half-Life 2 will run well on low settings but inexplicably crash whenever you try to go through a load screen. TF2 without sound has similar issues (with sound immediately crashes.)

Been playing with Sketchup and Kerkythea, which work quite well also. Just finished a render of a downloaded high-detail sketchup model, took 25 min.

 

[benjgvps]

I am having some trouble with TFC and HL1, They work if I set them on software rendering, though the FPS is very low in anything else...