I use a modified ASUS 1201N netbook running the N330 Atom Dual Core and the nVidia Ion graphics.

I modified it to run with 4GB RAM and a 640HDD

It has become my mobile mini-entertainment server. I have it partitioned with dual boot Ubuntu and Mythbuntu 10.04

When I go home I plug it in to a 42" HD TV and I have it grab my TV via USB adapter, I can play Wow at 24 fps 1080p on the big screen and while a movie is playing I can still get stuff done using Twinview and terminal on the the netbook (love HDMI output).

It also has VGA output and I have used it to save my boss for presentations at work.  While doing the presentation I showed how to do a basic dualboot installation in Virtual Box so others could follow along. My company is in the process of migrating to Linux so everyone had to learn to dual boot.

It is 3.5 pounds and I get 3 hours battery life on gaming or HD tv watching, streaming to my girlfriends work via https website so she can watch Gordon Ramsey shows recorded on the Mythbuntu side of the dual boot.

I get just over 4 hours on the intel graphics if I switch it in the BIOS.  I normally leave it on nVidia though. I also run crossover from codeweavers to run silverlight and use IE to watch netflix in Ubuntu.

It is a trooper of a machine while I am looking at a quad core for some specific tasks this machine has allowed me to be very versatile at work and home in tackling technology issues in day-to-day stuff.

Hope this helps your decision,

Now the question is at what level to settle on.  There's the SheevaPlug
(and similar) that use up about 10 watts but need more storage and can't
really handle any notable processing.  Moving up a notch, you can get a
N270 Atom mini-itx system that also hovers between 10-15 watts but is a
bit faster and will typically have a much larger (up to 1 TB) hard
drive.  Then you can move up to an NVIDIA ION system with a dual-core
Atom and now we're maybe in the 30 watt range but this can handle HD
output, if necessary.

Decisions, decisions.  That's why I was kind of hoping that some local
folks would have used some of these systems and could comment on how
well they work for them.

--
Brian Fields
arizona.rune@gmail.com


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