Tablet or Netbook

Dreamnine

I've used netbooks exclusively since 2008.

My first one was an Advent 4213 which lasted 3 years - it was really good as it took a sim card for 3g use anywhere. It just had 1Gb of RAM and XP. My current MSI also has 1Gb of RAM and Windows 7 starter.

It's only now that I really want something with more power and am looking at laptops.

01001011

Many settings in Windows can be changed to boost the performance. If I recall, sticking to the classical theme, disabling all eye candies and the corresponding services can save some 100MB of RAM overhead.

Many background programs provided by the manufacturer can be uninstalled or disabled without affecting the operation of the netbook. Same for many Windows services.

So old versions of software are much lighter with negligible difference in function.

It does take some time to set everything right, though.

katglasgow

Hi, we bought a HP mini 210 for my son for christmas. Its running windows starter at present but I I hoping to get the home/student version of Office 2010 as he likes playing about with powerpoint.

I was intersted to read that the RAM can be increased to 2gb, is this something can can be done easily?

I am now a little concerned that office might be really slow on the netbook.
We bought the netbook sonmetime ago for a good discount. However, in hindsight I think we should have held out for a laptop. My mum has bought my son 2 CDroms, so I have now had to buy an external plug in DVD writer too! I am just crossing my fingers that the CD rom spec isnot so advanced that they wont work on the netbook...... My son is only 9 so we didnt want to spend too much money on soemthing, the aim is to encourage him to develop his computer skills, but I imagine when he is a young teenager, we will feel he is old enough to upgrade to a more advanced piece of technology, at which point my younger daughter can use the netbook (asuming it is still working).