41 replies to this topic

[dapleb]

I am lookin for such a devoice at the moment. Amidst lots of words I dont understand, I have worked out a few things:

• It needs to be light <1.5kg
• It needs to have SSD (as far as my IT knowledge goes, this is less breakable than a spinny disc)
• Doesnt need to be either mega quick or have mega storeage space
• It does need to be mega tough
• Having a CD drive would be good but I realise unlikely
• It will need to run Mapsource/other software and transfer files (mainly mapping/GPS stuff and photos).
• Preferably very good battery life as its gonna be on treader mostly.

The problem I am having is I find a lovely review onlion and then find oot they no longer make em! Seems alot of companies are just doing tablets now instead. I dont know much about tablets other than you seem to need apps for stuff and they might not be able to run me programs.....and oid snap it in about 3 minutes.

The closest to ideal I have seen so far is this: http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649 but that seems quite alotta money for a well battered laptop? And if I had the money summat loike this would be good: http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649 but no CD drive and out of my price bracket. Plus buying electrical stuff off ebay never fills me with confidence.

Apparently a common choice amongst treaderers is the ASUS Eeeeeee PC but again, seems loike they have stopped making them.

Any thoughts at all including opinions on best makes for reliability, build quality, models to look at and where to buy/browse would be gratefully recieved.

Cheers

[nav18tor]

I am using an Eeee PC from Asus and have nothing bad to say about it, other than it would not run mapsource on the Windows 7 Starter pack that came as standard

Can't remember the exact issue, but I did not worry as still have a traditional back up lap top

I will add, that when my wife needed a new laptop to replace her very battered Dell, I had no hesitation in buying a Asus of more traditional size and it has proved to be an excellent purchase

The Eeee PC is great but I often wish it had a bigger screen......

[dapleb]

Great ta, that is much the same as others have said about the Asus Eeeee PC. Another wonderment about no CD drive, how did you get mapsource on there, plug in external drive?

[nav18tor]

Oh, and I brought mine from

http://www.simplyasus.com/

No problems, good service and would use again

Great ta, that is much the same as others have said about the Asus Eeeee PC. Another wonderment about no CD drive, how did you get mapsource on there, plug in external drive?

I have never missed the CD drive, but I do have other lap tops at home, it was "easyGPS" I was trying to use, and I just used my "old" and slow Samsung traditional lap top which already had Maprsource loaded

I figured that if I needed anything I could always use "cloud" or just get an external hard drive

[dapleb]

Ooooh only available in hot pink http://www.simplyasu....html#DetailTop

[Manx1200]

I wouldn't bother too much about the ssd, most laptop hdd's are fine, unless you actually use them while shaking it about. The only real advantage is access speed.I have a dell 12" laptop with a32gb ssd, really quick.

[TKH]

Dapers - a few questions:
How much storage space do you need and why?
How big a screen do you need?
What do you use it for other than photos?
Why are you changing? does your old PC not still work?
Why ultraportable? and why less than 1.5 kg?
How much do you want to spend?
Why haven't you considered a tablet?

That 2nd hand lump on fleabay is about 2-3 years old with an SDD someone as stuck in later because it probably took too long to boot up or they thought it was cool to dump a 500gb hard disk for a 120gb ssd (head shape of a penis?). CD/DVD is not an issue as you can get external ones for PCs for not a huge amount of money or if you want to store tons of data at home there are a lot of options.

[ChrisG]

If you don't need mega performance there'a lot to be said for second hand. I was looking for something small enough to carry on the bike, and quick enough to be able to play HD video from my GoPro. All the tiny little netbooks have rubbish resolution screens, and aren't quick enough to check my videos, and tablets are rubbish for transferring files. In the end I bought a refurbished Dell D430 on e-bay for about £100, though I blew an extra £30 on an extended battery for it. It weighs 1.6KG with the extended battery on, and is good for about 3.5 hours. 60GB SSD running XP leaves a reasonable amount of space on it, though I carry a USB drive to transfer stuff to. 1.3GHz dual core is quick enough to run 720p videos, and the 12" 1280 x 800 screen is big enough to see but the whole thing is about the size of an A4 pad and fits in my tank bag.

Oh and it came with an external CD and docking station, not that I've used either.

Edited by ChrisG, 08 January 2013 - 10:57 pm.

[dapleb]

I wouldn't bother too much about the ssd, most laptop hdd's are fine,

Its gonna be bouncing along in a pan-ear on the treader, mostly on tracks and non smooth surfaces but it aint going to be on at the time. I am very very good at breaking stuff. If normal spinny disc could survive it give me way more options but reliability is important.

Dapers - a few questions:
How much storage space do you need and why?
How big a screen do you need?
What do you use it for other than photos?
Why are you changing? does your old PC not still work?
Why ultraportable? and why less than 1.5 kg?
How much do you want to spend?
Why haven't you considered a tablet?

That 2nd hand lump on fleabay is about 2-3 years old with an SDD someone as stuck in later because it probably took too long to boot up or they thought it was cool to dump a 500gb hard disk for a 120gb ssd (head shape of a penis?). CD/DVD is not an issue as you can get external ones for PCs for not a huge amount of money or if you want to store tons of data at home there are a lot of options.

I don't think I need a massive amount of space but enough to store a coupla months of piccies, maybe the odd video and mapping software and associated maps and files.

Not that worried about screen size, portable and light are important. Screen size not so important.

It needs to be able to access interweb, run mapsource or similar GPS software, download tracks/routes/maps to GPS, edit the odd photo and mayhaps video. Needs good wifi signal (I had assumed this was much of a muchness but reading a bit it seems this can vary quite a bit!).

Not changing from oubt else, never ever had a laptop, I need it to go in me cycle pan-ears .

Ultraportable and light as I need to lug it under me own power and have limited space.

Spend, ermm was hoping around a coupla hundred squiddlers which looks possible if normal spinny disc is going to survive but otherwise looks unlikely for SSD.

A tablet won't run mapsource and things like that from the very little I know? So I discounted them at that stage. Even if this wasnt the case, I find trying to type on a laptop annoying enough and touchscreens even more irritating.

[ChrisG]

You should be ok with a spinny disk, they're only fragile when they're spinning, if the machine's turned off you can bounce it around all you like.

[dapleb]

If you don't need mega performance there'a lot to be said for second hand.

Yup second hand a good idea, it wouldnt be the end of the world if I wipe out a £100 laptop. Carrying £600 worth on a bike is a bit unneccessary and worth more than the bike and all its contents put together (actually so is £100 ) and not in the style of dappers travel. If it wasnt for need to transfer GPS maps/files and store piccies I probably wouldnt bother with all this.

[ChrisG]

If mapsource is the only software you want to run then a second hand netbook is probably your best bet. I only went bigger than that so I could check my GoPro videos, and the netbooks in my price range were single core Intel Atoms which is too slow.

I assume you plan to stop places you can charge it, but netbooks will generally have far longer battery life than a small laptop. Not so much of an issue for me as I charge it on the bike and then have plenty of battery power when I get to the campsite.

Some of the really cheap netbooks run Linux though, I assume you'll need windows for Mapsource.

[dapleb]

So even summat loike this would prolly be ok?

http://www.argos.co....ductInformation

or this

http://www.argos.co....ber/5088113.htm

[ChrisG]

I'd have said so, however...

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4d087c5360

[leehenty]

On me bike on tour, I use EEEPC 901 with 20gb ssd no moving parts and 32gb sd card running s slipstremed version of XP sp3 slimmed down to the bare essentials.
The trick is to upgrade the sodimm to 2gb. It originally came with eeepc Linux, but I changed it as the windows ones have a limited ssd of 12 or 16gb.
It takes the larger 11,000 maH battery for a eeepc 1000HE so it lasts about 11 hrs. The screen is 9 inch.
For internet I use the phone as a local wifi hotspot.
I have had it since new and it's been great. I keep it in a silicone cover, with charging from the bike. Just had to make an arrangement to get power into the top box.
Like this:

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item460b931cf7

or this but it has a normal sinning HDD.

http://www.simplyasu...9S_1191728.html

Edited by leehenty, 08 January 2013 - 11:54 pm.

[muddy]

I've got an EeePC 901 with SSD that I've had for about 5-6 years. It's taken quite a battering and still works fine. The only physical problem is that the power jack is flimsy and breaks easily, so pay attention to details like how robust (I hate that word now the politicians have killed it) the components are. Mine broke a long time ago and I have to mess around with the plug to run it off mains. Other than that it's been a great little netbook. Battery life is pretty good as well and I can watch a couple of videos and still have juice left. I run it on Ubuntu Netbook Edition, which makes everything run faster and smoother.

I'm not sure what's around now. I was using the Blackberry Playbook Tablet when travelling and it's a great bit of kit too and is cheap at the moment, but I do prefer something with a physical keyboard. I'd use the EeePC still, but with the jack being twiddly, it won't charge off the bike. I think in future I'll just use the Motorola Defy as it charges off the bike and off of my travel solar panel as well. The EeePC won't and the Blackberry Tablet takes too long. These are my travel gadget experiences for what it's worth.

Doh, just noticed in another of your posts Dappers that you needed a hub for photos and suchlike. What about using Dropbox on your Android phone for uploading photos?

Edited by muddy, 09 January 2013 - 11:47 am.

[muddy]

On me bike on tour, I use EEEPC 901 with 20gb ssd no moving parts and 32gb sd card running s slipstremed version of XP sp3 slimmed down to the bare essentials.

I had XP for a long time and a couple of years ago put Ubuntu 10 Netbook on it. If I hadn't done that it would've been put in a box somewhere. With Ubuntu Netbook it really flies and battery life is better as well. I use the original SSD as well, saving the SD slot for movies and other media.

[LewisBlackburn]

Dapleb, I got one an Acer aspire One D260 for my misses off eBay for £80. It needed a new screen on it which cost me £25 so in total it was only £105.
That MSI Wind you posted at Argos Looks like a really good buy its actually a better spec than the one I got, the CPU is twice as fast (in theory) as it’s a dual core instead of single.
Depending on how techy you it is quite easy to put a SSD in, you can purchase 128GB ones for around £80 if needed.
One thing I would recommend is upgrading the Ram.

My missus has windows 8 installed on hers and she uses it for uni work. This involves multiple word docs and power points open at once along with multiple tabbed browsing in Google Chrome. It does get a little laggy when she has say 10 tabs and documents open so would benefit from a ram increase, but other than that it runs well.

These types of laptops are by no means a powerhouse, but depending providing it will run Map source you can’t go wrong at that price.

Oh, just for into, battery last about 5 hous with full screen brightness, and wifi on on hers.

Edited by LewisBlackburn, 09 January 2013 - 11:39 am.

[dapleb]

As usual I have learnt more from Carpedians than from hours of interweb searching. Thanks guys.

Muddy I would love to use my phone and some way of storing files but have not looked into that too much as I will defo need to have access to mapping software and files and a method of transfer to GPS unit. Which I dont think my phone will cope with.

So is it definitely the case that a spinny disc can survive as well as the SSD when off???? It is massively cheaper to go for spinny disc but if its going to break from thunking around on the boike then there is no point at all as I will then have to either bin it or carry a dead weight on tour.

[LewisBlackburn]

So is it definitely the case that a spinny disc can survive as well as the SSD when off???? It is massively cheaper to go for spinny disc but if its going to break from thunking around on the boike then there is no point at all as I will then have to either bin it or carry a dead weight on tour.

Personally, I'd go for a SSD over a spinny disk.
Even though they may not be moving when there off, there are still tiny movable parts in a standard hard drive. being transported down bumpy roads in a bike topbox i would be alot more confident with a Solid State Drive.

Others may disagree however