Ultra Portables? Acer One?

OK, I know this is a Dell group, but I figure you guys would know about
this.

They had a 4-hour special sale at our local Meijers (like Walmart) store.
They were selling Acer One Ultra Portable for $345. It has a 8.9" screen, 1
gig memory, and 120 gig hard drive. It comes with a mouse and Windows XP.

Is anyone familiar with this machine?

Also, my understanding is it does not have an optical drive. Am I correct
that this means no CD/DVD drive? If so, how do you install programs that
normally come on a cd?

I did google it and I see that $345 appears to be the regular price. So, it
is tempting!

Mel

Hi!

OK, I know this is a Dell group, but I figure you guys would know about
this.
They had a 4-hour special sale at our local Meijers (like Walmart) store.
I see that $345 appears to be the regular price.

That's why you've got to check before you jump in. (I'm sure you knew that,
but...) Of course, the seller doesn't want you doing that, so they try to
induce urgency by saying "only four hours. Even in this age of information,
it still works surprisingly well.

Is anyone familiar with this machine?

Not with that one exactly. I've seen and been lusting after either one of
the Asus Eee or the MSI Wind netbooks. Everex has one as well that I've
haven't yet seen.

Also, my understanding is it does not have an optical drive. Am I correct
that this means no CD/DVD drive? If so, how do you install programs that
normally come on a cd?

There is usually no built in CD/DVD drive.

They *do* have USB ports, and it seems likely that the BIOS would have
support for booting from a USB device. So put an optical drive in an
enclosure and use that. I have a few kicking around in combination
USB/Firewire enclosures. They can come in handy if I want to burn a disc on
a system that doesn't have a disc burner installed, or if I want to use an
optical disc (like a DVD) that can't be read by the system's built in drive.

William

MZB wrote on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:38:55 -0500:
OK, I know this is a Dell group, but I figure you guys would know about
this.

They had a 4-hour special sale at our local Meijers (like Walmart) store.
They were selling Acer One Ultra Portable for $345. It has a 8.9" screen, 1
gig memory, and 120 gig hard drive. It comes with a mouse and Windows XP.

Is anyone familiar with this machine?

Also, my understanding is it does not have an optical drive. Am I correct
that this means no CD/DVD drive? If so, how do you install programs that
normally come on a cd?

I did google it and I see that $345 appears to be the regular price. So, it
is tempting!

Hi Mel! Me and Meijers are old friends. Unfortunately I am 300 miles
from one. And I love UMPC. I can use them as my main computer actually.
Yes it is true that they don't sport a CD/DVD drive. This can be a
problem sort of.

Lots of programs on CD can be copied to a USB flash drive or SD card. So
for them, you need to do this on another computer and the problem is
solved. Another option is networking on another computer with a CD/DVD
drive. You can also buy an external CD/DVD drive to use on USB. Again
the problem is solved. There are utilities that allows you to copy from
CD/DVD to SD, USB flash, or hard drive and makes them bootable. So this
works too.

I personally like the Asus EeePC line myself with SSD (solid state
drive). As they last 7 times longer than a hard drive. Plus you can drop
it and move around without worrying about the head crashing against the
platter of the hard drive. Although I like 8G SSD models as a primary
drive instead of most of them at 4G.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 8GB 1GB SoDIMM Adata 16GB
Windows XP SP2 and Xandros Linux

I personally like the Asus EeePC line myself with SSD (solid state
drive). As they last 7 times longer than a hard drive.

We have several hard drives that have been running 8 hours a
day/7 days a week for twenty years! If they last seven times
longer than that, I won't care.

Tom Lake

Tom Lake wrote on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:20:23 -0500:
I personally like the Asus EeePC line myself with SSD (solid state
drive). As they last 7 times longer than a hard drive.

We have several hard drives that have been running 8 hours a day/7 days
a week for twenty years! If they last seven times longer than that, I
won't care.

Hard drives MTBF (average life) is 34 years. So you should be okay for
another 14 years. Although that isn't 7 times longer. It isn't even one
times longer than 20 years.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 8GB 1GB SoDIMM Adata 16GB
Windows XP SP2 and Xandros Linux

BillW50 wrote:
Tom Lake wrote on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:20:23 -0500:
I personally like the Asus EeePC line myself with SSD (solid state
drive). As they last 7 times longer than a hard drive.

We have several hard drives that have been running 8 hours a day/7
days a week for twenty years! If they last seven times longer than
that, I won't care.

Hard drives MTBF (average life) is 34 years. So you should be okay for
another 14 years. Although that isn't 7 times longer. It isn't even one
times longer than 20 years.

I mean two times longer. lol

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 8GB 1GB SoDIMM Adata 16GB
Windows XP SP2 and Xandros Linux

Bought Acer Aspire One at Costco. played with it for a few weeks,
had a problem with defective key on keyboard, so I returned it.
If I bought another one, I would go for the 6 cell battery instead
of the 3 cell, since I barely got 2 hours out of the 3 cell.
6 cell version with 160GB HD is only $50 more = $398.
As for CD/DVD, just network it to your desktop and install from
there.


Best Regards,
Bob Johnson

Is anyone familiar with this machine?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09...oks/page2.html

On Nov 23, 8:13 am, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:
Is anyone familiar with this machine?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09...oks/page2.html

I have one - the Linux version with 512 megs of RAM. I like it - its
a good machine for basic web browsing and email. Its not designed for
heavy duty image editing or applications such as that. Battery life
is a little short (2-3 hours) unless you get the 6 cell version. Its
not easily upgradable (e.g. adding RAM). Keyboard is comfortable and
unlike the Dell Mini it has all the function keys. Had it since
August.

Guy

Thanks for all your responses.

There is no rush for me to buy one, but it sounds like a good deal. I would
probably look for the 6-cell battery.

Looks like I might have to spring for a USB CD drive, although I do have a
16 gig flash drive.

Mel

"guy" wrote in message
...
On Nov 23, 8:13 am, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:
Is anyone familiar with this machine?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09...oks/page2.html

I have one - the Linux version with 512 megs of RAM. I like it - its
a good machine for basic web browsing and email. Its not designed for
heavy duty image editing or applications such as that. Battery life
is a little short (2-3 hours) unless you get the 6 cell version. Its
not easily upgradable (e.g. adding RAM). Keyboard is comfortable and
unlike the Dell Mini it has all the function keys. Had it since
August.

Guy