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I’m currently contemplating switching from my beloved little Compaq Mini to the NC20. Mainly, it’s got to be said, because the tiny wristrest is killing my hands, and my Vaio AW (the one with the idiotic touchpad buttons) is no better. Plus, I like to use my netbook/laptop on my lap on the sofa, so externals don’t work too well with that setup. Furthermore, I’ve discovered that while I would NOT like to be without a large and powerful machine, my netbook actually serves very well for what I do 95% of the time anyway. That being so, I’d like to upgrade to a larger and more comfortable (but still eminently portable) machine.
Sooo… my queries are:1. Is it true that the batteries for the NC10 series and the NC20 are interchangeable? Odd as it may sound, does this mean that I could order a lower capacity (yes I know this is odd) battery for the NC20 and it would work? I have this setup with my Compaq – a lower capacity battery for times when I don’t need extreme use, but do want extreme portability, and an extended for the reverse and it works very well. Plus when I bring both batteries I have a battery life of 10 hours or so for about 1.5kg of weight.
2. Have the driver issues for Windows 7 been resolved re graphics? I’m running 7RC 7100 on the Compaq with 1GB and Aero more or less fully enabled, and it runs very, very well. Current usage with Chrome, two explorer windows and Wordpad open is 16% processor and 47% ram. My average memory usage is 36 – 60%. Does 7 run as well as this on the NC20?
3. How well does normal quality/low bandwidth iPlayer play on the NC20 in full screen? With subtitles? I found on my Eee 1000HXP (this is my fourth netbook) that iPlayer did not run particularly well in full screen. It was jerky. This netbook did better, but wasn’t brilliant under either XP or Linux Mint. Under 7 the video – low bandwidth, still – plays beautfully with subs and no visual artifacts or smearing, even when it’s not more than 20 cm from my nose. How does the NC20 compare? Incidentally, I don’t care at all about HD video, so that’s no issue.
4. Has anyone tried to upgrade their NC20 HDD to SSD in the past month or two? I’ve read the thread regarding the need to flash a different bios in order to enable some SSD brands. This might be an upgrade that I’d consider if I was impressed enough with the NC20 that I’d want to keep it for longer than 6 months or so.
I think that’s quite enough for now…. !! 🙂
Hi cavgirl
[list=numbered]*Yes.
*I’m not sure. I have a NC10 which has worked beautifully with W7 since the beta was released. I’m sure that someone with an NC20 who is running W7 will answer this question soon.
*Sorry, I don’t run iTunes on my NC10, but I suspect that a RAM upgrade would help smooth playback.
*Check out Rachael’s hardware hack How to Install an SSD Drive into an NC10 Netbook – different netbook, but same principle. You may also be interested in the thread Cost no object SSD and why.[/list]Hope that helps 🙂Thanks, that’s really useful to know about the battery since the HC ones really seem to pile weight onto a netbook. I like having the option to switch. 😉
As far as I understand it, the issue with iPlayer (NOT iTunes, which I don’t use) is because Flash is not particularly good at making use of a netbook’s graphical processing abilities – such as they are – and this places strain on the CPU which is of course intensified when you’re talking a higher res than 1078×600 or whatever the netbook standard is. Would more ram really help with this?
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