[TrumpOrMonkey]

I'm looking for a Netbook under $500, it will be used 100% of the time for music source. I will be adding an M2Tech HiFace to it. I don't mind the performance at all, battery life is important, although 6 cell is enough for me.

Most important

Hard Drive has to fit atleast 80gb of music (in FLAC files)
Low Jitter
Be compatible with Foobar and M2Tech HiFace
Quiet

etc.

I need some opinions on which laptop, I'm looking currently at a Lenovo S10e and an Asus Eeepc 1000HE.

 

[Hybrys]

Any of them, really. Just get one you like, and it'll work. <_<

Or, get a fanless tablet with a USB port.

 

[TrumpOrMonkey]

Has anyone got latency reports from the usb ports of these two different netbooks?

I guess that is one of the main things to look out for, as I'm going to just bypass the onboard soundcard anyway. I know they'd be pretty close, but has anyone got any idea of which netbook is the quietest?

What is the jitter like on netbooks?

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrumpOrMonkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif Has anyone got latency reports from the usb ports of these two different netbooks? I guess that is one of the main things to look out for, as I'm going to just bypass the onboard soundcard anyway. I know they'd be pretty close, but has anyone got any idea of which netbook is the quietest? What is the jitter like on netbooks?

Probably not.

It's not really a thing to look out for, and quietest is going to be a fanless device. This said, you can turn any device 'fanless' with the use of the Windows utility SpeedFan. I'm seeing reports of the Asus models running around 52C, with a full load, without the fan. Which is good. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is natively fanless, and the only one I can find with an Atom driving it.

And it's the same as a regular laptop.

 

[bcwang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is natively fanless, and the only one I can find with an Atom driving it.

Really? I didn't know there existed a fanless atom netbook. That can be really interesting as I find all notebooks too loud when in the same room as the music.

 

[TrumpOrMonkey]

I heard the Asus Eeepc 1005HE produces about 24db at half a metre away which I think. I'm not sure if I should be worrying too much about it.

Another option is the Dell Mini 10, which is said to be fanless too. A deal breaker about it is that it runs Windows 7, my main rig I'm using now is running Windows 7 and it's great, but I find that a netbook with a gigabyte of ram wouldn't really respond well to Windows 7.

Anyway, I just like how XP isn't so greedy on resources and is no frills. This netbook will basically be a dedicated source running foobar2000.

 

[Welly Wu]

I use my Toshiba NB205-N310/BN-G netbook as a music server. It has a 160GB hard drive and three USB 2.0 ports one of which has their proprietary sleep 'n charge feature. Check it out.

 

[Welly Wu]

Oh yeah, the battery life lasts nine hours and twenty four minutes using Toshiba's proprietary power management software under normal mode. This netbook has a six cell 5800mAh lithium ion battery.

 

[TrumpOrMonkey]

I heard the Eeepc 1002HA is quietest. Second to the Mini 9 and S101, which have very small SSD Hard Drives. So I'll go for one of them.

The battery is only 2 cells though, but I have power sockets close by anyhow.

 

[stoutblock]

I have the EeePC 1000HA and I am very pleased with its performance as a music sever while still being portable. It is very, very quiet.

Of course you must use an external USB DAC. I use a Music Hall 25.2.

Jitter is totally acceptable. During the first 5 minutes of startup you might hear a couple of gaps but thats about it. Best performance is to set the "Super Hybrid Engine" to "High Performance" and turn off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for normal listening.

I also use an external Toshiba 500GB USB powered drive. At first I thought this would cause too much USB traffic with the DAC but seems to work fine.

I'm using XP and to get the best performance out of an external DAC you need to make sure Windows does not map through this device in your system settings.

Control Panel > Sounds & Audio Devices > Hardware > USB Audio Device > Properties > Properties > Audio Devices > USB Audio Device > Properties > Check the box for "Do not map through this device" > OK

If you have not done this in your XP w/DAC set-up you are missing out. There are some patchs out there that do this for you but I've found this works perfect!

 

[Sniff]

I looked into this for a bit before I bought mine.... I finally decided on the Dell Mini 10v. It's fanless, stock it has a 160gb hd and 1gb of ram.... The ram has now been swapped for a 2gb stick. It came loaded with Win7, but is now running Mac OSX Snow Leopard. The 6 cell batt will net you between 6 and 7 hours of runtime...

Best of all..... Dell Outlet..... mine was like new, at $205 delivered....

I went with the 10v because it is highly configurable.... ram swap, hd swap, osx....

 

[Hybrys]

Win7, if properly trimmed down, can run nearly as well as XP on a netbook. You just have to turn off Aero, all visual goodies, and the un-needed services. That said, an upgrade to 2gbs of ram is cheap and easy.

 

[GilesM]

I also use an Asus 1005HA netbook, this one runs Win 7 starter as my audio source.
The fan does kick in but it's really quiet. I was initially concerned about introducing noise, but can honestly say it's just not a problem.
Just my opinion of course...

 

[TrumpOrMonkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sniff /img/forum/go_quote.gif I looked into this for a bit before I bought mine.... I finally decided on the Dell Mini 10v. It's fanless, stock it has a 160gb hd and 1gb of ram.... The ram has now been swapped for a 2gb stick. It came loaded with Win7, but is now running Mac OSX Snow Leopard. The 6 cell batt will net you between 6 and 7 hours of runtime... Best of all..... Dell Outlet..... mine was like new, at $205 delivered.... I went with the 10v because it is highly configurable.... ram swap, hd swap, osx....

Since this one is fanless, I think I might go for one of these instead, it also have more battery life and is a bit cheaper. I have also seen that Windows 7 doesn't make too much difference in performance. But, I'll be using this netbook only for playing music anyway.

 

[TrumpOrMonkey]

Has anyone got an idea if the New Dell Mini 10 is still fanless? I know the old Dell Mini 9, 10 and 10v's were. But If the New Mini 10 is fanless, I'll get that one instead as it has a better battery.

I can't find it anywhere on the net, it is thicker than the old ones.