Acer Aspire 5515

[aidan80 9]

I've used a machine with an Atom processor overclocked to near 2.0Ghz with 2GB RAM running Windows 7 and I have to admit it played DVD's fine, Youtube, HD Trailers, MP3's, web pages responded as expected.. all in all it wasn't too bad at all. True the current Atom in the "nettops" isn't dual core but they do support HT which will help in some areas. I wouldn't go as far as saying they are junk, after all these things are meant to replace big bulky heavy laptops for those that travel a lot or for those that just want to get online without forking out their first born. Don't forget these things run on very little power compared to their big brothers as well! Performance isn't the main selling point on these machines! The machine I'd used was $309 came with a 3 cell battery and XP Home and no bloatware! Battery life was around 2.5 hours I'd imagine around about 5 hours with a 6 cell battery. Thing weighed less than 3lbs, hard to beat if you had a long plane trip and not much in the way of in flight entertainment!

I'd buy one myself if I had the cash available at the minute.

Good review. I dropped in the 2GB Ram upgrade to my Asus Eee 100HA for $25, and it really turbocharges the video streaming quality to near perfect. You can even get a 10 cell battery for even more insane batt life. Even got a $60 external DVD drive just for giggles.

Thanks, correct the extra RAM allows the onboard video to eat up a wee bit more memory and gives videos and everything else a bit more leg room. God a 10 cell battery should get most people through their flight! I agree for around $60 get an external DVD, I seen them sold at dell with their mini's for $99? Save the cash people head over to another online retailer and get one with free shipping and use the extra cash for RAM!! The machine I'd used was an MSI Wind, I'd highly recommend it not used the Eee PC's yet but heard good things as well!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well most netbooks come with 3 or 4 cell batteries. Anything over that increases the weight and the thickness of the device (a lot). You can get away with a 6 cell battery - though on my 1000HE it protrudes slightly (basically makes the netbook about as thick as a Macbook pro!). 10 cell - is just crazy...

[Marilyn. 340]

I can understand using lower end components but these speakers are complete shite. I'd never own one with a single core processor again either, no offense to your bro M!

none taken.. lol.. I take half of what my brother says and throw it out ...lol

my brother was raving about a new laptop that is coming out this summer, the Lenovo S12

http://gizmodo.com/5268833/lenovo-s12-is-t...riced-under-500

yeah if we were getting the laptop as a secondary computer we would have got one of the minis but this is a replacement computer for the hubster so we wanted to get a good one...

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The machine I'd used was an MSI Wind, I'd highly recommend it not used the Eee PC's yet but heard good things as well!

Only thing I heard wasn't great about the MSI was that it was supposedly hard to upgrade the RAM. With the eee PCs (except the new 1008 model - which you can't upgrade unless you take the thing to pieces), you just take out a couple of screws - open a hatch and you have access to replace the RAM and the HDD. When SSD drives are a bit more reasonable I might swap one in.

I can understand using lower end components but these speakers are complete shite. I'd never own one with a single core processor again either, no offense to your bro M!

none taken.. lol.. I take half of what my brother says and throw it out ...lol

my brother was raving about a new laptop that is coming out this summer, the Lenovo S12

http://gizmodo.com/5268833/lenovo-s12-is-t...riced-under-500

yeah if we were getting the laptop as a secondary computer we would have got one of the minis but this is a replacement computer for the hubster so we wanted to get a good one...

The big buzz about that is that it uses a new type of processor that basically doubles as a graphics card. You can run games that were high-end 2-3 years ago on it at a decent framerate. Only downer is that that will be pretty expensive - and the old atom-based S10 was nearly $450 when it came out.

[Niels Bohr 72]

The Atom has problems with HD playback. I don't like it too much.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The Atom has problems with HD playback. I don't like it too much.

Yeah I won't watch movies on it anyway - the screen res maxes out at 1024 x 600 (I think). Works well enough for Hulu and youtube though.

[SuperDuper! 230]

The Atom has problems with HD playback. I don't like it too much.

You are talking about HD on YouTube? Yes, I noticed the same thing. But you can't expect a sub $350 netbook to do the same tasks, as it is by nature, an underpowered laptop. I like 7 hrs batt life of net surfing and chatting. Soon, Smart phones will usurp the need for a netbook.

[Marilyn. 340]

that is the only downside of the laptop we are getting it has a 6 cell battery that they say gives you about 3 hours of battery life..

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

that is the only downside of the laptop we are getting it has a 6 cell battery that they say gives you about 3 hours of battery life..

On a netbook you'll get about 6-7 hours (up to 9 on some models).

Regular laptops use a lot more power.

[catknit 144]

that is the only downside of the laptop we are getting it has a 6 cell battery that they say gives you about 3 hours of battery life..

This has nothing to do with anything remotely technical...

the pic in your sig!

[yogib37 3]

We are hoping to buy this gateway one . Hopefully either this weekend or the next, I think its a good deal but any input from all you computer geeks is helpful.

Just so you know, Gateway is out of busness. They were bought up by a other company and they belly up also.. so no more Gateway.

beware cause of warenty

[AbbynSheryl 0]

I bought 2 aspire 5515 for me and my wife

i paid the same 348 and it came with built in cam too

i love it

it works great

abby n sheryl

[Teacher Mark 53]

I bought 2 aspire 5515 for me and my wife

i paid the same 348 and it came with built in cam too

i love it

it works great

abby n sheryl

First laptop?

Mine didn't come with a cam. How's the sound?

[aidan80 9]

I used the U100 model don't get the next model up no upgrade options for the RAM! I think they used the extra space for another component in the next model. All that was done to install the RAM in the U100 was remove the screws underneath, pulled the cover and slotted the RAM very easy to do! Put the screws back in booted it up and away it went! Into the BIOS set the O/C to what you want, I kept it at 15% and next reboot Fn + F10 enabled O/C to 1840 MHz up from 1600 MHz not bad at all for $309! It can play some games nothing flame throwing but if your into emulators or half life, older quake or unreal games something like that you shouldn't have an issue. I ran 3D Mark 03 just to get a laugh and it scored 823 if I remember correctly. It's not exactly going to be a threat to my quad core desktop but it'll play something to pass a bit of time.

I hooked it up to a larger LCD monitor, USB hub and connected a mouse/keyboard, switched off the 10" screen and switched to the monitor. Upped the resolution and the thing just kept on going not a problem at all setup like this. For the money you really can't beat some of these wee nettops/netbooks. My advice is poke around online or in the stores read reviews and find the right one for you. There are a lot of them out there and some are a lot better than others even in the same brand! The MSI Wind I'd used was great for the price - size and performance. It has a stock 1.6Ghz CPU, 160GB Hard Drive, 1GB RAM (2GB in the machine I used), USB 2.0 of course, Audio Out, DSUB VGA, 802.11B/G, Bluetooth came with XP on it but was replaced with Windows 7 eats around 15w – 19w at full load that’s what about 4/5 nightlights worth of power lol. Yes a 6 or 10 cell battery will make it heavier but it still isn’t going to touch the weight or size of a standard laptop and isn’t going to come near the price of a macbook.

[Marilyn. 340]

so now that we are getting this laptop we are looking into getting a wireless router... which ones would you guys suggest, preferably something under 100 dollars..

belkin seems to get a lot of good reviews but some not so good reviews too..