Five Best Netbooks

By Jason Fitzpatrick

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If you're thinking about picking up an ultra-portable laptop, this week's Hive Five is a great spot to start your comparison shopping. These are the netbooks are those most loved by Lifehacker readers. Photo by nDevilTV.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite netbook with us. We've tallied the votes and we're back to share the top five netbooks. While every Hive Five covers things that are closely related, netbooks are known for being particularly close in description. If you're using this list as a spring board for a potential netbook purchase, we'd urge you to focus on the usability details when comparing different netbooks. Something as simple as a particular netbook having a 93% sized keyboard instead of an 80% sized keyboard can be the thing that makes up your entire relationship with your new netbook. The difference between 1.33 GHz and 1.6GHz processors, on the other hand, won't be as noticeable or aggravating as a weirdly placed shift key or a too-small trackpad. Without further ado, the top five netbooks:

Samsung NC10 ($399)

The Samsung NC10 is a stylish little netbook, with obvious thought put into little things like the layout of the LED indicators and power button. The keyboard is 93% the size of a standard laptop keyboard and has silver particles embedded into the keys to make them anti-bacterial. The touch pad has a dedicated section for scrolling, handy for a machine that will likely see a lot of web surfing. Hardware-wise, the NC10 sports a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi b/g, bluetooth, a 1.3MP webcam and weighs in at 2.8 pounds.

Dell Mini 10 ($349)

The Mini 10, thanks to the clout of being marketed and distributed by Dell, has proven to be a popular netbook. The base models sport 1.33GHz Intel Atom processors, 1 GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Wi-Fi b/g, a 1.3MP webcam, a 10.1" display, and weighs in at 2.6 pounds. If you'd like to boost the specs up to the level of some of the other netbooks on today's list, you'll pay a chain of premiums to up the processor, add a six-cell battery, and add in Wi-Fi Draft-N and Bluetooth. One thing to consider when choosing between 1GB or 2GB of RAM is that the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard, making a future upgrade impossible. The Mini 10 has an HDMI port, but no VGA port, and can be upgraded to access to Verizon's EVDO network. Despite the drawback of having to pay a little extra to get features common on similar priced netbooks, if you're interested in making a hackintosh netbook, many people prefer the Dell Mini as an easy to use platform for installing OSX.

ASUS EEEPC 1000HE ($385)

When netbooks first appeared onto most peoples' radars, it was because of the earlier EEEPC models gaining surprising popularity several years ago. ASUS has continued to crank out rock-solid netbooks, building their reputation in large part to some of the longest battery lifes. While they claim 9.5 hours under ideal conditions, under real world conditions it's more like 6—still radically better than the 3 hours you can squeeze out of most netbooks. The 1000HE sports a 92% size keyboard and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 1.3MP webcam, 10.1" display, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth for connectivity, and weighs in at 3.2 pounds. Every ASUS netbook comes with 10GB of online storage, free for 24 months after purchase.

Acer Aspire One ($349)

The recently revamped Aspire One now sports a bigger screen and a six cell battery for around 5 hours of run time. If you're planning on using your netbook for video conferencing or any webcam-dependent task, consider that the Aspire only sports a 0.3 MP webcam, with no option to upgrade. Other specs are more standard: 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 10.1" display, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi b/g, SD/MMC card reader, and a weight of 2.95 pounds. The Aspire can be upgraded to access WiMAX and 3G networks.

MSI Wind ($329)

The MSI Wind is another heavyweight in the battery department. It comes standard with a six cell battery and lays claim to the same lengthy battery life the Asus 1000 series touts. The Wind has an edge-to-edge keyboard with well-spaced keys. While many people complain about how tightly packed the keys are on netbook keyboards, the Wind keyboard has keys that travel a little deeper and are just slightly further spaced than most netbook keyboards, which really helps alleviate the feeling that you're typing on a keyboard made for elves. The included Face Locker software allows you to program your face into the computer, so whenever you're not sitting in front of the computer, it will automatically lock itself and go into power saver mode. The MSI Wind sports a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 10.1" display, 1 GB RAM, 160 HHD, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, 4-in-1 card reader, 1.3 MP webcam and weighs in at 3.2 pounds.

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As we emphasized above, if you're fired up to go netbook shopping after perusing the Hive Five (or reading the 127th article about them in the tech press), make sure to pay attention to the details. In a world of fairly standardized 1.6GHz processors and 1.3MP webcams, it's the little details—the spacing of the keys, layout of the USB ports—that really make the difference in how comfortable your mini-mini-computer will be in actual use. If you can't get to a brick and mortar store to actually play around with the machines, try searching Google for comparison reviews and images of your top few choices. Many gadget and laptop review sites have pictures of comparable laptops stack on top of each other, side by side, and so forth so you can see if that extra .5" really matter to you.

How to Build a Hulu Desktop + Boxee PC

by Will Smith

Build the ultimate living room PC and watch all the TV & movies the Internet has to offer from the comfort of your couch. We show you how!

Stop surfing the internet for a minute (we know, a tall order) and go get your last cable or satellite TV bill. Back? Good. Now skim to the bottom and look at the total amount of money you paid for TV last month. Do you feel like you got a reasonable amount of entertainment for that $60, $80, or even $100-plus? Are you happy about the money you spend for the privilege of watching TV? We’re not. The vast majority of TV we watch is available for free, over the air. Sure, we’ll occasionally watch an episode of Flight of the Conchords on HBO or a documentary on Discovery, but most of the TV we watch is on one of the big over-the-air networks—ABC, CBS, Fox, the CW, and NBC. So we started looking for alternatives.

It turns out that the vast majority of new TV shows are available online, either as part of an ad-driven website like Hulu or TV.com, or available for sale on iTunes or Amazon’s Unbox service. However, having a PC in the living room has traditionally sucked. After all, you don’t want to hear a big, noisy PC when you’re enjoying a movie or a TV show, and using a mouse and keyboard as the primary interface just doesn’t cut it when you’re kicking back on the couch. But times have changed. These days, it’s easy to build a PC that’s quiet enough to be virtually unheard, yet powerful enough to play all the high-definition video that’s currently available.

And making the proposition even more appealing, there are software frontends like Boxee and the new Hulu Desktop that let you harness all that hardware power in an easy-to-use, remote-friendly interface that combines the massive library of streaming video on the web with the DRM-free content you rip from discs or purchase legally on the web. We’ll introduce you to a couple of the options, then help you configure our favorite. By combining a few hundred bucks’ worth of hardware with a free software app and your broadband connection, you can reduce the money you spend on entertainment from $100 a month to $100 a year.

Picking the Perfect Parts

The ultimate living room PC is a balance between high performance and low power consumption—i.e., it must play high-definition H.264-encoded video while running whisper-quiet

CPU

At the heart of your living room PC should be a CPU that sips power, even during demanding tasks, to minimize heat, and thus fan noise. After testing several contenders, we ended up choosing a low-power Phenom X4 9350e ($185, www.amd.com), which draws just 65W under full load. We considered a dual-core Athlon 64 but decided we’d rather have the extra two cores for transcoding than save 20W. The CPU must be 65W or lower because of the power supply, case, and limited cooling in our system.

It crossed our minds to use an Atom or other ultra-low-power processor, but we found that the current single-core CPUs simply don’t have the muscle (or enough help from onboard graphics) to play H.264 at 1080p. We had some luck at 720p, but that’s not real high-def as far as we’re concerned. Perhaps Nvidia’s Ion chipset will give Atom a needed lift, but you currently can't build your own Ion-platform machines.

Case

Like our CPU selection, the case must balance two conflicting forces—cooling and noise—all while fitting into a living-room-friendly formfactor. For all those reasons, we chose Silverstone’s LC19 ($200, www.silverstonetek.com). Its svelte profile (only 68mm tall!) fits perfectly into our entertainment center along with our other components, while muffling the noise so as not to disturb us.

We also like the slightly larger, less expensive Antec Veris Remote ($160, www.antec.com), which isn’t as compact or sexy as the LC19, but easier to build in.

Motherboard

After we selected our CPU, we went shopping for a Mini-ITX Socket AM2 motherboard that featured decent integrated graphics. Since we’re not playing games, we really just wanted a GPU that would pull a little of the heavy lifting for video decodes off the CPU. The Jetway JNC62K ($140, www.jetway.com.tw) features Nvidia’s GeForce 8200 chipset, which is more than sufficient for our needs. It offers analog VGA and DVI/ HDMI (using an adapter), it has a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, and its onboard audio features both analog and optical S/PDIF outputs.

Honestly, though, any Micro-ATX or smaller board that supports your CPU, includes integrated sound with an S/PDIF output, and sports integrated graphics from Nvidia or ATI will do the job.

Storage

Your entertainment PC doesn’t need a ton of storage—just a few gigs for the OS and the streaming software. (You’ll access the content you’ve ripped or purchased from your desktop PC or server over a network share.) We used a Western Digital Green terabyte drive we had in the Lab ($90, www.wdc.com), more because of its low rpm than its capacity, which is admittedly overkill for this purpose. You could just as well drop a 2.5-inch notebook drive into this rig. We initially considered running the OS on a CompactFlash card or a USB thumb drive, but having some storage in the box is preferable—if you connect your living room rig using a slow wireless link, you can copy movies to the hard drive before playing them. It adds a few more minutes of prep, but the playback will be buttery smooth despite your hoopty network.

Memory

The Jetway motherboard we're using is an AM2 motherboard with only one DIMM slot, so any generic 2GB module will do. We went with a single 2GB stick of PNY DDR2 memory, which you can find on Newegg for $25.

Cables

For very tiny PCs, it’s a good idea to have access to short SATA cables with one right-angle connector. Since the cables have a direction, you’ll need to get the type of cable that angles down, or you’ll have to mount your hard drives upside down. You can find right-angle SATA connectors at pretty much any screwdriver shop or on Amazon, but to find cables shorter than 18 inches, we had to go to Newegg.

Missing in Action: Why No TV Tuner?

We skipped the TV tuner in our living room rig for one simple reason: We don’t need it. While it would be nice to add over-the-air capture to our rig, we’d rather let this machine fall into its sleep mode when it’s not being used, rather than running 24/7 to pull all our TV shows from the ether. Combine that with the fact that most HD tuner cards can’t pull content from your cable or satellite service, and you’d be spending money just to get the same content you can pull from Hulu.

If you insist on hooking your cable box up to your PC, the best way to get HD content into your PC is to use the FireWire interface on your cable box. This will give you high-quality HD video for the content that isn’t marked as protected by your cable provider (typically only HBO, Starz, Showtime, and other paid channels are “protected”). Unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to configure, and it requires special drivers and a ton of hacking. Check out http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/ for the full scoop.

Mouse and Keyboard vs Remote

There are a multitude of possible input devices you can use for your living room PC, ranging from a traditional remote control to a keyboard/mouse combo. The keyboard/mouse is the easiest to set up and lets you fully tap into the massive flexibility of the PC—after all, you can fire up a web browser or iTunes and play any content you can download using a mouse and keyboard. We’re especially fond of the DiNovo Media Keyboard from Logitech ($160, www.logitech.com). It’s a full-size board, but it has a handy touch pad in the lower right corner, which makes mousing possible.

On the other hand, a more traditional remote control can be mighty handy, especially when you’re sitting on the couch. Hulu Desktop works with any Windows Media Center remote, which means you can use a cheap one like Anyware Computer's GV-IR01WT IR remote ($30, www.anywareus.com).

Boxee will work with pretty much any input device, but we tested a couple of Windows Media Center–compatible remotes and found them to work well. You can find a wide variety of Media Center–compatible remotes at Newegg and Amazon; they’re usually around $50. Alternately, the Logitech DiNovo Mini ($150, www.logitech.com) is a remote-size clamshell device that includes a mouse and keyboard in a smaller package. It’s a little spendy but worth the bucks.

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50 Skills Every Real Geek Should Have

by The Maximum PC Staff

Back in our September 2008 issue, we published a list of 9 Skills Every Nerd Needs – a lighthearted examination of the essential abilities Maximum PC readers should have in their geek arsenal. We still stand by that list, but we were somewhat one-upped last month when we saw that Gizmodo had since run its own list of 50 key geek skills. Their list was very respectable, but we thought that we could do better by not only expanding and refining our original story, but actually teaching you these skills. The highest echelon of geeks will be able to do everything in this list, and this is by no means a full categorization of the complete geek skillset – only what we consider to be the most indispensable abilities. Have anything to add to our list? Post it in the comments!

Name These Connectors!

Finding hidden hardware gems in bins of archaic cards at computer shows and swap meets is an ever-so-crucial nerd skill. Frequently the only way to discern the difference is to do an on-the-spot ID of the edge connector. True nerds should be able to identify even the most esoteric connector in their sleep (if they sleep with their eyes open, that is). Can you separate the crap from the kick ass? No cheating!

A. PCI-Express connector
B. DDR memory
C. Dual-channel RIMM

Run All Your Essential Apps on a USB Stick

Any real nerd is almost sure to have a USB thumbdrive in his pocket at all times. After all, USB flash storage is pretty much the best way to keep data conveniently at hand. What the average nerd might not know, however, is that it’s possible to install all sorts of apps on a thumb drive, meaning that you can use your USB stick as a mobile platform for your browser, email and instant message client, office suite and more. That means you can access these programs, settings intact, from any computer with a spare USB slot.

It’s all made possible by PortableApps.com, an open source platform for portable software. To get started with PortableApps, go to this page and download whichever version of the portable suite suits your needs. Then run the installer, and choose to install to the root of your USB drive. In the future, if you want to add additional portable applications just download the app, then select “add a new app” from PortableApps’ options menu and browse to the .paf.exe file you downloaded.

Right now, there are portable versions of heavyweights like Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice, as well as a whole ton of other, awesome programs.

Straighten the Pins on an Older CPU

There are two quick ways to realign bent pins on older CPUs.

The first, quickest way is to take a credit card and run it through the rows of pins in each direction, which will realign lightly-bent pins.

If a pin is bent too far for the credit card trick, use the barrel of a mechanical pencil to sheath the pin and gently bend it back up straight.

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