Upgrade A Netbook?
 

Some time ago, I got my daughter a netbook, a HP Mini 110. She doesn't like it that much and I wanted to try and fix / upgrade some things. Wonder if you guys have some thoughts on:

- RAM. It has 1GB, can take 2GB ($35). I imagine that's a good idea, would make it feel a bit snappier?

- SSD. It has a 160GB HDD, I see that a 64GB SSD is $130 or so. What difference will that make? It is a real PITA to upgrade the HDD on a netbook when it doesn't have a DVD drive and I don't have a O/S DVD? Seems I'd need to clone the drive using a backup program?

- O/S upgrade. It has Windows 7 "Starter". I don't want to do a Mac OS hack or install Linux, so probably just leave the O/S alone?

Oh, here is a perennial irritation. It has a weird screen resolution, 1024 x 600. Some dialog boxes are too "tall" for the screen, so that the bottom of the box where the "OK" "Cancel" buttons live, is not visible. There is typically no way to scroll those boxes. Any solution for this?

I rarely use my netbook purely b/c of the size. Its hard for me to type on and I have to strain to read the damned thing. I keep it in my schoolbag, purely b/c occasionally I have to check on my school stuff that my iPhone won't pull up.

GET A USB2 drive box or e-SATA if it has one for the old HD drive
you can also get a box for a DVD/cd recorder or brDVD with usb 2 or e-SATA out put

the extra 2 vs 1 gig memory should help
as does the SSD

ask your HP c/s rep how to move the W7

I can change screen resolution's in firefox by hiting Ctrl and moving the mouse wheel to get bigger or smaller

You'd be better off buying a cheap 13" laptop. They're really cheap nowadays.

Even if you put close to $200 into this netbook it won't even come close to a real laptop in terms of performance and usability.

The size and battery life is right for her, which is why I'm trying to make this machine better. It fits in her backpack which is way overstuffed, and the battery lasts so long theres no need to carry the brick.

RAM will help. I've put 2GB in all of our Netbooks.

SSD drive: This will make starting and loading programs much faster. It will also further improve battery life.

Screen resolution: I would check what it is set to and what is optimum for the machine. There may be a setting wrong on the machine.

Right click in the center of the desktop and select screen resolution
find "advanced settings" and click on it
Most of these netbooks use an intel graphics card. THere look like there are 4 tabs, but the 5th one is the "Intel Graphics Media Accellerator driver for ultra mobile". Click on it.
Click on graphic properties
click on display settings
click on Aspect ratio options
make sure that full screen (no border) is selected (is this the illegal immigrant mode?)

Upgrading to Win 7 Home: Click on the start, then on control panel. Then select system and security. The menu now should have an option near the bottom for "Windows Anytime Upgrade". Make sure you are connected to the internet at the time. I also suggest you use a hardwired connction for the fastest upgrade.

As for the scrolling in a dialog box, I found that the up / down arrow keys work for this on our netbook.

Our netbook usually gets used by my wife to play some version of Solitaire. I have it loaded with Ubuntu and it has 2 gigs of ram and a SSD. It is OK to use but the video card is not great.

So, how would I go about replacing the HDD with a SSD, given I don't have a Windows O/S DVD and the netbook doesn't have a DVD drive?

I was thinking something like this:
- Buy internal 2.5" SSD drive for $140, and get the cheapest external USB HDD drive (actually I have one laying around)
- Disassemble external drive, remove HDD from the external drive shell, replace with SSD, to get an external USB SSD
- Load Carbon Copy Cloner on the netbook
- Use CCC to clone the netbook's existing HDD including the MBR to the external USB SSD
- Disassemble the external drive shell, remove SSD from the external drive shell
- Physically replace netbook's HDD with the SSD
- The netbook should start up and boot from the SSD, all O/S, apps, settings, data, etc should be and act as if nothing was changed.

Sound right? Is there a simpler way?

Newegg.com - VANTEC CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter

This allows you to connect the SSD drive to the Netbook though a USB connector. I think you might be able to find it slightly cheaper on Amazon.

Load/use carbon copy or one of the many drive cloners out these.

I actually have 2 of the adapters and one machine with cloner software. And these days, that is all that machine is good for...

Excellent! Thanks.

Oh, any tips on selecting a SSD?

Looks like Crucial has a 64GB SATA3 SSD with SATA-USB cable for $134. I don't know if that generation of Mini 110 (1034CL) supported SATA3's 6Gb/s, but why not try it.

Or, they have an Intel 40GB SATA2 SSD for $89, but I'd need the SATA-USD adapter for $20, SATA2 is only 3Gb/s, and it is a lower capacity drive with half the read/write speed (that might be the SATA interface).

I dunno, maybe there's not all that much to think about, but any recommendations before I click the "PAY" button?

BTW, it is interesting that I'm about to pay $35 for a 2GB DRAM module and $90-130 for a 64GB NAND SSD - something about that doesn't feel right on a $/GB basis - feels like I am getting bent over for the DRAM?

Newegg has some 64GB units for ~$99

The ADATA ones have an $89 price after rebate.

I think newegg needs to start paying me for leads...

OH, and Newegg has pretty good prices on everything...

Might want to take it apart and make sure you get the right size drive. A lot of netbooks use the 1.8"s vs. the 2.5"s.

Thanks, again.

I do like the form factor, battery life, and keyboard of this little machine. It doesn't need anything more than an Atom for its intended use. The current HP Mini 110 with a higher-resolution screen would be nice, as would one of the ION-based machines. But I figure the SSD can be moved from machine to machine.

I'm probably going to upgrade the ancient iMac to a Mac Mini w/ dual monitors, and if the SSD makes enough difference for the netbook, then an SSD might get put in the Mac Mini too.

Still looking for a use for the old G5 iMac. Hate throwing stuff away. If it can drive my (SD) 42" TV, maybe it becomes a TV source for watching online shows (Hulu etc). Not sure if it has the oomph?

John, my new "Netbook" has 64GB SSD, touchscreen, bluetooth, Wireless G&N, front and rear camera, 2GB ram, a somewhat upgraded CPU (a little better than your Netbook, but not much), and Windows 7 Pro.

$99 Win 7 Pro
2GB Ram $50-60
$100 for 64GB SSD
$100 Touchscreen

Yep, the price for the Slate isn't that bad considering all of the improvements over a Netbook.

Yeah, your Slate sounds pretty nice.

I'm going to see how the tablet market develops over the coming months. I'd like to take a tablet on the road instead of my laptop. Apps and corporate support are the obstacles there.

It was still pretty steep for a "netbook" but I like it. And with the bluetooth mouse and keyboard it really can function like one.

Indeed!