help me flist-wan kenobi: netbooks

[coraa]

Word from the laptop shop is that while I may be able to find a fan for my laptop "eventually," I am not going to find one in the "next few months" timeframe. I think that means it's time to give it up as a lost cause, as I can't go that long without a laptop of my own.

That being said, I don't want to go into debt to get a new full-fledged laptop (where by 'full-fledged' I mean 'able to play The Sims 3 and Final Fantasy 14'). So I think what I'll do is get a netbook now, and save up for a new "permanent" laptop later.

So: I would love to hear your recommendations on netbooks!

For my purposes (and please, if this doesn't meet your/the Internet/slashdot/whoever's definition, you don't need to edumacate me because I don't care), a netbook is a laptop, usually small in dimensions, on which I can do basic word processing and access the Internet, but that does not have a huge onboard hard drive, lots of RAM, a beefy video card, etc. I have other borrowable computers for the occasions that I absolutely need something with more processing power, and a NAS RAID array for storage. Basically, I want something that I can write on and use to browse the web, and slip into my backpack for on-the-go writing, and that's it.

I am looking to pay $400 or less including tax and shipping. That means an approximate max of $350 shelf price.

I would prefer something with Windows 7, but it can be cheapo Windows 7 Home or Starter. (I am familiar in that 'broken-in jeans and sneakers' way with Windows, and Linux and Mac are like stiff uncomfortable work clothes with new high-heel shoes to me. I can live with them if necessary, but I'd rather not.) It must, however, have a keyboard; that is, I am not looking for a tablet.

vom_marlowe had good things to say about the Dell Inspiron netbook series, and I've had good luck with Dell in general. I've also used ceph's eeePC for some time, happily. But I'd be happy to hear other people's experience.

Comments

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

I can't offer specs, but just wanted to chime in on the Asus EEE: the only computer I have at home is Junior, the Shetland Laptop, and we're very happy together. I have the Linux model because that's what there was when I bought him in 2008 but I'm told they now run Windows as well. I pretty much wrote the last two drafts of my mystery MS on Junior and had no trouble with the teeny keyboard (moving from a workstation to a laptop was much harder than moving from a laptop at work to the netbook at home, because the layout is identical only smaller.) So, over longterm usage the EEE has held up very well for me. Good luck finding something suitable!