I was considering buying a netbook sometime this year (before the next semester of school starts in August), but was wondering about how well they perform. I was hoping for a very easily portable computer that I could just take with me - I have a 14" laptop, but it ends up getting a little bulky in my backpack with books and everything. My campus is split up, so I can't exactly run back to my dorm between all my classes.
I'd want to use it somewhat for writing code (apparently a lot of my future classes are big on MATLAB) and also for occasional CAD work (either Autodesk or SolidWorks, not sure which), along with gaming (old stuff, like Civilization 3) and some media playback (music, some non-hi-def converted DIVX video files). Probably a bit of standard coursework too - Office 2007 and the like.
It doesn't need to do any of the above particularly well - my desktop and laptop can do a lot.
I was wondering if anyone here has tried using a netbook for things like this, and how it performed? Also, would it be worth getting one now, or should I just wait until sometime during the summer for the nVidia Ion architechture to come out?
I'd want to use it somewhat for writing code (apparently a lot of my future classes are big on MATLAB) and also for occasional CAD work (either Autodesk or SolidWorks, not sure which), along with gaming (old stuff, like Civilization 3) and some media playback (music, some non-hi-def converted DIVX video files). Probably a bit of standard coursework too - Office 2007 and the like.
It doesn't need to do any of the above particularly well - my desktop and laptop can do a lot.
I was wondering if anyone here has tried using a netbook for things like this, and how it performed? Also, would it be worth getting one now, or should I just wait until sometime during the summer for the nVidia Ion architechture to come out?