Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, David, mac_h8r1, Nelliesboo

 
Shivi
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 3:49 pm

Asus 1215n or UL30a - help!!

Wed Nov 17, 2010 2:45 pm

So my wife has been requesting a change from her Dell Studio 1735 (it's 2 years old, and more importantly for her it's heavy and has a shocking batery life)
She ONLY used the laptop for emailing, facebook'ing, loading pictures onto Picasa and Snapfish - with some very light editing, and is looking for something light with a good battery.

Was thinking of spending about $400-500 and have narrowed my choices down to the Asus 1215n or UL30a - and cannot decide between the two.

So far am leaning to the 1215n for it's discrete graphics, and cheaper price (about $430 on Amazon) It also has the newer Atom processor (but does that mean it's better?)
Downside being that it has only the 32 bit OS, so cannot use the 4 GB of RAM it has fully. It's battery life is lower too - 6 vs the UL30's 10.

The UL30a looks sleeker though. It has a smaller profile and from what gather it's processor is better than the 1215n's
It also has a 64 bit OS and a bigger HDD.
Downside being the lack of an optical drive and lack of discrete gfx (not that there will be any gaming on this laptop) It also costs about 570.

So there's my dilemma -
Which processor is better?
Does it matter that the UL30a has no discrete gfx?
For the people out there with no optical drive laptops - is it a big hinderance? Can you even get legal copies of softare to mount and install?

and lastly, build quality - haven't managed to find a retailer to get my hands on either.

Please help - my wife's (and therefore my own) happiness depends on it.

Thanks.
 
Corrado
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2574
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2002 7:00 pm

Re: Asus 1215n or UL30a - help!!

Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:48 pm

The UL30a will be much better. Proper dual core CPU, and roughly the same power envelope as the Atom. WAY faster. The discrete GPU wont' really help you out too much in day to day tasks, so its not worth taking into consideration.
 
Skrying
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1792
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:37 am
Location: Missouri

Re: Asus 1215n or UL30a - help!!

Wed Nov 17, 2010 4:28 pm

I would get the UL30a myself. The (much) faster processor is going to matter more than the Ion graphics in the 1215n. I've never found lacking a optical drive a big deal. I'm not sure what software you're talking about finding legal copies. Every piece of software I know of (besides Windows and it supports installing from USB drives) has downloadable options.
 
Shivi
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 3:49 pm

Re: Asus 1215n or UL30a - help!!

Wed Nov 17, 2010 8:11 pm

Thanks for the input. Definitely leaning to the UL30a now myself - guess was just tempted by the 1215n's newness.
Hope the wife isn't too dissapointed by an Asus vs the Mac Air - Apple has done a good job marketing (she barely knows anything about laptops but knows about Macbook Airs) that but can't bring myself to put down almost 3 times the price (for a 13 with 250 GB HDD)

@skyring; was thinking how I would install MS Office and later, possibly a new OS - or even a re-install of Win7 should something go wrong.
Quad 9300| Abit - something| 4 GB RAM| MSI 460 GTX Cyclone| Seagate 640 GB| Seagate 640 GB| Audigy 2 ZS Gamer| Dell 24 inch LCD
 
Skrying
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1792
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:37 am
Location: Missouri

Re: Asus 1215n or UL30a - help!!

Wed Nov 17, 2010 9:28 pm

Microsoft offers an official application to copies the file from the Windows 7 DVD to a USB thumb drive, which you can install Windows 7 from. In a similar fashion you can either download Office directly from Microsoft or just create an image for the disk and use a disc drive emulation program.
 
Shivi
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 3:49 pm

Re: Asus 1215n or UL30a - help!!

Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:23 pm

Thanks for the input.
Am going to be getting the UL30a - probably before Black Friday as the deals that I'm seeing online for the major retailers don't have anything that really competes.
Quad 9300| Abit - something| 4 GB RAM| MSI 460 GTX Cyclone| Seagate 640 GB| Seagate 640 GB| Audigy 2 ZS Gamer| Dell 24 inch LCD

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On