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Would you buy a netbook to game? Vote to win $50 gift card photo

I have a fascination with netbooks (tiny computers you can hide in your vagina). They're cute and are flying off the shelves, but they're only good for word processing and surfing the web ... like 286 on crack. I thought netbooks would continue to suck for years to come, but then ION happened. I think an arranged marriage is in order, but Asus won't just take my word for it.  You know what that means. Contest!

How to win a $50 Gamestop gift certificate

I'm once again a guest blogger on WePC this week trying to drum up ideas for new computer products from the gaming community.  Here's today's survey:  If Asus squeezed the ION platform into a netbook and sold it for under $500, would you buy it or ignore it?  To enter the contest, register with "Dtoid_(yourname)" and post your comment on this thread (not on Dtoid).  Example:

   Dtoid_Niero:  Yes, SIZE MATTERS! Also, I think you are more handsome than Mario Lopez.

Obviously, netbooks have tiny screens so maybe I'm wrong and this wouldn't appeal to anyone. Be truthy and post your comment on this thread. Let's figure it out in the comments.  If enough people like the idea, they're a possible chance that they'll actually build it.  Cool, eh?  Anyway, I'll pick a random winner tomorrow and announce it on Dtoid Twitter.  Good luck!


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38 comments | showing # 1 to 38

sharpshell's Avatar
sharpshell at 04/22/2009 11:52
At first I was like "no way"... but you know what? that would be kind of awesome in a weird way to whip it out at liek starbucks and play l4d even if its wa sin 800 x 600
Dale North's Avatar
Dale North at 04/22/2009 12:12
incidentally, Niero made my shitty little notebook run way faster. Its like a 386 now
Chronic Logic's Avatar
Chronic Logic at 04/22/2009 12:12
No way, small screen combined with cramped keyboard? Hell no.
Mushman's Avatar
Mushman at 04/22/2009 12:14
Nah, I would'nt, I'd just buy a portable system like the DS.

Like shapshell said, only at places like starbucks would you have the space to really game properly.I rarly go to starbucks alaone, and when I do, I get me coffee to go. Pulling out your notebook THEN your mouse THEN getting a table with enough space is just too much effort for me. Whilst a ds lite or psp would not only be cheaper, but also manage to fit into your pocket.

Notebooks, though small, cannot do that, thus resulting in you carrying a case for it, which is larger than the thing itself. Notebooks were never meant to be for gaming, and never likely will be.

Not on;y that, gfx 'cards' in latops are fast improving and we now have 'portable' graphic cards, like the ION mentioned in the contest.

So, in short, maybe in years to come, but for now the tech is simply too weak.
Narishma's Avatar
Narishma at 04/22/2009 12:16
sharpshell: Netbooks have weird resolutions like 1024x600.

Anyway I already have a netbook and it can play a lot of games far more powerful than Starcraft. Things like Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, GTA 3, Diablo and so on all play well on netbooks.
Monodi's Avatar
Monodi at 04/22/2009 12:19
Ok done. If size is a ´roble, it could be always be solved by peripheral magic. You know what I mean, an accesory here, there, a screen, controller, voila!
LKM's Avatar
LKM at 04/22/2009 12:25
Actually, many indie games (Legend of Princess, Spelunky and such) as well as pretty much all relevant emulators run just fine on these. With an USB pad, they are perfect gaming machines, at least for my taste in games.
Noah's Avatar
Noah at 04/22/2009 12:27
No. I would attempt to game on a netbook, emulators and such, but I wouldn't buy one to game. My current computer is a netbook, and watching youtube videos in HQ makes it slow down
LukienAkeela's Avatar
LukienAkeela at 04/22/2009 12:30
Sure, why not?
Moofey's Avatar
Moofey at 04/22/2009 12:34
Of course I would. Why buy a $2000 gaming rig when you can have a setup to decently play games like this? :P
Bacchus's Avatar
Bacchus at 04/22/2009 12:37
500 bucks? Yeah, that would be a fair price.

I play diablo 2 on my netbook all the time.
g4torturedsoul's Avatar
g4torturedsoul at 04/22/2009 12:41
Of course if it is so inexpensive you can always throw the display on an HDTV.
John Johnson's Avatar
John Johnson at 04/22/2009 12:42
I have the netbook pictured up there. It cost me 300 bucks and it runs Red Alert fine, which is nice, because Red Alert is free (legally). The way I see it, you get a desktop to run the latest games on high settings and you get a netbook for surfing the web on your couch and playing some retro games on plane rides. To me, they compliment each other nicely
tkyy's Avatar
tkyy at 04/22/2009 12:56
Only if it's really under $500.
Why not game on a slightly larger laptop with lower price and better spec?
DtoidBadMrK's Avatar
DtoidBadMrK at 04/22/2009 13:01
Heck yeah I would for 500 bucks. That would be pretty sweet to have a portable gaming laptop to take with you wherever. Bring it on!
dip's Avatar
dip at 04/22/2009 13:09
Whoever in the comments mentioned that they didn't have a master PC because they "don't have $15,000 to throw around casually" has been grossly misinformed.
CarlsonJJ123's Avatar
CarlsonJJ123 at 04/22/2009 13:42
I totally would buy one. I love my DS which is gaming on a small screen, and I loved the Gameboy way back when, which was like gaming on a netbook in terms of console size. Plus, the netbook has options for doing other stuff. As long as the games that are playable on it are decent, absolutely.
Dimly's Avatar
Dimly at 04/22/2009 13:45
I hate when shit like this happens. I just recently bought a nice netbook, but it would be awesome to be able to even play diablo 2 reliably on it. I wonder if what I have is even remotely upgradable.
zanthox's Avatar
zanthox at 04/22/2009 13:45
I use a laptop for my main gaming rig right now.... But it has a (nearly) full keyboard and a 17.1" screen sooo its a biggin'.
Berzerk's Avatar
Berzerk at 04/22/2009 14:09
I have an Eee 901. It can run the popcap games I have flawlessly. I don't want to play games on it, though, because they're distorted and hard to control.
mrberns's Avatar
mrberns at 04/22/2009 14:10
I would consider it. I had actually been waiting for this to be released, but once I found out that power consumption levels for the GPU where too high to be used in a netbook, I kinda gave up on the idea. Plus they're pairing it with the Atom processor which I understand because of the size constraints and energy efficiency, but whats the point of having a super small super powerful graphics unit if you're going to gimp it with no processing power? If they used a different processor, I would go up to $500, otherwise this should be coming in at about $350-400.
futurebiblehero's Avatar
futurebiblehero at 04/22/2009 14:33
I wouldn't. It's antithetical to the whole reason for netbooks; at the point I'd rather have a budget laptop (complete with optical drive and high-res screen) that I could game on. The second you're paying more than $400 for a Netbook, you might as well begin looking at the lower-end Toshiba Satellites and such.

I heart my netbook and certainly wish I could run a few more games on it, but not enough to sacrifice it's size or price.
CharleyTony's Avatar
CharleyTony at 04/22/2009 14:39
my answer is NO

When I bought my current laptop I didn't even look at models that had screens under 17 inches. I don't go to school and drive a car so, to me, a big laptop is more a commodity than extra weight. My next laptop (scheduled to be bought next year) might even be a 19 incher (if I can find one).

I think netbooks should be used to surf, blog write notes and in rare instances play solitaire. Their main focus should be long battery life and not gaming performance.

For laptop gaming I'd go for and alienware system or the Toshiba Qosmio (red with the subwoofer built in).
gbear86's Avatar
gbear86 at 04/22/2009 15:16
Yes, so long as games perform decently on them I don't see any problem with it. Of course it wont replace $2000 gaming pcs but as a budget solution it sounds perfect. Also, considering most laptops that run games well are huge and weigh a ton, it'd be nice to have an ultra-portable alternative.
Nukkus's Avatar
Nukkus at 04/22/2009 15:22
I already bought a netbook for gaming! I play games like Quake 3, DooM, Heretic, Hexen, and all sorts of awesoem stuff like that on it. I have the ASUS 900HA, Quake III runs maxed out at 1024x600 at 60fps, and if i hook it up to my 22" monitor, it runs just as fast at 1680x1050. I have roughly 80 or so games installed on it (not counting emulated games, it runs everything up to playstation).
Draco9898's Avatar
Draco9898 at 04/22/2009 15:24
I'm more of a desktop PC guy. Besides, I need something good so I can do 3d renders with decent rendering times.
Coltronathon5000's Avatar
Coltronathon5000 at 04/22/2009 16:49
I would agree that being able to run CoD4 on a netbook is a bit excessive... but if it's only jacking up the price by $50 then why the fuck not?

Also gaming isn't the only thing a discrete GPU will enhance ...the entire computer as a whole will run better, especially beefier OSes like vista or windows7

also here's the ion in action: http://www.pcworld.com/article/158772/nvidia_ion_platform_testdrive.html
ma5h's Avatar
ma5h at 04/22/2009 17:43
Yes, but at a cheaper price point then $500, as when the mini pc contraption lands upon the UK shores, where I call home, it would cost £500 after taxes. And that is basically a lot of hookers.
Jurnigan's Avatar
Jurnigan at 04/22/2009 17:46
I would definitely buy a gaming netbook. The low price and portability of a netbook and the power of a much bigger computer would be great; the only disadvantage would be the small screen. It might also help get more people back into PC gaming; if a console-priced netbook came out that could feasibly run almost anything, it could be an more powerful alternative to the PSP or DS.
pantslessyoda1's Avatar
pantslessyoda1 at 04/22/2009 19:29
Yeah, why not? Notebook's a great for taking on trips and they take up less space than regular pcs. Even though they're more expensive, since I use my comp so much, I don't mind spending extra money on it.
calpis's Avatar
calpis at 04/22/2009 21:36
I was totally planning on getting an MSI Wind netbook but then I saw the ION demoed. Gonna hold off on getting one till these hit the market. Oh, and IBM Thinkpads FTW!
MarginalMeaning's Avatar
MarginalMeaning at 04/22/2009 23:06
I would definitely buy one. I actually had a first gen EEEPC, and it definitely did wonders to stifle the boredom at work. I mainly just listened to music through the extra speakers or played older games on it though. I'm actually in the market for a new netbook since the screen on mine ate it through an unfortunate accident. That and if it's a good gaming rig I could just take it to lan parties with extra peripherals (monitor, keyboard, etc) to play on.
triclops41's Avatar
triclops41 at 04/23/2009 00:18
I would especially if they would finally make damn external video cards. Then you could just dock your netbook at home and it becomes a full desktop.
allisonaxe's Avatar
allisonaxe at 04/23/2009 12:15
I already bought a netbook to game. I have an EEEPC 900ha model, its 9 inches and fits in my purse, and it can (and does) run several games. I recently installed GTA: Vice city on it. before that I had Fallout 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate Trilogy (a mod of BG2 that includes the original game attached seamlessly to the sequel and its expansion) and regularly played Diablo 2 and Starcraft (using a wireless mouse.) it can't run some of the fancier more recent games, but it holds its own for older games (which is kind of all I play on pc anymore anyway.)
fingo's Avatar
fingo at 04/23/2009 14:57
Yeah, I wouldn't mind ultraportable PC gaming. I could play through Steam's old games everywhere.

On second thought, gaming at school is probably not a good thing for my grades..
Niero's Avatar
Niero at 04/23/2009 17:15
Congratulations, W4ffles! You're our winner, check your email :)
w4ffles's Avatar
w4ffles at 04/23/2009 22:14
Could you resend that email? I never got it.
monkeypoo's Avatar
monkeypoo at 05/23/2009 13:53
I can use my netbook for games and I do!! What else are you going to do with a 160GB hard-drive and 1GHz of processor speed and DirectX 9 graphics? Play solitaire? I think not my friend! My current fave game is Help! Aliens! (www.marjupi.com) Oh yeah that reminds me. The only problem with netbooks is that without a CD drive you really are restricted to games you can download unless you buy an external disk drive and load up your games at home - but that sort of defeats the point if you ask me.
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