BibleWorks 8 on a Netbook

[Sam Park]

I've been hemming and hawing about buying a netbook and would appreciate feedback on how well Bibleworks 8 works on it. I'm thinking about buying an Asus 1005PE that has an Atom N450 with 1 GB of ram along with the usual specs, including Windows 7 starter edition.

Anybody out there tried this? What do you think of the performance of BW8 on a Windows 7 netbook?

[bobvenem]

I bought the Asus about a month ago. Battery life is amazing, but it lacks speed compared to a full-sized notebook. BW8 takes considerably longer to load because of this. However, once started, it runs fine.

[Adelphos]

I've been hemming and hawing about buying a netbook and would appreciate feedback on how well Bibleworks 8 works on it. I'm thinking about buying an Asus 1005PE that has an Atom N450 with 1 GB of ram along with the usual specs, including Windows 7 starter edition.

Anybody out there tried this? What do you think of the performance of BW8 on a Windows 7 netbook?

I have the Asus with BW8 on it and it works exceptionally well. However, I have 2 GB of RAM and this makes a HUGE difference, so if you're going to go with a netbook, I'd get one that has the capability of an upgrade to 2 GB of RAM, and definitely upgrade to it.

Actually, for me there were four issues with regard to the netbook:

1. Reliability - Asus is the pioneer of netbooks
2. Battery life - the Asus has 10 hours
3. Speed - the Asus with 2 GB RAM is not a problem for software I am running
4. Disk space - the Asus has 160 GB disk space, so I'm easily covered

But as I said, I would definitely go with the upgraded RAM, especially if you are going to run BW8 and similar type programs.

[Joshua Luna]

I don't have an Asus netbook, but I am using an Acer 1410. 11.6" LCD (1376x768), Core 2 Solo @ 1.4Ghz, 250GB HDD, 2GB DDR2 memory, full sized keyboard, Windows 7. I picked it up through an Amazon affiliate for $399. There are now Core2Duo models as well as a "Convertible" tablet model (1810/1820 models?)

Performance is very snappy. While only a single core processor the Core processors are much faster than the Atoms. Battery life is 6-8 hours when studying. The display is fairly high resolution so I have a large work space and at home I use a 28" LCD via HDMI (it also has a VGA out). It has a number of USB ports, Ethernet & WiFi, card reader, etc. It is quite small and they crammed a full sized KB in it. It took a couple days to get used to the clicket keys (I prefer concave keys or minimally those with spaces between keys---some of the 92% sized boards feel more intuitive even though they are smaller).

I have very few gripes with the machine. Windows 7 runs great and BW is very quick--not as fast as on my C2D system, but performance is fine. I wish the display could physically turn clockwise (portrait) to aid writing--at 11.6" the display is small. Usable, but small. Not sure how this feature has evaded HW designers (probably the reason Apple does so well in the intuitive interface front as the major vendors are more copycat than anything else). Due to the single core and Intel 4500HD graphics HD videos chug on Flash video. And of course there is no DVD drive. To sum up the negatives:

- High resolution but smallish screen (but much larger than most netbooks)
- A little bigger than most netbooks, almost a sub-notebook
- Clicklet keys
- Single core
- 'Only' 6-8 hours battery time
- Single-core model chugs on Flash video
- Acer support is pretty bad (but Asus isn't very good these days either--they are living off their past rep)

Everything else is pretty much a positive. Small, light, quick, quiet. Runs all my standard apps in a small form factor. Way faster than a normal netbook and only slightly bigger.

If you could get a convertible version (fold the display over) it would be a decent ebook reader.

[Adelphos]

I don't have an Asus netbook, but I am using an Acer 1410. 11.6" LCD (1376x768), Core 2 Solo @ 1.4Ghz, 250GB HDD, 2GB DDR2 memory, full sized keyboard, Windows 7. I picked it up through an Amazon affiliate for $399. There are now Core2Duo models as well as a "Convertible" tablet model (1810/1820 models?)

I may take a look at these, as they've come a long way since even six months ago. My original netbook was an Acer, which I still have, but it died on me after only a few months. I sent it off to Acer and they did fix it for free, including S&H, but it worries me a bit when a brand dies. You never know if it's an isolated incident or if it's an internal manufacturing problem.

I would love to get a 12" LCD with 1376x768 with a full sized keyboard. I suspect in another six months (or maybe sooner) they'll come with the right balance for me, at least equipment-wise. Price-wise, well, that's another story.

[Sam Park]

I really appreciate the feedback. It sounds like BW8 will work well enough on a netbook for my needs. I have a powerful laptop that runs Logos 4 quite well (it has discrete graphics), so I'm covered for any really heavy lifting, but wanted to be sure one of the two programs would run on something I can lug around easily, and obviously, Logos 4 wasn't going to be much of a candidate.

I've gone and purchased an Asus 1005PE netbook, mostly for its outstanding battery life. Given the volatile (read: high) price of RAM at the moment, I haven't upgraded to 2GB, but I will be sure to once the price comes back down to something more reasonable.

Again, thanks.

Sam

[Ben Spackman]

I've also been running BW8 under Win7 on an Asus 1001P, upgraded to 2Gb RAM. It runs great. And I use Dropbox to keep my notes synced between it, my Macbook with Parallels, and my old Dell desktop. If you want to try it out with a free never-expires 2Gb account, use this link so I can get some referral bonus space