Anyone know anything about how well they work? I'm looking at an Acer with Intel Atom Process N270, 1GB Ram, 160GBG Hard drive, Windows XP Home. Looking for something that is light, small and will travel well, yet not bog down on wireless.

that's what i'm on now...i like it and it stays charge for about 3 hrs of usage...idk what the norm is and i've only used the wifi once away from home...other than in my backyard, which i assume feeds off my dsl, but had no connection problems...i'm technicologically challenged and this is easy for me to navigate and i love the full-sized keypad...the only negative for me is the speakers SUCK!!! so i use headphones...

Most of the notebooks/computers that come from the factory/store dont have enough memory for my taste.For about $50 bucks you can get another 1gb memory module for it (It should have a open slot). That will help with performance a tad bit.

What kind of processor speed does it have Musichic?

If you dont do graphics or play high resolution games you should be able to stick with the 1gb you have, and It will run fine. Otherwise this sounds like a good one. (no nasty Vista)

TM

it only advertises Intel Atom Processor N270
802.11b/gLAN

I don't know what any of that means.
I don't plan on doing a lot of heavy duty games or graphics. want to use mostly for internet, IM

atom is a low-power usage processor for portable use. The b/g LAN is the wireless card.

I'm typing this on my aspire one netbook (like you're looking at) with the 160GB hard drive (definitely better than the solid-state 8GB drive). I love this thing. I bought it for school because it is uber portable.

Be sure to buy the one for $350 with the 6-cell battery and not the 3-cell that everyone offers. The 6-cell sticks out the back about an inch but I get over 6 hours on a charge.

just an fyi, i run photoshop CS on mine without too much trouble when I need it in a pinch and use lots of graphics software when i shoot on location. this thing is pretty powerful for its size. It even handles my iTunes with the 5,000 songs I've got stored.

Acer is a good computer company. I would think minis are just like the big boys, only cute and little.

Well... nettops are essentially a kind of stripped-down laptop, to be used mostly for getting online and stuff. They really aren't designed for any of the hardcore operations you'd use a full-on computer for.

If you're at the local Starbuck's, making use of their free Wi-fi, then it's something they'd be quite useful for.

since you want to use it for IM and internet you will be good with that machine. when you buy it ask the sales rep about upgrading the RAM memory on that machine. it adds a little more to the cost now but you will be good two three years down the road without worrying about buying a new one.

hope this helps. :)

thanks everyone. very helpful feed back. sounds like it's worth going to check into it further. good suggestions too.