Challenge Accepted, notebook.
A netbook, unlike a tablet, is a full-fledged computer. It has everything a real computer has and that’s where its magic comes from. What you can do on a regular notebook or desktop, you can do on a netbook… except you’ll have to imagine yourself being thrown back to the early millennium, even though having Windows 7 Starter on the screen is not helping.
But it is true. A netbook generally has specifications that are similar to computers around 2003, except the miniaturisation of components over the years has allowed it to pack all that power into something of such size. Most netbooks are powered by an Intel Atom 1.66ghz processor, onboard graphics and has a measly 1GB of ram. But don’t discount this as a net-book as the name would suggest. It runs Youtube and Facebook well, but I can assure you that it will run games very well too, especially if you select them wisely.
Some helpful guidelines to get you started gaming on a netbook:
Manage expectations
Playing modern games on a netbook is like asking your old car to do 100mph. It can, but it will take time. In the same light, you’d have to take a few cues from this example. For one, don’t expect to run your game at full-on graphics. Try Low everything, no anti-alias, bilinear filtering. And be prepared to wait a significant while at the load screens.
Get rid of all unnecessary running apps
With only 1GB to spare, you need to manage the number of apps that are concurrently running in the background. On a stock HP Mini with its bloatware, 60% of the physical memory was used up by background apps, leaving around 250mb of RAM to run your games. That’s not good. It’s time to hit msconfig and disable large, heavy programs. A virus scanner is the first place to start.
Age does matter
You might have an Atom, and so do I. However, Atoms vary very widely in performance. From 800mhz to 1.9ghz, from single-core, to dual-hyperthreaded-cores, a newer computer might be more capable in playing a wider variety of games. Netbookist uses a HP Mini 110 to test the games here, which has the following specs:
- Intel Atom N550 (1.5ghz, dual-core, hyperthreaded)
- Integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics
- 1GB DDR667 RAM
- 250gb HDD
- 10.1″ screen (1024×600 native)
- Windows 7
And… get a mouse when you wanna play games!
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HI ALL.
I recently bought a gateway LT2802u netbook. it has a vga port, I can hook up to a regular computer monitor and at a good resolution too! I have an old crt lying around, thus the vga works well, there is an adapter to use for lcd monitors one can by at bestbuy or radio shack!
freestone
i have had a classic netbook for some years now (msi wind, a little busted by now) , after using windows 7 on it, i always recommend to use windows xp if you can on classic netbooks, it may even feel like a hardware upgrade.
Haven’t tried win8 yet, will do soon tough.
I run windows 8 on my old AAO D150/ZG5 (Atom 1.6GHz/HT, 1.5 GB Ram, GMA945) And it runs better than 7, which ran better than XP for me. On a clean install it boots to login in 32 seconds from pressing the button.
1. It seems strange to me a little bit. Old, stupid (sorry!) lil fellas getting the latest(!) OS and it runs nice n fine.
2. Win 8 requires 1024×768 as MINIMUM resolution, while most netbooks can do a maximum of 1024×600 (my fav res btw on any other one, maybe 800×480 is even more fun
).
So my question is – what’s the fix for dat?