Last year while attending SolidWorks World 2009, I started thinking seriously about purchasing a “netbook” computer after lugging around an 8.5 pound Dell M6400 for 6 straight days.  Rather than purchasing one right away, I decided to wait and see what the rumored “Apple Tablet” looked like before taking the dive.  With SolidWorks World approaching, I decided to pull the trigger and buy one.  (Interestingly enough, it is rumored that Apple will announce their Tablet PC a few days before SolidWorks World 2010 begins.)

After doing quite a bit of research, I decided that the two netbook models I liked the most were from Toshiba and HP.  Both of these systems had a very nice keyboard, good overall ratings, and were priced around the ballpark $350-$400 that was my budget.

I went to Best Buy the day after Christmas and wasn’t too surprised to see that most of their stock was picked over.  They had a Gateway Netbook that looked OK, but the keyboard was VERY cramped.  Just as I had decided to wait until their stock was replenished, my DW (Dear Wife) spotted two HP mini 110 computers out in front of the computer area on one of the island displays.  I snagged one of the boxes quickly and looked at the specs.  They matched up with almost all of my requirements, so I went and ahead and put it in the cart.  Here are the specs:

• Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz processor
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• 10.1″ LED backlit Widescreen
• 160GB Hard drive
• Webcam and microphone built in
• 5-in-1 Media Reader
• Windows 7 Starter
• 3 USB ports
• Built in wireless and ethernet connector
• 6 cell battery (8 hour battery life)

The only feature I wanted that I didn’t get was the 250 Gb Hard drive.  I figured if that became a big deal, I could replace it later since hard drive prices are still falling.  None of the “brick and mortar” netbooks seem to be coming with 2GB of RAM, so I knew that would need to be an upgrade as well.  This was the first computer I have actually walked in a store and bought.  I usually order my systems online and have them custom built.

There is definitely a size difference when you buy a netbook.  Just for comparision, here is the Mini 110 sitting next to my Dell M6400

The first thing I noticed about the system (after all the initial setup) was how FAST it boots up!  The keyboard is very comfortable and I have had no problems adapting to it.  (In fact, this entire article was created on my HP Mini 110). The battery life seems to be very close to the advertised 8 hours.  I haven’t timed it yet, but worked all day on this PC Saturday and never had to plug it up!

The jury is still out on Windows 7 starter.  So far, I haven’t experienced anything I can’t live without.  Microsoft took off the “open applications” limit that was initially going to be part of this OS.  If that had remained I would have had SERIOUS issues with it, so props to Microsoft for getting that part right.  I still think many netbook users are upset at the functionality lost in going from Windows XP Home to Windows 7 starter.  Here’s an article that discusses that a bit.  I am making a conscious effort to put Windows XP in the rear view mirror.  So far Windows 7 starter is working for me.  If that changes, I can use the “Anytime update” to upgrade Win7 starter for around $80.00. (Way to pricey if you ask me…)

I really wanted to keep my netbook “light” on programs.  The first thing I installed was Google Chrome followed by Firefox.  I have only used IE a few times on this machine and MAN WAS IT SLOW!!!  Firefox also seems to take a little long to get going but is better than IE.  Google Chrome blows both of them away in startup speed and browsing.  On a machine like this Google Chrome’s “lightweight” browser really shines!

To start with I am trying to go without installing Microsoft Office on this machine, instead opting for Open Office and Mozilla Thunderbird.  So far so good on that!  Open Office will open the xml based Office documents that come out of Office 2007, so I haven’t “needed” full up MS Office at all!  I have read that netbooks can run Office 2007, but they are more taxing on system resources as compared to Open Office.

I haven’t really had the system RAM above 750Mb so far, but I am seriously considering adding more RAM to make the system a little more “peppy” when running multiple programs.

So far, I have installed the above mentioned applications plus Tweetdeck, Paint.net, and Flipshare (for my HD Flip cam).  Tweetdeck/Adobe AIR runs like a champ on this machine.

The only thing I have found with this machine that is disappointing is the video performance.  When playing a full 1080p HD clip, the video gets a bit choppy.  There are rumored PCI Express cards that can be added to enhance the video playback functions, but I have found nothing that is actually out yet.  Since the video memory is shared, I’m hopeful that upgrading the RAM might help a little bit in this department.  That won’t help the intense CPU usage though that occurs when you play videos of that type.  Lesser quality HD videos and regular videos seem to play just fine.

I ended up getting a Logitech V450 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse from Best Buy when they were on sale for $29.99 (regular $49,99).  I absolutely LOVE this mouse!  The receiver once it is plugged in only sticks out about 3/8″ from the USB port face.  Since it has such a low profile, I can leave it in the laptop at all times without the fear or damaging the USB port if it gets hit.

Overall, I really like this netbook so far!  I boots up fast, is easy to use while sitting on the couch or in the recliner, and weighs in just under 3 pounds.  Web, e-mail, and word processing apps work VERY well but I think a RAM upgrade to 2 GB is a really good idea.  Cost for that seems to range from $55 – $75 depending on where you look.  As mentioned earlier, the video is a little choppy when you play full 1080p HD, so I’ll be looking for some things to improve performance in that area.  I’m really looking forward to using this machine at SolidWorks World 2010!  I hope to see you there!

Stay tuned….more to come!

Related posts:

1. SolidWorks World 2008: Wednesday General Session – Quick Review
2. Dell M6400 Review

Well…after Vista x64 started giving me a few “blue screens” and the fact that I had a slow week at work, I figured this was an opportune time to update my M6400 to Windows 7 x64.  Last June I did a review of the M6400 hardware itself.   Since that seemed to be a popular post, I thought I would provide an update of my Windows 7 experience with this machine.

After backing up all the files on my system I handed off the computer to the fine folks in our IT department.  I dropped the computer off at 3:30pm on Monday and it was ready for pickup Tuesday morning at 8:30am!  Let me tell you…the folks in the Dynetics IT department are AWESOME!  Special thanks the “Dr. Lafferty” for turning it around so quickly!

I cannot believe how smoothly things have gone in installing all of my daily use programs on this system!  Our IT department took care of getting all of the updated BIOS, Video, Sound, Wireless, and other system drivers setup (which Dell had Win7 x64 versions for) along with getting MS Office on it.  The first things I installed were Firefox and Chrome.  I have very little use for IE these days and still can’t stand how slow it can be at times.

After getting the new browsers setup I was set to install SolidWorks.  We are in the middle of a transition to SolidWorks 2010 right now so SolidWorks 2009 is still needed for hopefully about another month once the final project on it wraps up.  I decided to do things a bit different.  I installed SolidWorks 2010 FIRST.  After that was completed…and WOW was that install fast…I installed SolidWorks 2009 SP4.1.  The only “side effect” from installing SolidWorks in this order is that the SolidWorks 2009 Installation Manager did not install Photoview 360 2009 & DWGeditor 2009 since the 2010 versions of each program were already on the computer.  Since this install is temporary, I have no issue with this.  I could go and get the manual installs for each if I needed them, but if I am going to use either, the 2010 are preferred anyway.  (I might have to watch opening and saving SolidWorks 2009 files in Photoview 360 2010 though.)

I mentioned earlier that the installations were fast.  Since I already had all the files downloaded, the time taken was pure installation.  SolidWorks 2010 installed in about 15 minutes and SolidWorks 2009 installed in about 10 minutes!  Not having previous installations times recorded, I can’t give you the difference in install times, but it was substantially faster with Windows 7.

The rest of the programs I installed include:  Adobe CS4 Web Premium, Camtasia Studio 6, Tweetdeck, SnagIt, iTunes, & FileZilla.  All of these programs installed and seem to perform flawlessly.  (Although Adobe CS4 took an incredibly long time to install – What’s up with that Adobe??)

I’ve had Windows 7 since the Release Candidate was made available on a test box at home, so it wasn’t all new to me.  However there is a difference in occasional use versus everyday use.  I’m discovering many new features that I haven’t used much on my home test system.  One thing I have found myself doing is pinning most of my “common” programs to the new Taskbar.  The jury is still out on this…but so far I really like it.  The taskbar is much cleaner now that it isn’t cluttered with multiple instances of an application.  Being able to hover over a program and get a quick view of all the open windows is VERY nice.  Here is what my Taskbar looks like thus far.

Since this is a fairly new computer (Got it around May of 2009), Dell already had all of their Windows 7 compatible drivers out.  My sound driver was NEVER right in Vista x64, but is working PERFECTLY in Windows 7.  I also had some really STRANGE issues with the wireless control software in Vista.  The Intel drivers didn’t work and the Windows Wireless drivers didn’t seem to want to connect to secure networks without our IT group having to set some special setting.  It has worked flawlessly in Windows 7 and the setup for all of the wireless networks I connect to has been very easy.  So far it has been a great experience!  If I find any gotchas with any of the drivers…I’ll be sure to post them later.

The last test I did for this article was in relation to benchmarks.  I used Anna Wood’s Punchholder benchmark in SolidWorks 2009.  The reason I chose SolidWorks 2009 was that I did a benchmark on this exact computer back when it was loaded with Windows XP Pro (32bit).  I thought it would be interesting to compare the results.  I did this as well when this system was built with Vista x64.  Below are the results comparing all three.

Not surprisingly, Windows Vista was the slowest.  Surprisingly though, Windows XP 32 bit still rebuilt the part 14 seconds faster than Windows 7.  The 64 bit system allows for maximum memory usage which is crucial for large assemblies, but as it appears in this test, this system does take a slight performance hit when going from 32 bit to 64 bit.  This type of difference really doesn’t make that much of a difference to me because I’ll take not running out of memory anyday over a slightly faster rebuild time.

That’s all for now.  Based on my experience thus far, I would still recommend this system to folks needed a portable workstation.  I already like Windows 7 MUCH better than Vista due to the ease of which the software installed and how well it has performed thus far.  If you can load Windows 7 and all your everyday software is supported, I highly recommend it!

Stay tuned…more to come!

Related posts:

1. Dell M6400 Review
2. SolidWorks files shown in Windows Vista Demo
3. Windows Live Writer

Hardware reviews is not something I have done much on this site, but when I mentioned sharing my thoughts once my new Dell M6400 came in, I got some comments and even some e-mails asking me to post my thoughts.  So…here goes!

First, a little background.  I was running a Dell M90 that was a little over two years old.  In mid April, my system suddenly refused to boot up.  After some diagnostics run by our hard working IT department, it was determined that the video card was bad.  Dell had no replacement video cards in stock at the time, so they offered to replace my M90 with a brand new M6400.  I jumped at the chance and after about 10 days, my new system arrived!

Since it was a replacement system, I didn’t have much control over the specifications.  They were picked out by Dell to be “equivalent or better” to my M90 system.  Here are the specs:

Intel® Core^TM 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz) Dual Core
Windows XP Professional 32bit
17″ UltraSharp^TM WUXGA (1920×1200) LCD Display
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M, 512MB Discrete
4.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
160GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor
8X DVD with Cyberlink Power DVD^TM
9 Cell Battery
Intel® WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
Internal English Backlit Keyboard

Now if I was setting the specs, I would have gone for a faster processor, 8GB of RAM, the FX3700 video card, and a larger hard drive.  I wasn’t going to complain though.    I was getting a pretty good deal here.  One upgrade that I had IT do was swap out the 160GB hard drive for a 320 GB drive.  Having lots of space is nice!

When we received the system our IT group put our “standard enterprise” software package on it which included MS Office 2007, Norton Endpoint virus protection, and a few other odds and ends.  I picked up the system and of course immediately installed SolidWorks.  I had to hit the ground running ASAP.

There were three major features that I immediately fell in love with on this system.  The first is the Numeral Pad on the keyboard.  Yeah, it’s a BIG laptop…but that is what you are going to have to live with if you truly want a mobile workstation.  Having a FULL keyboard is nice when I’m on the go.  The second feature is the backlit keyboard.  I never thought about how handy of a feature that would be, but I absolutely love it!  If you are in a dark room it is a must.  Dell did a very nice job in that it immediately comes on when it senses any action around the keyboard.  The third thing is probably the most surprising – the display.  I had the same WUXGA 1900×1200 on my M90, but I swear to you this one seems brighter and more crisp that what I had before.  (Yes..I knew where the brightness and contrast settings were on the previous system.)

We left Windows XP 32 bit on the system and I was off to the races.  Performance was good.  Everything seemed faster than my M90 as it should be.  Since I didn’t get a chance to run any benchmarks with the old system I don’t really have anything to compare to.  The graphics performance was good.  Not what I would call the best, but good.  I experienced a few glitches here and there, even with the latest SolidWorks certified drivers.  Before I really had much time to tune or troubleshoot the graphics issues, I ran into a slightly larger problem.  This problem really didn’t have anything to do with the system.  The current project I am working on is a large and complex assembly that had been pushing our machines to the limits of 32 bit operating system.  We turned on the 3GB switch and I had some SERIOUS stability issues.  Graphics performance was slow and unpredictable.  There were other “weird” issues that started popping up.  I almost immediately disabled it and everything returned to its previous state.  Looking back, I’m not quite sure why I started out with 32 bit, but after a few weeks, it was apparent that I was going to need a 64 bit OS very soon.

So, after running the system for a few weeks with Windows XP 32 bit.  The M6400 “headed back to the shop” (IT) for a re-format to Vista 64bit.  Why Vista 64 over XP 64?  Well, I relied on some of the best resources around.  My fellow users of the SolidWorks Community.  After polling many of my fellow SolidWorks users across the land, all were consistently saying I should go to Vista 64 bit.  Not only has it proved to run FASTER than XP 64 bit in several benchmarks, it seems to have less bugs, which if you think about it really makes sense.  Do you think Microsoft will be tripping over itself to fix bugs in Win XP 64 bit?  I didn’t think so either.  (A big thanks to Anna Wood, Devon Sowell, and Lou Gallo for their valued advice!)

Since I am in the middle of a “BIG” project (that is probably an understatement), we decided to purchase another 320 GB hard drive and put Vista 64 bit on it.  (They are only about $130.00 right now).  This way, if I had some show stopper issues with Vista 64, I could swap out the drives and be back up and running in Win XP 32bit almost immediately.  Also as part of this “upgrade” we added an additional 4 GB of RAM to the system.  Total cost for the RAM was not far off the price of the new hard drive.

This was my first full-time experience with Windows Vista.  I must say overall, I really like the new user interface.  Yeah, it is overkill in some areas and Vista  is a resource hog, but when you have 8 GB or RAM and no 2GB limit, suddenly that really isn’t all that big of a deal.  One thing I learned quickly is that the Certified video driver from SolidWorks requires that the Windows Aero interface be enabled.  During setup, our IT group had disabled it and I didn’t notice right away.  Props to Anna Wood and Ron Bates on the SolidWorks Forum for reminding me of this.

Outside of having to go out and find some new printer drivers and a few issues with Adobe CS3, the transition to 64 bit has been smooth.  You can run 32bit or 64bit browsers which comes in handy since Adobe Flash is not yet supported for 64 bit browsers.  (Come on, seriously, what is up with that Adobe!!)  Not having to worry about running out of virtual memory has been REALLY nice!  A few months back I was hoping to hold off on going to 64bit until Windows 7.  But since my work required it, I have become quite comfortable with Vista.  One of the things I REALLY like is the fact that you can setup your own shortcuts in the left side bar of your “My Computer” windows.  Another nice feature in Vista is that you can open multiple windows using Windows Photo Gallery.  This has come in handy for some Technical Editing I am doing for an upcoming book on SolidWorks by Alex Ruiz.

There were some posts on the SolidWorks Forum where users were having issues with the system when it goes into hibernate mode.  This was supposed to be addressed with a new BIOS from Dell.  I always turn hibernate mode off and shut down my system at night, so I can’t say for sure that all has been fixed there.  It appears that many folks that were having the issue before are no longer experiencing the same problems.  I’ve also heard of a few issues with the FX3700M video card.  Since I don’t have one in my system, I can’t really comment on that.  If you are considering getting one with that card, I would check out the SolidWorks Forums.  All of the recent comments seem to indicate there are less problems with that now with the BIOS revisions and some new Certified SolidWorks Video Drivers.

I hope some of this information is helpful to those interested in purchasing an M6400.  So far I am REALLY happy with the system and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good mobile workstation.  If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll answer them if I can.

Stay tuned…more to come!

UPDATE:  Check out my review of this system as I upgraded it to Windows 7!

Related posts:

1. Dell M6400 with Windows 7!
2. HP Mini 110 Review
3. SolidWorks World 2008: Wednesday General Session – Quick Review

My first “favorite” mouse was the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0.  I got my first one back in 2001.  I immediately took advantage of the two side buttons on the upper left by programmed them to perform Copy and Paste functions.  (Just take a minute and ask yourself how often you use those functions in Windows.)  Still to this day I think this is one of the best pieces of hardware Microsoft has built.

In early 2004 I went to buy a new mouse and to my surprise the Intellimouse Explorer had been redesigned.  This was the version that introduced the “tilt-wheel”.  I decided to give it a shot, but at the same time was a bit anxious about the tilt-wheel.  My fears were not unfound I discovered later that day.  Everytime I tried to use the wheel as a middle button, the cursed thing would end up tilting to the left or right. I kept it for about a day before taking it back cursing the entire way.

After what seemed like 30 minutes testing out mice on the showroom floor at CompUSA, I came across the Logitech MX500.  This one had the side buttons for my Copy and Paste and had a really comfortable feel to it, so I bought it.  I discovered the next day that there was one tiny sticking point.  Instead of it being with the hardware itself, it was software related.  For some reason, my Copy/Paste buttons wouldn’t work right in SolidWorks.  It would work correctly for text selections, but not SolidWorks features and sketches.  SolidWorks and Logitech each said it was the other’s issue that was causing it.  I liked the mouse well enough I decided to keep it anyway.  Overall it was a very good mouse and was used solid for 3 years until it recently started turning single-clicks to double-clicks.

So there I was…back at CompUSA testing one mouse after another.  One thing I realized quick was that there are now more cordless mice than corded mice.  I just don’t have the need for a cordless mouse.  Especially since this one stays at my desk all the time.  I happened across a Logitech MX400 that had the side buttons and a REALLY comfortable feel, so I gave it a shot. (It does have a tilt wheel, but it isn’t housed in a carriage assembly AND you can disable them!)  To my delight, Logitech had implemented a new mouse software called SetPoint with this mouse.  FINALLY, my Copy and Paste buttons are working like a champ in SolidWorks!  To top it all off the mouse retails for a very respectable $39.99.  Here is a picture of the MX400 Performance Laser Mouse.

So what is your favorite mouse for SolidWorks?

Related posts:

1. SolidWorks 2010: Mouse Gestures

Here is a teaser of something that might make it’s way into the review.  With very little effort and setup, I was able to produce a pretty decent scan of a diecast stock car.  When you look at the image below you can tell who my favorite driver is. 

Stay tuned…more to come!

No related posts.