Yeah, that in my opinion is just about the only important feature which differentiates one netbook from another these days.

Both of my non-netbook ultraportables were chosen, in part, because even though their keyboards are smaller than normal, the arrangement and relative size and position of the "modifier" keys (the F keys, the arrow keys, the shift/ctrl/alt/Win/tab/home/end/del/ins/pgup/pgdn/etc) were all, in my determination, optimal.

it looks like there is a shift key on the left also

Glad some people are getting some use out of this thread and all my noob questions :giggle:

Update: Netbook is still working just fine. Does everything I need and only cost me a cool 200 bucks.

I need to take all you guys out for a nice seafood dinner, and never call you again :party:

Yes, but look at the one on the right. It's much smaller than normal, and two other keys (Up and Fn) occupy the space that most of it should be in.

By comparison, look at Sam's keyboard. The size and position of the right shift key (along with all of the other "modifier" keys) are exactly identical to that of a conventional full-size keyboard.

This may not be important to some, but for people like myself who are "advanced" typists, I need a full-sized right shift key. I'm not easily going to un-learn 25 years worth of typing habit which has always assumed certain keys to be in certain places. Like I said before- layout of the keyboard and touchpad were probably the two biggest factors in my choosing my last two laptops.

Normally, though, it's the right shift key that they all seem to fuсk up. Few manufacturers seem to be able to grasp the concept that you can shrink the arrow keys and offset them downwards without affecting performance, but you change the right shift key and everything goes to hell. They might as well reverse the positions of the space bar and the "Enter" key.

Were it not for the right shift key, this would be a perfect ultraportable laptop: http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch...tium%20Dual-Co

Okay I see. I'm definetly NOT an advanced typist. (2 fingers) I only use the left side shift! So not an issue for me. I was hoping more would post some actual selections as Joe did, above. I've never heard of Hannspree, of course I am not computer savy. I couldn't even tell you what computer, monitor etc I have at work. I just use it.

Joe, this would work adequately for using tuning software?

What, the Hannspree machine I linked to? Absolutely! Despite the price, that's actually not a netbook-class machine, more of a trailing-edge ultraportable. I've never used one in person, but from the specs it should perform very well.

You guys have any suggestions for a new desktop? I want XP. Hate Vista and 7. Refurbished is fine. Want to spend around ~$200ish. Dont need a keyboard, mouse, monitor, or any of that. No gaming, I want it decently fast though. I do some photo editing and my current desktop dies if I run photoshop and any other programs. I like to multitask and have a lot of crap running.

http://www.geeks.com/products_sc.asp?cat=1076

Pick any of the ones that comes with XP, and upgrade the RAM to a total of 4GB. Done.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...MAR-2R&cat=SYS
Doesn't hurt to run these on their sides does it? My current space for a desktop is set up for a vertical one.

I can't see how it would hurt. We actually have a couple of Lenovo machines here in the lab (slightly newer models) and every one of 'em is standing upright on its "side"

FYI, the machine you linked to is out of stock. When a refurbed product at Geeks goes out of stock, there's a good chance it'll never become available again, as there's no more supply.

It said 'Almost Gone' so I ordered one. Afterwards it went to Out Of Stock. Must have picked up the last one.

Here's a possibility for anyone looking for something in the sub 12" category.

http://dealspl.us/Laptop_deals/p_del...m-1-20ghz-11-6

$300 for Core i3, 250 GB, 2 GB DDR3, 6 cell battery, Win7 Premium, and 1366x768 resolution. Not bad.

http://web.eurocom.com/EC/ec_model_config1(1,228,0)

I know this will get Joe hot in the pants and I posted it specifically for him. But who knows, there might be other aficionados here!

I'm picking one up shortly. It actually has what I need in a 11.6" form factor!

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Link works fine for me, Mg. Are you certain about that error?

Link works for me.

The specs on that machine do look nice, however I found a couple of pictures which show the keyboard, and that killed it for me. The right shift key suffers from Asus Inferiority Syndrome.

It also weighs 4 lbs. Heavy.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my little E4200, especially since I upgraded to the backlit keyboard. It ain't the fastest machine on the planet, but it's holding up pretty well. I can't wait until we get VMCC running on the 64 bit platform (they're finally working on it) so that I can upgrade my OS and finally utilize all of the RAM that I have.

Weird, wouldn't work on my desktop, but works on my phone. Who knows.

Quick update on the netbook that originally bought. Still working like a champ. I'm glad I picked this thing up. Used for tuning and streaming Chappelle's Show from Amazon Prime :party:

Now, new business. I need a new main laptop. Can't do a desktop because I need it to be mobile. Figured you guys could steer me in the right direction like you did before. My current rig is a horrendously ghetto Dell Studio. I bought it when I started going to school down here in 2007. It's old and the screen doesn't work so it's used with a monitor, lol. It's starting to give me some issues so I figured it is time to update and wipe it clean of all my stuff before it shits itself.

Things I need out of a new laptop:
-Large screen
-DVD burner
-able to play my N64 emulators
-Don't really care about operating systems. I'm sure they all come with Windows 7 and I'll probably install Ubuntu anyway.


..........I think that's it. I do not PC game, I don't edit photos, etc...Just the basics. Browsing MT and playing emulators.

So, pretty much any modern laptop then basically, Viper?

If you said Dolphin or something instead of just a N64 emulator, it'd make it more interesting. But any modern...hell, I think any modern dual-core non-atom/exxx laptop will do it easily if it has any kind of discrete graphics.

So what is your budget? Because this will probably do all of those: Newegg.com - ASUS A53U-ES21 Notebook AMD Dual-Core Processor E-450(1.65GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 6320

I don't think you will find anything worth looking at cheaper. If you want a 17+ inch screen you are probably looking at about $100 more: Acer Aspire AS7250-0409 LX.RL602.037 Notebook PC - AMD E-450 1.65GHz, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, DVDRW, 17.3 Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Black at TigerDirect.com