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HP Mini 110-3538TU 10" Dual Core Netbook $313.20 FREE SHIPPING JB Hi-Fi

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HP Mini 110-3538TU 10" Dual Core Netbook $313.20 FREE SHIPPING JB Hi-Fi
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Feeblely on 20/03/2011 - 01:04 jbhifionline.com.au (1381 clicks)
Last edited 20/03/2011 - 09:30 by 1 other user

Hey guys,

Ends sunday so be quick i guess. Also office works has them so u could MAYBE get a price match.

Specs:

10" netbook with Intel Atom N550 Dual Core 1.50GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Wi-Fi and webcam, Bluetooth, Windows 7 Starter

USER REVIEW (from wp):

Well it took slightly longer than I expected, but Ubuntu Netbook Edition is running happily on the HP Mini 110-3538TU. Consumes 190MB RAM when idle, and only takes 2.7GB of HDD space. It's nice to see a real OS on this thing.

Lessons Learnt:

  1. Use a GOOD quality thumb drive! I wasted so much time with an unbranded red "Flash 4GB" from HN's half-price bin that kept throwing up weird errors during both UNE and Crunchbang boots. Because it was a hardware fault, the google results were vague and led me around in circles for ages. As soon as I switched to a Kingston Data Traveler 4GB drive it worked.

  2. Format the thumbdrive. As per instructions I used Universal USB Installer on Windows to prepare the drive. When I left the "format" box unchecked the files were sprinkled amongst the existing thumb drive content, and I got more strange errors. It's best to dedicate an entire thumb drive to the boot image.

  3. Shut down Windows cleanly before booting the USB stick. An improper shutdown sets error flags on the partition that prevent/complicate the Linux install, and you waste more time going back into Windows to clear them.

  4. Use GParted after the Live USB has booted, but before you install to the HDD, to edit the 4 Windows partitions. I resized the 2nd one (containing Windows) to 40GB, moved the 3rd one (RECOVERY) to the left, and deleted the 4th one (HP_TOOLS) (after copying its contents to C) and replaced it with an extended partition to fill the empty space of ~170gb, and within that two logical partitions of ~160GB (ext4) and 10GB (swap) to install UNE into. This leaves the machine with a dual boot capability which is handy if you need to return it or install a BIOS update.

  5. The restricted Broadcom Wireless Driver fails to install off the UNE 10.10 LiveUSB. This is a well documented bug and I wasted more time on the challenge of fixing it while offline. A much easier solution is to put in an ethernet cable (there is a hidden RJ45 port at rear right) before or after you start the install, and pulling the driver in via Software Updates.

Observations:

  • All the hardware seems to be supported fine: dual core, bluetooth, wifi, card reader, usb, camera, mic, audio, lid close suspend/resume, etc. Have not tried the SIM slot yet.

  • The 7200rpm HDD in the HP Mini gives it that little edge over other netbooks with 5400rpm.

  • You can hold the ON switch forward for 4 seconds to force a hard shutdown (like on desktops).

  • The little coloured LEDs in the keys indicating caps, wifi on and sound muted are kind of cool.

  • The left edge where the vent is gets pretty warm. That gets uncomfortable on your leg after an hour or so.

  • Battery life seems decent – I'd say 4-5 hours of hammering the wi-fi with installs and updates. Normal use should see about 6-7 hours, realistically. If you turn the brightness to minimum and leave it idle, it reports 10+ hours on a full battery.

  • The lack of PGUP/PGDN buttons is not so bad – You can use FN + Up/Down, and I also got accustomed to using right-side of the trackpad to quickly skim up and down pages.

  • The half-size UP/DOWN keys are a bit annoying, I keep hitting SHIFT instead of UP. Will take time to get used to that.

link: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1610961

Computing HP Netbook

Related Stores

JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi

closed Comments

  • blahdrift on 20/03/2011 - 01:19

    hm.. the officeworks website says the price for it is also 313.20?

  • cyssero on 20/03/2011 - 01:21

    They usually match prices before you can. This way they save 5%.

    • Feeblely on 20/03/2011 - 01:30

      aww dammit, would've been below $300 for a dual core netbook. Oh wells. Its an average deal then i guesss? dunno, its up to you guys.

      Also i think its hackintosh'able

      • Orte on 20/03/2011 - 02:25
        +1

        The way I see it: if it was a deal at this price and OW had to lower their price to match it, it's still a deal, only more convenient now because you can either buy at JB or OW.

        • Feeblely on 20/03/2011 - 02:39
          -1

          THAEN ITS A DEAL. Drumroll pls……
          Srsly though i see ur point, but OW should still beat it by 5% as there motto IS "we'll beat any price by 5%guaranteed". They shouldn't lower prices just cause b/c another store is having a sale. I noe this isnt good for their business model. But still it would be nice..

  • SmokeandMirrors on 20/03/2011 - 02:36

    Bought a non dual core for $299 a few weeks ago. Pretty good for a few $ more.

    • Feeblely on 20/03/2011 - 02:43

      lol can u refund that and get this? worth a try if its been less than 2 weeks at most retailers

  • cheapo.one on 20/03/2011 - 03:31

    dick smith have it for $359 and they have a '10% of difference' price beat policy - not much but better than nothing!

    • timhn on 20/03/2011 - 07:58

      You sure on that policy? Everytime I tried pricematch them, they can only match same price - never lower.

      • Hirokuro on 20/03/2011 - 14:32

        It depends what you ask them…

        If you just say "can you pricematch jb" they'll say sure and give you the price at JB. However, if you ask them if they can pricematch and beat the price by 10% they'll do exactly that.

        If they refuse just point to one of there many flyers/posters in the stores that mention this (or print out the one on the internet that mentions it.

  • mangew on 20/03/2011 - 09:00

    Please untag FREEBIE, as it is not.

    • altomic on 20/03/2011 - 09:28
      +1

      the packaging is free.

      • mangew on 20/03/2011 - 13:37
        +1

        When you sppend $313.20 :P

  • bobsmith on 20/03/2011 - 10:15
    +1

    With the AMD Fusion netbooks starting to be released I'm not really sure why people would want to buy Atom netbooks at the moment unless they needed one right now.

  • blahdrift on 20/03/2011 - 13:30

    This notebook has gone fast and is sold out in most jb hi fi's!! So if you're looking to buy one of these, go to officeworks cause they have plenty of stock left as from today. I went in today and it said the price was 348 but just tell them and it'll scan as 313.20

  • Lancel_Bracken on 20/03/2011 - 14:05

    Got one at officeworks for $313, good unit for someone still needing a netbook. Comes with a LOT of bloatware though! What a mess! Formatted and reinstalled windows 7 starter using a 32 bit windows 7 disc image and modified ei.cfg file

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