I have got a problem to solve here. I want a cheap low-end notebook — not something I need, but just something that is nice to have. I want it for my 3 1/2 year old daughter who spent around 1-1.5 hour a day in front of computers playing with sites such as Sesame Street Workshop and ABC Kids Playground (yes she is pretty good at using mouse). The problem is — she does not like the computer I built for her! I guess the fact that her computer is an old recycled Compaq desktop with 400Mhz Celeron, 15″ CRT monitor and runs Xubuntu could be the issue. Worse, it is actually not connected to the Internet!! No wonder she always used my wife’s Dell Inspiron, but left icons all over the place, bookmarked strange sites and made my wife really annoyed…

“If only she has her own computer that actually works“, sometimes I thought…

Then today we received the latest OfficeWorks catalogue in the mail (you can get the online version at Catalogue Central, but no direct link to the catalogue), and there are two lappies at around $500 — Asus EEE PC for $488, and Compaq Presario C710TU for $548 after cashback.

Asus EEE PC

• Intel Celeron-M ULV 353 900Mhz
• 512MB DDR2 RAM
• 4GB SSD
• 7″ LCD at 800×480
• Xandros Linux + KDE
• 0.92kg

Compaq Presario C710TU

• Intel Celeron M530 1730Mhz
• 512MB DDR2 RAM
• 80GB HDD
• 15.4″ LCD at 1280×800
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Dual Layer DVD Writer
• 2.99g

Comparison

Specification-wise, the Compaq seems to win hands down. It is faster, bigger, comes with optical drive and larger storage. It actually comes with Windows that runs your favourite games like Free Cell and Minesweeper! However,

• Compaq Presario might be made in China but Asus EEE PC is manufactured in Taiwan so potentially better made (sorry I was born in Taiwan so the bias here :)
• 512MB is not enough for Vista, so I have to either (1) upgrade the RAM, or (2) install Linux
• You only buy it for $548 if you can successfully claim the $150 rebate.
• 2.99kg is maybe too heavy for a 3 1/2 year old, not that she is going to bring it to pre-school :)
• EEE PC with Linux probably has more Wow factor than Presario with Vista.
• Most importantly, because daddy wants to play with an EEE PC :)

Again, CFO at home (i.e. wife) needs to be consulted before making any financial commitment, however the likeliness of getting either is pretty slim, because 3 1/2 year old should not spend that much time in front of computers anyway.