"if i would have known about the intel video card being so crappy i would have waited to get a better netbook but this one was a great deal as it came with a sony external dvd writer that was a hundred bucks by itself"
on netbooks there is not much choice really, intel or intel so you didn't do anything wrong, my netbook fortunately had a gma3150, enough for me but still i use the trick i mentioned to download videos and avoid flash
about the sony drive, don't be surprised when it dies suddenly, i had very bad experiences with those
i had luck with a lg external drive, very cheap i must say, more than a year traveling with me, used i many pcs, all ok