GigaOM has posted a great article detailing 10 ways to trick out your netbooks for the best performance possible.
I’ve been using most of the tips on Linux and Windows way before this article came out, and any help given to budding Eee enthusiasts would be great.
Boing Boing has a chart listing down what works and what doesn’t when you install Hackintosh on your netbook. Apparently the MSI Wind and Dell Mini 9 winds.
This awesome Eee PC 901 mod has been showcased at EeePCnews.de. This mod was done by Eee PC.ru forum member Nikussan, who calls his project “Oперация Антиглянец” (Operation Anti-Gloss).
Any brave soul willing to try this?
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User TenaciousDre from the Eee User forums posted a guide on how to make a 12 cell 701 battery. Charging time can last up to 12 hours, but the charge can give you 8 hours of juice.
One of the worst things about netbooks is that the screen resolution’s too damn small. Okay I know that netbooks are made with portability in mind, and obviously there’s a much smaller amount of physical pixels you can fit in a 10 or 11-inch screen. The result? A cramped screen you have to squint at sometimes to look at properly. And other programs refuse to run on netbook resolutions as well, and that’s a hassle. More »
Since Eee PC 701s are already practically out of commission, the next best thing to do with these… classic netbooks would be to mod them into something else. Well, better than throwing them away, you can just mod your old Asus Eee PC 701 netbooks into a tablet computer. That’s right folks. The Eee PC 701 may have a minuscule screen, but apparently it works as a pretty decent tablet computer. And Windows XP looks pretty responsive as well.
Done by EeeUse Forum member mxjf, he shares his pretty awesome mod in this thread. According to mxjf:
The touchscreen is the $33 one from DX, and that IS electrical tape holding the thing together. I’m most likely going to sand/smooth the edges down and replace it with some black silicone sealant once I’m completely sure it’s good.
Check out the video below. the quality’s pretty bad, but you can see that Windows XP is pretty responsive and that the mod turned out pretty well:
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Macbook air wannabees are probably a dime a dozen. Everytime I visit a computer shop, there seems to be another Macbook air knock-off that promises to be the thinnest and lightest computer I’ll ever use. Okay, then, good for you guys. But they’re all running Windows, so you know, it’s kind of a dealbreaker. I mean, if you’re going for a Macbook air clone, then you just have to go for the full experience, right?
This Chinese computer manufacturer created yet another Macbook air knockoff that not only inherits the original’s good looks, but it also has almost-identical packaging! M.C. Gadget says that the box is indistinguishable from the ones produced in Cupertino. Also, the packaging is really convincing. If it wasn’t made from plastic – instead of aluminum, like the original – it may even fool a lot of people. More »
Netbooks, particularly the Eee PC (duh), are great. You can take them everywhere, they’re relatively fast, and they’re good enough to allow you to finish your tasks without crashes. However, I’m not a big fan of their storage options. Either you get a really fast SSD that contains only around 32 GB of storage, or a hard drive that has 250 GB of storage, but only has 5400RPMs. Now if you’d like to have a hard drive with 320GB and 7200RPMs, check out this video posted by Netbook Reports.
What are the advantages of upgrading your hard drive other than the obvious storage gains, you ask? Netbook Reports answers that:
In addition to being faster over the stock hard drive, it also offers a 16MB cache to help load larger files faster, and also includes:
Low power consumption – With technologies like IntelliSeek, which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption and SecurePark, which reduces power by parking the heads during low power idle mode, this drive delivers 5400 RPM-equivalent power consumption in a 7200 RPM drive.
Quiet – In a notebook drive, silence is golden. WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market.
Reliable – ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks during shipping and handling and in daily operation.
What do you guys think? Is the tutorial sufficient enough or do you think there’s more info or facts you can share with us? Tell us about it by leaving a comment!
Running Windows 7 on your Eee PC and confused at all the changes Microsoft put in the operating system? Yeah, I know the last operating system you used was Windows XP (and you actually tried out that Linux sorcery for a couple of days, but you couldn’t figure out what the heck a “terminal” meant) and you don’t like all this fancy eye candy Bill Gates put into your computer. You’d want your computer to be less confusing, thank you very much.
Maybe this might interest you then. It’s a little secret for Windows 7 users, called “GodMode” it’s basically a folder where all system configuration shortcuts are contained. Yes, it even beats Control Panel, believe it or not. It’s a bit overwhelming to figure out, and I’m using it now on my Windows 7 machine and I don’t understand half of what’s in that folder. But I like having one easy shortcut to control EVERYTHING on my computer. I don’t like hunting for solutions or Googling where to change this obscure setting when it’s all, you know, in one big easy to find shortcut on my Documents folder. More »
Test Freaks recently was able to replace the built-in SSD on the Asus Eee PC 901, benchmark it.
Now, installing it (on the 901 at least) is a breeze, because you can just use the built-in screwdriver to open your 901’s guts and remove the current 4GB SSD. Putting it back in would be the easiest thing in the world I would presume. Well, according to Test Freaks, it’ll just take two screws, and then we’re ready to go. More »
