Throughout my life I’ve had many computers and I feel those that I have right now provide me with the best of everything. As a college student I like having a laptop on campus, however I could never bring myself to haul my 9+ lbs. laptop to school. But today I have no problems carrying my laptop to every class everyday. I have found my 2 lb. Asus Eee PC 4G Surf.
Eee PC 701 4G Surf
Intel Celeron 900mhz 512mb DDR2 RAM 4gb Solid State Hard Drive
WiFi 802.11b/g 100mb LAN 3x USB 2.0
1x VGA 1x SD Card Reader 7″ LCD (800×480 or 800×600 scrolling)
By default the Eee comes preloaded with a very limited Linux OS however even that mode can be enhanced by enabling the advanced mode. The Eee also doesn’t run at the full 900mhz clock speed either in the default setup. Asus did this to limit heat production and to extend battery life.
Hardware and Storage Upgrades
I have upgraded my Eee by changing out the memory module for a 2gb stick. My Eee is an early model with the door over the memory compartment still, newer Eee’s no longer have this door.
I’ve also added a USB port, this port is driven by the USB header that would service the USB Webcam in the 4G model the header is simply bare on mine. So with the help of Ebay I have a USB header to USB cable. This cable can be installed inside the casing of the Eee allowing me to end with an additional USB port right next to my memory stick under the memory door. I have plugged a 4gb USB Flash drive into this header giving me additional storage on the Eee.
That last and simplest upgrade is the addition of a 8gb SDHC memory card its plugged into the SD Memory card reader.
Software Upgrades
Of course all that additional storage and system memory wasn’t just for running Linux. The distribution of Linux wasn’t even designed to use address more the 1gb of RAM. So yes I have loaded Windows XP Professional on to the Eee this is aided by the fact that Asus gives me all the drivers for running the Eee with XP on it. XP boots very quickly off of the Solid State drive and love the 2gb of DDR memory I have plenty of storage space thanks to the USB Flash Drive and SD Cards adding 4gb and 8gb respectively. The system can run XP, Office 2007, Web Browse, IM, Wireless Internet in a convenient small lightweight package. It goes with me everywhere it can be tossed around turned on and off abused and used and used and used.
In addition to the ability to run the additional software that comes with Windows the switch to XP gives me the ability to fully unlock the speed of the 900mhz processor. Windows has many software overclocking tools for the Eee I use one called (eeectl) it allows me in real time to move the processor speed from 650mhz to 900mhz, it also allows changes to fan speed and the LCD Backlight.
But despite having a very nice netbook, I still find it handy to have a very nice good desktop around for when I really need to get work done. For that I have a custom built home pc.
FanCarolina's Blog 