ASUS eeePC torture test

[Beirut]

Cool video of a guy giving the ASUS eeePC laptop a decent beating. Drops it repeatedly, freezes it and puts it on a radiator. Tough little thing.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance...leur-froi_tech

I'm very seriously thinking of gettin' me one of these. You can get the 700 model pretty cheap, but for $200 more you get the 900 model with a slightly bigger screen, better res and much bigger HD, 12GB instead of 2GB.

Nice toy.

[Beirut]

Fine, my thread is boring. Don't post a response. Treat me like the shmoo that I am.

Anyway, I'm close to ordering one of these things and I have a few LINUX vs. XP questions.

Can a shmoo use LINUX and have all his music and such forth that works on XP work on LINUX?

Will text documents done on LINUX transfer to an XP machine?

Will my external HD, which had all its info loaded with XP, work with LINUX?

They sell the 12GB eeePC 901 with XP Home for the same price as the 20GB eeePC with LINUX. The loss of 8GB is what pays for XP on the machine.

[CrossLOPER]

Shmoo?

[Beirut]

If you can answer my question I'll answer yours.

[Xiahou]

I'd say the answer is a definite "probably".

Really, I don't think there'd be any problem playing your basic mp3s or opening .doc files on the eeePC. There's certainly no reason you can't under Linux.

I really like the eeePC. If I didn't get a company provided laptop, I'd probably have one myself.

[Beirut]

Thanks.

So you think it's better than 50/50 that I can read my external HD as well?

There's a $100 mail-in rebate on the new 900 until the end of the month, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to grab one.

Did you watch the torture test video? I was impressed.

[Lemur]

I posted about the original EePC some months back, only to get roundly scolded about how it was underpowered with no real point in the world, since full-featured notebooks could be had for near the same price.

But I gotta admit, that 900 model looks pretty darn nice. And the bump in display size is welcome, as is the extra RAM. Me likey. If my current notebook breaks, I may have to look more closely at it ...

[Beirut]

I posted about the original EePC some months back, only to get roundly scolded about how it was underpowered with no real point in the world, since full-featured notebooks could be had for near the same price.

I'm on your side.

At $450, the price after the mail in rebate, the 900 eeePC is $150 less than the cheapest laptop, is much more portable, and infinitely tougher. Granted, you won't be playing M:TW2 on it, but for a combination net surfer, typewriter, MP3, video, and what-have-you machine that is the size of a thin hardcover book and that can be dropped on to a concrete floor and still work, it serves a purpose.

When my buddy brings his Toshiba laptop to work to show me stuff, it's in a big padded case and you have to be really careful with it. This thing isn't nearly so much a burden.

It's a tool. It is what you make of it.

[Xiahou]

So you think it's better than 50/50 that I can read my external HD as well?

Yeah, I'd be surprised if it didn't work.

[Whacker]

All hail our Lord Prosimian, may his reign last a thousand years minus how long it's been since I've started spouting this line.

Fine, my thread is boring. Don't post a response. Treat me like the shmoo that I am.

OK, schmoo!

I'd say the answer is a definite "probably".

Really, I don't think there'd be any problem playing your basic mp3s or opening .doc files on the eeePC. There's certainly no reason you can't under Linux.

Seconded. My guess is that it probably comes with a version of OpenOffice, which can handle .doc files and the like. Linux has a few mp3 player options, don't remember what they are at this point.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if it didn't work.

Seconded again. Lunix can/does support all modern filesystems and gets along cheerful with USB and Firewire.

Lastly if you do decide to take the plunge, I'd be most curious to hear your personal assessment of the aforementioned gadget. Some kind of after-action report perhaps, if you will.

[Beirut]

OK, schmoo!

But you still don't know what a shmoo is and I might not tell you.

Lastly if you do decide to take the plunge, I'd be most curious to hear your personal assessment of the aforementioned gadget. Some kind of after-action report perhaps, if you will.

Count on it. But it could well be a week or two.

[Beirut]

Seems everyone is putting out a micro-laptop now.

This Acer model looks good and it's almost $200 cheaper than the new eeePC. Nifty specs! Not out for a month, though.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=Acer

Hmmmm...

[Lemur]

Poking around the internets, looking at various previews of the Acer machine, it sure looks as though it will have exactly half as much battery as the Asus version. Although you may be able to order a bigger battery, hard to say from the pressers ...

[CBR]

Yeah the EeePC seems to have started a trend. I got a 700 early this year (had to send it back as it kept locking up after 20-30 min use) and liked the small size and low weight. The 800x480 resolution was too small for my taste but I'm sure the 8.9 inch screen would be much better.

IIRC it had no problems connecting with my external HDD's (either USB or WiFi): worked fine with pics and vids although it seemed it had to copy the whole video before watching it...maybe a linux thing?


CBR

[Beirut]

I called my computer guy and he said he might get rid of his own eeePC 701 because he wants an eeePC 1000. I'll know Monday if he's selling his 701 (not sure which config). If he doesn't want too much I'm going to grab it. I'm not going to get the EEEPC900 until I see more about the other new machines coming out. Especially with the prices going south of $400. Eez gud.
Thanks for the info, mes freres.

(For now I'll make do with my Win98 IBM PIII 500Mhz Thinkpad. Less RAM than a goldfish and a battery that lasts about as long as a good pee. But it's built like a brick and the keyboard has a clickably wondrous touch.)

[Xiahou]

Poking around the internets, looking at various previews of the Acer machine, it sure looks as though it will have exactly half as much battery as the Asus version. Although you may be able to order a bigger battery, hard to say from the pressers ...

I'm guessing it must have a traditional hard drive- that would account for a drop in battery life, and probably a cheaper price as well. Too bad the solid state drive is one of the best features of the eeePC...

[Lemur]

Stephen Fry, of all people, has a column about the eeePC. Go figure.

I am writing this article on a kind of mini John the Baptist, a system that prepares the way of the software saviour whose coming will deliver the 90% of world computer users who suffer under Windows from the expensive, clumsy, costly, ugly, pricey toils of Microsoft.

The Asus EEE PC perched on my knee combines GNU software with a Linux kernel powered by an Intel Celeron Mobile Processor to produce a very extraordinary little laptop. It weighs less than a kilogram, starts up from cold in about 12 seconds and shuts down in five. It has no internal hard disk and no CD drive.

Well, skimming over it, clearly he's talking about the previous iteration of the eeePC, but it's still a great read. What's not to love about a column that describes a laptop as John the Baptist?

-edit-

I see there's another Dork Talk column on the most recent version of the eeePC.

[AlJabberwock]

HEH! LOL.

That video made me crack up... Specifically it was some of the soft and only partially successfully stifled chuckling in the background (as the guy drops it on the blue tile floor by the desk) that led me to start thinking this guy was forced by his BOSS to use his BOSS' machine for the weekend to work on a project he didn't sign up for... So he decided to conduct scientific experimentation on the side - a sort of Einsteinian laptop user. No WONDER we never see a face or identifier of any kind! Hmmmmm! Lol. If you buy that Asus Liliputian, don't lend it to any associates who speak French!

I Read the Dork Talk because it was amusing... I would also advise he is right regarding the probable transitory nature of the eeepc... as with all technology I suppose till the Rapture. Yet, I think getting a used one cheap is best... A year from now infinitely more capable machines in the microscopic line are likely as there are some recent developments in battery tech that have to very much effect this type of device. Like getting the newest 'cutting edge' vid card, if you wait long enough, you'll be dead!

I have no experience with Linux so I hope the more experienced types above are right! Suppose I could have written that first and saved you all that reading, but The Prophet teaches us all to be mysterious! :-)

AlJabberwock

[Che Roriniho]

I reccomend everyone get's the eeePC 1000H. Bluetooth, 80GB HDD, WinXP, 1GB RAM, 102 screen, £364. What's not to love?
*clue- not a lot*

[Mailman653]

I'v been using a eee pc 4g Linux for about two months now. I really have no complaints, its super portable, with a little know how which you can aquire from various websites you can custimize things even further from the default settings.

[Lemur]

Mailman, how's life with the screen size? Does web browsing mean a lot of extra scrolling, or do most sites scale down enough?

I ask because one of the big selling points of the new one is the enlarged screen ...

[Beirut]

Gah! My computer dude wanted $300 for a his used eeePC 701. What a shmoo. They're only a few bucks more new. And the new micro laptops coming out are much cheaper with better specs. I don't know what he was thinking.

[Xiahou]

And the new micro laptops coming out are much cheaper with better specs.

Yeah, but I'd think twice about getting one with a traditional hard drive.

[Beirut]

Yeah, but I'd think twice about getting one with a traditional hard drive.

Indeedely-doodely. I'm liking this no-moving-parts HD business.

[Husar]

The question is, if they have SSDs, are they MLC or SLC SSDs?
SLCs are more expensive but they're faster and have ten times the life expectancy, you wouldn't want the HDD to die after a year or so would you? Of course it depends on how often it writes to the HDD but just thought I might throw this in after I read about it concerning the new cheap 2.5" SSDs which are all MLC based.

[Lemur]

According to The Reg, the eee is selling like hotcakes in Europe.

Asus saw its share of the European PC market more than double in Q2, and it's all thanks to the Eee PC. So show figures from market watcher IDC. In Q2 2007, Asus' share of the PC market was a mere 2.8 per cent. One year on, that figure had risen to six per cent. Its shipments rocketed from 497,000 units to 1.315m.

[Mailman653]

Mailman, how's life with the screen size? Does web browsing mean a lot of extra scrolling, or do most sites scale down enough?

I ask because one of the big selling points of the new one is the enlarged screen ...

The screen size does get annoying sometimes. More often than not I press f11 to enlarge the screen to squeeze in a little more viewing room. But many sites do fit into the screen just fine without pressing f11, including this one