asus eee ultra mobile notebook

Udderchaos · Post by **Udderchaos** » 30 November 07 11:48 am

these look very promising. solid state and look to be selling for between $250-500 australian. perfect for caching really.

http://eeepc.asus.com/en/

Dik: · Post by **Dik:** » 30 November 07 1:23 pm

Truely a revolution that is going to change paperless caching and our everydays lives.

RIP PDA

Mr Router · Post by **Mr Router** » 30 November 07 4:54 pm

Dik: wrote:Truely a revolution that is going to change paperless caching and our everydays lives.

RIP PDA

Double ditto

I really really want one

team unicycle · Post by **team unicycle** » 30 November 07 6:53 pm

It doesn't mention Bluetooth.

I wonder what processor they use - it doesn't mention that or clock speed.
Apart from that, the 8G model might be useful. If you get Ozi running on it, then I'll take a look.

team unicycle · Post by **team unicycle** » 30 November 07 7:04 pm

Operating System: Linux, Windows XP compatible ???

Udderchaos · Post by **Udderchaos** » 30 November 07 7:35 pm

they are a dothon 900. 512mb. come with a linux pre installed. can install your own xp from what im reading

2dudez · Post by **2dudez** » 30 November 07 7:37 pm

I decided to go for one as I was a bit worried about how my macbook's hard disk gets bounced around on caching trips.
Mine arrived from Taiwan yesterday.
It had linux on it, which was good for the twenty minutes that I played with it, but using Nlite you can create a very cut down version of win xp to run on it.
Has 4 gig of solid state memory, but I have a few apps installed on a 2 gig SD card and they run fine. Windows boots in about 15-20 seconds.
Battery life is around 3 hours.
Processor is a 900mhz Celeron Mobile.
Doesn't run too hot but I wouldn't like to block the exhaust ports.
Ozi works fine (with a screen resolution of 800x480)
Have also put GSAK, Discover Aus, Google Earth etc on it.
Similar result with these ones too, run fine, but can be a bit cramped on screen with the smaller resolution. I took out a few columns that I don't use in GSAK.
No bluetooth, but you can plug a usb one in. Some of the eee PC hacking forums have shown ways to solder a usb connector inside the casing to mount a USB one internally.
Adding RAM will void your warranty, unless you buy from ASUS. Some ebay sellers are also providing warranty stickers that you can replace if you add your ram yourself. I'm not too worried about the warranty, so I'll be upgrading mine myself.
Cant wait to take it caching.

Addons that will be happening in the next week:
8gig SD card (so my camera can have it's 2gig one back)
USB GPS Dongle (my other one isn't as portable as I wanted it to be)
2 Gig of RAM
That's right....ebay is my friend.
I doubt we will see them near $250 though. ASUS first announced this price 6 months ago (probably to build up hype), then jacked up the price. $500 is more realistic. I paid US$420 for mine.

Will post some photos as soon as I get them off my phone.

2dudez · Post by **2dudez** » 30 November 07 7:57 pm

Here it is:

Udderchaos · Post by **Udderchaos** » 30 November 07 8:15 pm

ok 2dudez you should work for asus. i think i need one...
just a note, i'm on my 3rd asus laptop now and the ones i have had have brilliant.

2dudez · Post by **2dudez** » 30 November 07 8:31 pm

I wish they'd give me commission.
I've only had it 24 hrs and already know a few people keen to get one now.
Some Australian shops are taking pre-orders at the moment, and on eBay there was a couple for sale from Sydney, but the majority are from Asia or the US.
Mine came from Taiwan, and if you look closely at the first picture, you can see the chinese characters next the the english ones on the keyboard.

Udderchaos · Post by **Udderchaos** » 30 November 07 9:01 pm

myers will have them from tommorrow $499 retail apaprently for the 4G

2dudez · Post by **2dudez** » 30 November 07 9:09 pm

Nice one. I'd say they will get snapped up fairly quickly.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/15435/53/

Mr Router · Post by **Mr Router** » 01 December 07 6:24 am

2Dudez you have just caused some marital friction

but gee I cannot wait till mine comes

2dudez · Post by **2dudez** » 01 December 07 10:28 am

Apologies to Mr Router for his domestic troubles.

For those who are interested how to to get XP onto one of these units, here is the tutorial that came in very handy to make your own cut down version of windows.
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=1923
You can of course just shove an XP (service pack 2) CD in an external drive and install it as you normally would, but when you only have 4 Gig to play with, you'll regret not making a Nlite version down the track when you run out of space.
I have also installed an app called Ccleaner. You can run it periodically to clean up hard disk space from your recycle bin, internet cache, temp files etc. First time I ran it it got back 200mb.
For the techies out there, this cut down XP version ended up being about 120mb on the CD, that installed to about 600 mb on the hard disk. By default the paging file will take another 750mb. Once my 2Gig of RAM arrives, I'll be removing the page file to get even more free space on the hard drive.
I used an external USB DVD drive I had lying around to install mine, in the eeeuser forums some people have described how to install from USB sticks or SD cards.
Personally I haven't found the lack of a CD drive in the eeePC a hinderance. Once windows was installed, I only needed it to install MYOB and Printers. Everything else I had on external hard drives, so was no problem.
Later on, I might get a slimline external cd drive for it.

I have also added a few more photos, to show it's size, compared to a 13" MacBook and a DVD box.