Again I find myself blogging from a very tiny little computer. This time, while Dawngrrl and I are watching BBC’s "Big Train" sketch comedy show (which I highly recommend!) I am playing with the now completely set up MSI Wind.
After digging into the Asus Eee PC and realizing Best Buy’s advertised specs were incorrect, I decided to return both the machines and get something with the Intel Atom processor instead of the older Celeron that was in the Asus models.
Instead of stepping down in size to the Atom version of the Eee PC they had in stock for $449, we decided to give the MSI Wind a shot at $399. The overall specs are very similar with the exception of the CPU and a big difference in form factor. The key mapping change I made on the Eee PC wasn’t at all necessary on the MSI Wind. It has a larger keyboard and is very comfortable to touch type on.
The MSI Wind model we chose has a 10" 1024×600 resolution LED backlit LCD, completely touch type-able keyboard, 1 GB of Ram (Which we upgraded to 1.5GB with some ram we had around the house), 120GB 2.5" SATA Hard Disk, 3 USB 2.0 Ports, WiFi a/b/g, 10/100 Ethernet, VGA, SD/MMC/MS/SDHC card reader, 1.3MP Web Camera and Mic and 3 cell battery.
Even before the upgraded RAM, the Wind’s 1.6Ghz Atom Processor felt dramatically faster than the 900Mhz Celeron in the Eee PC 1000HD.
I added the Kensington tiny Bluetooth adapter to the right side USB port to facilitate Bluetooth Tethering to my phone as well as a Bluetooth Mouse.
All in all, this is an extremely capable and usable PC. There are even successful accounts on the web of installing Windows Vista and even Mac OS X on this little puppy. I almost bit off Vista on it but decided to stick with XP. I have a spare 120GB laptop hard drive I pulled out of my Macbook Pro that I might place in here to give either XP or OS X a change when I am in a particularly tinkering mood.
If you are in the market for a Netbook, which I don’t really consider this to be, the MSI Wind is a steal at $399. Traditionally Netbooks are under-sized, under-powered and run some weird variant of Linux which makes them a little odd to use.
This MSI Wind is currently running Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, Photoshop 7, Microsoft Zune software, AVG Antivirus, Flickr Uploader, Windows Live Writer, mIRC, Pidgin. FileZilla, Firefox and Yahoo Messenger (to test the built in Web Camera, Microsoft Streets and Trips and Microsoft Live Mesh.
All of these applications run fast and flawlessly. This is one special little notebook.
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Microsoft lists 1024 × 768 monitor resolution in the minimum system requirements for Streets & Trips 2009, but it seems you didn’t encounter any issue running it on your new laptop. Good news!
i bought an Asus Eee PC about a month ago and i am still amazed of its compact size and how lightweight it is. ~
I just ordered my MSI Wind on bestbuy and i would have to say that it is perfect for me because it is very light and easy to carry on my bag.
i always use my Asus Eee PC when i am travelling. It is very convenient to carry on any place.
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I got an Asus Eee as a christmas gift. It is very compact but i wish that the LCD screen was larger.
my Asus Eee PC broke down a couple of months ago. I bought a new one which is still an Asus Eee, i love this netbook.
Another good thing about the Asus Eee pc is that it does not overheat when used over long periods of time. *