Eee PC - Mini laptop

michael_w
michael_w Posts: 2,813
edited January 2008 in The Clubhouse
I was looking for something new to fiddle with so I bought an Asus Eee PC. Essentially it's a small form factor laptop that comes with an installation of Xandros linux. For $300 it's a cool little computer that's ridiculously tiny making it not such a hassle to carry around (in comparison to my full size laptop). My only complaints are that the touchpad buttons are too firm, the ram isn't upgradeable in this model, and I have to consciously press harder on the keys because sometimes they don't actually input anything unless the key is bottomed out.



Plans:

<img src="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/6017/crackedwincesu6.jpg&quot; align=right>Keep Xandros linux on the 2gb ssd.
Have a 1gb SD card with Backtrack 3 on it -- done.
Have an 8gb SD card with windows xp on it (mostly going to run this for vpn, remote desktop and email). I already have a stripped down copy of xp (used nlite) ready to go, but I'm hunting for a way to do it without touching the original Xandros installation.

I've already installed backtrack 3 on a 1gb sd card that cost me $7. Installation was very easy and I was able to crack my wireless internet in about five minutes :D

Here are a couple pics. It was hard to type on at first since the keys are so small but I'm getting used to it now. Pics are of it booting backtrack3 off the sd card. The laptop beside it is an IBM T42 with a 15" screen - already a small laptop.


BT3 after cracking my 128-bit wep key.
<img src="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/354/eee1customis2.jpg"&gt;

Sitting on the small 15" laptop.
<img src="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8923/eee2customqi0.jpg"&gt;

15" t42 with a 19" monitor in the background
<img src="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8918/eee3customox0.jpg"&gt;

In comparison to a cd.
<img src="http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5866/eee4customya7.jpg"&gt;
Post edited by michael_w on
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Comments

  • obieone
    obieone Posts: 5,077
    edited January 2008
    Does it have a cpl of usb's-you could use a wireless keyboard & mouse???
    I refuse to argue with idiots, because people can't tell the DIFFERENCE!
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  • wingnut4772
    wingnut4772 Posts: 7,519
    edited January 2008
    Awwww..look at the cutesy wootsy widdle laptop. coochie coochie coo....:D
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited January 2008
    Where'd you buy it, if you don't mind me asking? I saw it on Newegg a while back...and my jaw hit the floor!! :p
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
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    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
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  • Face
    Face Posts: 14,340
    edited January 2008
    You might be able to make a nice lossless music server out of that with a external sound card and HD.
    "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
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  • michael_w
    michael_w Posts: 2,813
    edited January 2008
    Yes, it could quite possibly make for an awesome music server with a large external hd.

    It has 3 usb connections as well as headphone and mic jack, lan, vga (for 800x600 output I believe). I haven't tried a usb keyboard, but a usb mouse works very well.

    Bought it at NCIX (Canadian computer store). Mine is the 2gb surf as I didn't feel the need for extra storage space since I have network drives and external drives everywhere, plus I have two 1gb, one 2gb and one 8gb sdhc cards anyways.

    I like backtrack 3 (based on slax) much better than the pre-loaded xandros distro, but I can't wait to get xp on this so I can do more work related tasks on it. I'm thinking when I go back to school it'll be awesome to carry around rather than a full sized laptop to take notes or write documents.

    I'm so happy the wireless card is an atheros based chipset. It supports packet injection to make cracking wep keys nice and fast. Getting about 400 per second and I only need around 50 / 60 thousand to successfully crack :) This saves me from having to buy a USB wifi dongle for my laptop since its card doesn't support injection properly. Ultra-portable network auditing tool!!
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  • ledhed
    ledhed Posts: 1,088
    edited January 2008
    I was looking at getting one. Seems really cool to have. How much RAM? Let me know how XP goes on it.
    God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8
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  • Bill Ayotte
    Bill Ayotte Posts: 1,860
    edited January 2008
    wingnut4772 wrote: »
    Awwww..look at the cutesy wootsy widdle laptop. coochie coochie coo....:D

    Hahahahahhaha :D
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  • SKsolutions
    SKsolutions Posts: 1,820
    edited January 2008
    Cool grab. Have you done any battery times on it? Was planning on adding one to my car, and leaving the 14" at the ****. Can you get 3 hours or better?
    -Ignorance is strength -
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  • michael_w
    michael_w Posts: 2,813
    edited January 2008
    Runs at 900mhz with 512mb of ram. With the 2gb surf model the ram is soldered in unfortunately since I was hoping to beef it up to 1 or 2gb.

    I haven't done any battery life tests, but I've heard around 3 hours is normal when using wi-fi. Maybe I'll bring it to work tomorrow and see how it fairs on a battery.

    I'll post some results once I get xp booting properly. I had a copy of windows embedded but it gave me a bsod and I haven't tried much since then.
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  • phoneisbusy
    phoneisbusy Posts: 867
    edited January 2008
    Thanks Michael,

    I've been thinking about one of these. Like to compact form factor but by the time you add xp license, upgrade ram and buy SD cards, you're getting into the low end laptop price range.

    regards

    Dave
    Time is the best teacher. Unfortunately it kills all its students.
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  • wingnut4772
    wingnut4772 Posts: 7,519
    edited January 2008
    Shouldn't this thread be in the new Computer Forum?:p
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    Polk Atrium 7s on the patio just to keep my foot in the door.
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  • phoneisbusy
    phoneisbusy Posts: 867
    edited January 2008
    Nah... Just us geeks showing off some baby pictures. ;P
    Time is the best teacher. Unfortunately it kills all its students.
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  • michael_w
    michael_w Posts: 2,813
    edited January 2008
    It's a little smaller than expected and that makes that gap between a full laptop and this much greater, just by making it harder to type. So you may be better off with a small laptop instead. If you're still coming to polkfest I'll bring it out and you can see for yourself the difficulties and joys of trying to use it.

    Paying for an xp license isn't an issue, but I can see how it would bump up the cost if you had to ;)

    I didn't even realize we had a computer section to an audio forum :p
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  • Kex
    Kex Posts: 5,150
    edited January 2008
    I use an older Port
    Alea jacta est!
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  • Polk addict
    Polk addict Posts: 558
    edited January 2008
    Darn... Time to ask los parents for a laptop... Maybe not that small, I might loose it...
    Chiranth
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited January 2008
    Using one of these as a music server intriges me. Would there be a downside? I'm assuming an external usb harddrive, usb cd drive and usb dac.
    madmax
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • ledhed
    ledhed Posts: 1,088
    edited January 2008
    Well, as a server, it would be better to use NAS so all computers could access and add music. So you could load music from any other computer. But paired to a USB DAC, I see not very many downsides.
    God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8
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  • michael_w
    michael_w Posts: 2,813
    edited January 2008
    Yes, if I set up a nas server then I could pair the laptop with a usb dac and have a really nice setup. I didn't really give this much thought but now I'm really starting to think this is a good idea. Any recommendations on a good inexpensive usb dac? I'll test the laptop tonight to see how the soundcard performs against a regular source (dvd player).
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited January 2008
    What is NAS?
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • Kex
    Kex Posts: 5,150
    edited January 2008
    Special deal alert: $315, free shipping.

    http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206655760&SearchEngine=PriceGrabber&SearchTerm=206655760&Type=PE&Category=Comp&dcaid=15890
    Alea jacta est!
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  • michael_w
    michael_w Posts: 2,813
    edited January 2008
    Mine was $300 cdn from NCIX http://www.ncix.com/go-asus_eeepc/. I went for the cheapo 2gb version because I don't need a webcam or extra storage space, plus it's pretty much just a novelty so there isn't much need to spend a lot on it.

    NAS (network-attached-storage) is basically a stripped down file server. An array of hard drives chained together and shared out on a network. It would probably be cheaper to just get a couple extra drives for my server and run it from there rather than build a dedicated nas box unless I wanted to rip my music lossless and then we're talking about a couple terabytes...

    The only thing you'd need an external cd drive for would be to play redbook cd's. I've heard some computer drives make great transports, but don't quote me on that one ;) . I had an external hard drive die on me and now I have a spare IDE enclosure - I've been using that hooked up to a regular IDE internal cd drive to use with this Eee PC. Only problem is that it's about as big as the Eee PC itself :p (and twice the thickness).

    It took me nearly 30 minutes to gather enough data for 128-bit wep cracking here at work. Still have some bugs to work out, but it cracked it regardless ;)

    For those that have one of these, give the usual firefox mods a shot. It really goes a long way to speed up internet browsing with it using only four registry entry mods.


    Update: Xp is on the SSD / Internal memory. I tried using winhex to copy it over to an sd card and am having issues. BSOD's left & right, and it won't even boot into safe mode. Works fine off ssd, just not off the sd card itself. More fiddling tomorrow.
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