Have you ever thought of modifying a laptop? This is quite common (not really) for people with EEEPC’s, since they want more harddrives, inbuilt modems and even touchscreens. Is it hard? Well, I guess it’s not for amateurs, but it look’s like a handy guy can make some of the work done.
This guy has made several tweaks for his EEEPC, like:
USB hub
Bluetooth
GPS module
SDHC reader
Touch screen
FM transmitter
Flash drive
Temperature sensor
He describes it very well and this is well worth a visit!
http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.php/Eee_PC_Internal_Upgrades
Asus has developed a new type of mini laptop called the EEE-PC series. EEE stands for “Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play”.
There are currently four versions of the EEEPC which are:
EEE PC 8G
EEE PC 4G
EEE PC 4G Surf
EEE PC 2G
They all have Intel CPU and chipsets and a 7″ display.
Here are the specifications for each model:
EEE PC 8G OS: Linux but Windows XP compatible WLAN: Yes Ethernet communication: Yes Memory: 1Gb DDR2 Solid-state disk (SSD): 8Gb Camera: Yes Audio: Hi-Definition audio, Stereo speaker, Microphone Battery: 4 cells; 5200mAh, 3.5hrs depending on actions. Weigth:0.92kg
EEE PC 4G OS: Linux but Windows XP compatible WLAN: Yes Ethernet communication: Yes Memory: 512Mb DDR2 Solid-state disk (SSD): 4Gb Camera: Yes Audio: Hi-Definition audio, Stereo speaker, Microphone Battery: 4 cells; 5200mAh, 3.5hrs depending on actions. Weigth:0.92kg
The surf version of 4g has the same features but without a camera and a slightly lower batterycapacity, 4400mAh.
EEE PC 2G OS: Linux but Windows XP compatible WLAN: Yes Ethernet communication: Yes Memory: 512Mb DDR2 Solid-state disk (SSD): 2Gb Camera: No Audio: Hi-Definition audio, Stereo speaker, Microphone Battery: 4 cells; 4400mAh, 2.8hrs depending on actions. Weigth:0.92kg
You can see the laptop in action here:
Interesting piece of technology!
These are some of the most used graphic-cards in laptops right now. They are listed from worse-better. That means bad cards in the top, better in the bottom.
Integrated cards:
Intel GMA900
Intel GMA950
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M
Nvidia GeForce Go6100/6150
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100/1150
ATI Radeon Xpress 1200/1250
Low performing cards:
Nvidia GeForce Go6200
ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Nvidia GeForce Go7200
Nvidia GeForce Go7300
ATI Mobility Radeon X1300
ATI Mobility Radeon X1350
ATI Mobility Radeon X2300
Medium performing cards:
Nvidia GeForce Go6400
ATI Mobility Radeon X600
Nvidia GeForce Go7400
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
ATI Mobility Radeon X1450
Nvidia GeForce 8400M-GS
Performing graphic cards:
Nvidia GeForce Go6600
ATI Mobility Radeon X700
Nvidia GeForce 8400M-GT
Nvidia GeForce Go7600
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
ATI Mobility Radeon X1700
Nvidia GeForce Go7700
Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GS
Nvidia GeForce Go7600GT
Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GT
Top of the line cards:
Nvidia GeForce Go7800
ATI Mobility Radeon X1800
Nvidia GeForce Go7900GS
ATI Mobility Radeon X1900
Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX
ATI Mobility Radeon X1800XT
Nvidia GeForce Go7900GTX
Nvidia GeForce Go7950GTX
When you buy a graphic card and when you are thinking of whether choosing the one with more memory or the one with the better GPU or the card with more memory. A common thought is that if you have a graphic card that have a memory capacity of 256 mb and another one with 128 mb, the first one has to be better!
This is not right in most cases since the “slow” card will not use all the memory efficient and because of that the faster card but with less memory will perform better.
If you are planning to buy a gaming laptop you have to aim for a performing graphic card and I would rather choose a good graphic card instead of a good CPU. Dual core is not necessarily needed for a computer although it definetly will increase the performance. But if you aim to buy a cheap laptop with gaming performance you have to sort out some of the expensive parts and that includes a dual core processor.
Intel has during the whole year talked about their biggest technological leap in 40 years and now are the first products available. The new Penry-processor is supposed to be 50% faster in graphics but still have a smaller electricity-Consumption.
During this sunday Intel presented the new platform that had the codename Penryn and told us that 40 suppliers of servers will have their Xeon 5400 processor this fall.
This is a processor with four cores and with 45-nanometerstechnology which will reduce the electricity needed for it. The most powerful version will only take 120W and by the year ending will their laptop-version be released and that processor will only need 25W compared to earlier models that need about 35W.
In the benchmarks that have been done Intel has shown improvements in 40-60% in graphics and that is pretty much a result of the increased cache-memories. Another effect of this will be that virtual servers will be about 75% faster.
In november Intel will release twelve new Xeon 5400-processors where the clock-frequency is 2-3,2GHz and having a cache-memory of 12MB. Next month three more Xeon 5200-processors with dual cores will be released with a clock-frequency of 3,4ghz and 6MB in cache-memory. During the first quarter of the next year will the laptop versions “Core 3 Extreme” and “Core 2 Duo” be released.
The new generation of processors are made of a number of new materials that means that they can have a decent amount of more transistors on the same space as before. In a processor with four cores you can now have 840 millions of transistors compared to Intels first processor, 4004 (1971), which only had 2000 transistors.
Have you ever thought of cooling down your laptop a little bit extra? Are you anoyed of the fan-noice when you are watching movies?
Here are three unique and cool (hehehe) solutions. The first one, called the Waldic (water & air laptop direct input cooler) which was made for lowering the fan-noice while watching movies is a kind of attachment you put on the laptop-side. The temperature dropped from about 65*C to about low 40*C when activating the “water-mode”. That’s a nice laptop cooler.
Source: http://folk.ntnu.no/bardlund/hack.jsp
The second system is a forced-air system which like the air cooling systems on any regular car. The results from this method was brilliant.
The GPU peaked 80*C at 250mhz and when he mounted his cooling unit, he clocked it to 370mhz and it peaked at 69*C. Along with this he increased his fps with about 50% in BF2, from 50fps to 75fps.
Source: http://www.tacticalgamer.com/hardware-software-discussion/91613-110cfm-laptop-cooler.html
The third system is another air-cooler, which looks quite “cheap” but is supposed to work quite good anyway. Here’s a embedded video of the cooler:
Source: http://www.instructables.com/id/E0G2NZQYAFEZ7BDFSV
Thats some cheap and effective laptop coolers and some cheap performance boosts!