MSI Wind

1. Bunky’s 4-year old Dell: It was fairly sturdy, but also fairly slow. I bumped the RAM up to 1GB and about half a year later the laptop died so hard that it wouldn’t even power on. The poor thing couldn’t even load BIOS.
2. My brother’s discarded Asus craptop: I have such a low opinion of Asus now. The components were decent and the laptop felt peppy running Windows XP with 1GB of RAM. Unfortunately the hinge covers broke off after a year, and after I took over the craptop the right hinge busted off completely. It was only a matter of time before the laptop came in two pieces, so I went ahead and ordered a replacement. Also, this 17″ behemoth was much too clunky and heavy to carry around.
3. MSI Wind U100-411: I decided I was tired of sloppy seconds and heavy laptops so I got acute new netbook. I’ve ordered an extra gig of RAM that should be coming within a week (Corsair RAM was less than $15 and came with free shipping). It took forever, but I updated the BIOS to allow overclocking and also updated to Vista using vLite (even getting past the pesky WAIK/WIM issue). I’ve turned off most of the graphical bells and whistles, allowing Vista to run at a decent speed. Once the RAM arrives, I think the computer should be plenty peppy, and I’ve got all the drivers working.

The MSI Wind was only $299 after the $50 rebate, so I was all too happy to take advantage of the Black Friday sale. I’m super pleased so far, and the screen and keyboard feel just right. I’m don’t find the trackpad to be too small, and only really the arrow keys and the slash and period keys ever trip me up. I only got the 3-cell battery for now because the rebate didn’t apply to 6-cell models and I figure I can buy a bigger battery once they get cheaper in a few months.

I stole this table of specs from the MSI HTML source code:

▼ Show

CPU
Type	Intel® Atom™ N270
Speed	1.6GHz
Front-side Bus	533 MHz
Cache	512K
Operating System
Operating System	Windows® XP Home Edition MSI also recommends upgrade to Windows Vista® Business or Windows Vista® Ultimate
LCD
Size	10" WSVGA LCD
Backlight	LED
Resolution	1024 x 600
Color
Color	White
Chipset
Chipset	945GSE+ ICH7-M
Graphics
Intergrated Graphics	Intel® GMA950
Audio
Audio	SoundBlaster compatible
Speaker	Internal Speaker x 2
System Memory
Spec	1GB DDR2 667MHz
HDD
HDD Capacity	120GB
HDD Interface	SATA I
Communication
LAN	10/100
WLAN	Built-in 802.11b/g WLAN Card
Bluetooth	N/A
Supplemental Drive
Card Reader	4-in-1 Card Reader, SD/MMC/MS/MSpro
Webcam Resolution
Webcam	1.3 MP Webcam
I/O Port
USB	USB2.0 Port X 3
Video Port	VGA (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1
Audio Port	Mic-in Port X 1, Headphone Output X 1
AC Adaptor
AC Power Adaptor	Output: 19V DC, 65W / Input: 100~ 240V AC, 50/60Hz Universal
Battery
Battery Pack	Lithium Ion 3 Cells
Physical Spec
Dimension	10.23"(L) x 7.08"(D) x 0.748"~1.24"(H)
Weight	2.3 lbs (3 cell)
Accessory
Carry Bag	N/A
Warranty
Manufacturer Warranty	1 Year

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