Month: February 2008

Avoid the Asus Eee PC 2G Surf

If you’re buying an Eee PC with the intention of hacking it physically to add hardware modifications like extra storage or bluetooth dongles and the like, the 2G Surf model will make it harder for you because of the absence of the bottom access cover in the chassis. A photo in this review of the 2G Surf clearly shows this possible problem.

Aside from the physical restriction, the processor used is a slower Celeron–M 800 MHz running at 571 Mhz, unlike the 4G models with the 900@630 MHz processors. The 512 MB DDR2 ram is also soldered in place, so a quick memory upgrade is out of the question.

Get the 4G or 8G models instead and hack them to your heart’s content.

Hack your OS

So what’s the biggest hack you can do on your Eee PC? Install a different OS! For a lot of people, using the Asus–customized Xandros Linux does feel like Windows but leaves out some of the things you need from Redmond’s OS. So the best solution would be to simply install Windows!

I run Windows XP on my Eee PC without problems and now able to do almost anything I can do with a normal laptop. Because of this, I can comfortably use the Eee PC when I’m working outside as it has the tools I need to get my work done.

Yes, Windows XP can work quite well on the Eee PC, just don’t expect to play graphic–intensive games or other tasks that require a much larger screen resolution.

If you browse the DVD that came with you Eee PC, you’d see Windows XP drivers for all devices. All you need is an external CD–ROM and your Windows XP install CD. We’ll walk you through the process in a future entry.