I first learned about GMABooster from YugaTech. It’s a utility for speeding up the Intel GMA 950 graphics chip, which happens to be the graphics chip of my Asus EEE PCs (as well as most other netbooks). But unfortunately, the first time I downloaded it, it doesn’t seem to launch at all. I tried installing and reinstalling it as well as the .NET framework (yeech!) to no avail. Last night, I tried it again by downloading the latest version and it finally worked. I can now speed up the clock speed from the default 166Mhz to a whopping 400MHz. It’s no GeForce but higher detail levels is now possible with DOTA. Not bad for a free download.
Asus EEE PC 900HA
I was pretty excited when Asus launched the EEE PC 900. But when I learned that it doesn’t have the Atom processor, I decided to wait for the EEE PC 901. However, when Asus decided not to sell the Asus EEE PC 901 locally, I finally decided to just get the EEE PC 1000H.
The 1000H is a pretty good netbook by itself. But I’m a sucker for the small and cute and, to me, it’s a just a little bit on the bulky and heavy side. But I was fine with it until the 900HA came along.
The 900HA has almost everything the 1000H has 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB RAM, and a hard disk drive. And all this comes in a smaller, better looking package. It is almost the same size and look as the original 7-inch display EEE PCs. Notable exception would be the glossy lid and the re-laid out keyboard.
Of course you lose something in the downsizing: 9-inch display instead of 10 inches, regular sound instead of Dolby, and a smaller keyboard. It’s also got flimsy, and cheap power and touchpad buttons. So it’s not really for everyone. But for me, it sure is so I pulled the trigger on it :D
My sister, Elwyna, noted that we have five notebooks in the house. And three of them are mine. Crazy huh? Hehe.
Defender Of The Ancients
I have belatedly discovered Defender of the Ancients or, as it is more commonly called, DOTA. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would know that it is a scenario map of Warcraft III. In the scenario map, you and the other players play heroes against each other. To aid in this pursuit, you have available weapons, armor, potions, and other items that enhance you abilities. Sort of like a It’s like a role-playing game in a nutshell.
Previously, I’ve only been playing Starcraft as that’s about the only good game I can play on my old IBM Thinkpad X22. However, when I got my Asus EEE PC, I found out I can actually play Warcraft III, and consequently DOTA, reasonably well. So now, after almost 5 years I’m finally playing it.
Better late than never.
Asus EEE PC 1000H 2GB Memory Upgrade
Two months and a big price drop later, I have finally upgraded the memory of my Asus EEE PC 1000H from the 1GB it came with to the full 2GB. It was pretty straightforward unlike in some other netbooks. First, you’ll need to buy a full 2GB DDR2-667 SODIMM as there is only one memory slot on the machine and it’s occupied by the old memory module. Unplug the adapter, remove the battery, and unscrew the access panel at the back and lift it up gently to reveal the expansion bay. Take out the old module by releasing the tabs on the sides of the module and gently lifting the module up and then out of the slot. Put in the new module by inserting the connector edge into the slot, pressing it in then pressing it down until the tabs click into place. Replace the access panel, the battery, and plug in the adapter. That’s it!
Asus EEE PC 1000H
After a lot of dilly-dallying, I finally pulled the trigger on the Asus EEE PC 1000H. As I mentioned on my comparison, it seemed to me that it is the best of the current crop of netbooks.
The Asus EEE PC 1000H is definitely bigger than your typical netbook. But it brings with it a bigger display, keyboard (majorly sucky wrongly-placed itsy bitsy right shift key), and battery. Although these lead to less portability, these definitely improved usability and coupled with the bigger memory and disk space brings it up almost to the level of ultraportable notebooks but without the hefty price tag. The sleek black case even reminds me of the Fujitsu P7020 that I was lusting for a long time ago.
It booted up straight out of the box and, with the input of some personalization and localization information, was almost ready for use.
The wired network worked fine. It let me get my wireless network’s security details which I then keyed in, unplugged the network cable and I was wireless in a snap.
The 80gb hard disk provides a comfortable amount of space but is partitioned in two. Not very flexible. So merged the two with the freely downloadable EASEUS Partition Manager. As with most netbooks (and some ultraportables), there is no built-in optical drive. So I had to use my USB to SATA/IDE adapter to copy my backup files from my external drive and install software from their CD installers.
And that was it. It seemed snappy with Firefox 3.0, Yahoo! Messenger, Open Office 3.0 beta 2, and Eclipse. Movies and music played smoothly with VLC. I’ll also be running Tomcat and MySQL servers but maybe after a 1Gb memory upgrade.