Main main computer is a MacBook Pro. I love it, but even though it is a laptop it is unfortunately quite tied down to my desk. I have two monitors plugged into it, a firewire hard drive and both USB ports are filled. When I need to go portable, I have to unhook all that stuff, which is sometimes more hassle than its worth.
Additionally, the MacBook Pro is just a bit too big and heavy to be as portable as I might like. It’s only about 5 pounds, but that starts to add up after a while.
And lastly, sometimes I just want to use a computer outside my office, but I don’t want to leave my expensive MacBook Pro lying around the house.
The solution was obviously another, smaller laptop. While I was pondering this, as luck would have it, someone on Craigslist posted that they were selling their 2-week old Asus Eee PC 1000HD (a Best Buy model) because it didn’t have a web cam. I didn’t need a web cam, so I picked it up for a mere $280, which is $100 less than a new one would cost.
The Asus only weights about 3 pounds. It has a 10″ screen and is shiny black. I dare say it is cute!
I immediately upgraded it to 2GB RAM, which I happened to have lying around from my upgrading my MacBook Pro to 6GB RAM.
Asus seems to have several different 1000HD models with varying specs. This one has a 900Mhz Celeron (not the 1.6Ghz Atom), a 120GB hard drive and Windows XP Home installed. I’m more comfortable with Windows than I am in Linux, so that is fine with me. But Apple really should make one of these little “netbooks”. I’d love to have OS X in this form factor. They’d just need to take their current 13″ MacBook, which is $999, drop the CD-ROM, shrink the screen, lower the CPU speed, decrease the RAM and bam!, you have a $799 Apple “netbook”.
It’s not a speedy machine, but for surfing, writing, e-mail and the occasional REALbasic use it is more than adequate. It actually is so small and light that I’ve started ripping my DVDs to movie files that I can play on it. It makes a great movie player!
The battery life is so-so. It gets about 3 hours or so, which is less than my MacBook Pro gets. Larger capacity batteries are available but they add height and weight to the laptop.
Windows XP Home networks just fine with OS X, so I’ve had no trouble moving files between my two systems.
All in all, I highly recommend this little guy as a backup computer. It’s neat!
Update (12/16): Included HD specs
One Response to “Using an Asus Eee PC as a 2nd computer”
I just got a Dell Winders Vista replacement for my development desktop. While I was buying that Dell offered me a Mini 9 for about $300 so I couldn’t pass it up. It has 1G RAM and comes with Ubuntu. I can’t wait for it to arrive. I’ll let you know my impressions of it.
Take care,
Kevin