MSI Wind Picture Thread (beware big pics!)

[az]

Nowhere: A shop I quite like is computeruniverse.net. Not quite the cheapest, but good service and reasonable prices. Alternate has a very good reputation, but isn't very cheap. I could also buy something and send it to you from csv.de. They also have a webshop, csv-direct.de, but their service isn't that great, I think.

Reichelt Elektronik have some computer parts (and OK prices) as well and are spectacularly cheap when it comes to cables and electronics stuff like ICs, resistors, etc. Service and reliability are good.

For prices I mostly check http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/.

[Mehen]

If I had the choice to get a new laptop now - I'd give the ASUS 1000 a try.

[Nowhere]

Main problem with German webshops is that I don't know about any good/reputable ones (well, except amazon.de ), hassle with over-the-border paymants (thanks to certain peculiarities of most PL banks (I have to change that one...)) and shipment and I don't even know how to actually find good deals (any German search engines specialising in this?), webbased or at normal retails shops.

And yeah, frustrating thing about Dell, especially when MURC links to those great deals they have (especially because...they actually have a laptop factory here for some time now )

[az]

Well, for webshops, if you aren't sure, you can always PM me (well, not always... )

Strange that Dell isn't readily available in Poland. I'd have thought they try to be everywhere.

[Nowhere]

Dells aren't even available at retail here, only for companies. Which makes them rather ovepriced and not really a good deal as is the case in most places (yeah, T61 14" is quite a bit cheaper plus more to my liking (except size...))

Oh well, I might just as well start doing such shopping in Germany (I'll be living just next to the border soon)...unfortunatelly I neglected to look after my German speaking skills over the years, so I wouldn't feel comfortable at retail outlets, webshops or German "best deal" search pages

[az]

Nowhere: Have a look at the Dell Vostro 1310. It's the same form factor as a MacBook, and can be had from <500 EUR. It's one of their business models, and maybe you can't order it over their website, but you can order it via phone.

[Nowhere]

So, how is it so far?

And yes, I'm asking because the answer might be usefull to me

Because during coming months I'll be a bit more "homeless" than usually , so I'm not sure if I should just get a 14" T61 Thinkpad (smallest new "normal" laptop I could afford at this point) or...one of those netbooks, with them beeing much more mobile/etc. But in the latter case it would have to be one on the cheaper side, so probably Asus 900A...otoh Wind U90 (new 8,9" model, identical otherwise) might also have ok price here (yeah, local distributors are rather important factor), but much better keyboard...

Too bad none of them have trackpoint
(oh, and it seems like Eee is most popular after all, so there's possibility that 3rd party/larger betteries will be much cheaper...meh :/ )

[Mehen]

ill try something source-based right now. edit: ixnay that - msiwind.net forums says it crashes

[Nowhere]

Apparently intel 950 can do dx 9.0, though vertex shaders/TnL are in software.

HL2/Source games? (apart from low details/resolution/etc., forcing dx 8.0 path did wonders on slow dx9 chip here)

[Mehen]

Counter-Strike Condition Zero runs fine, d3d, 800x600. I wonder if I can get it to do 1024x600. So any Half-life 1 based game will be fine.

Gonna try Quake3, installed it, but haven't tried it yet.

APPARENTLY... FEAR works... *cough.... and Far Cry...

[Nowhere]

Remember about "fit to width" function in Opera

Also @lighter software - Abiword adn Gnumeric (or even LyX + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamer_(LaTeX) for presentations) is definatelly lighter alternative to OpenOffice. And SMPlayer (based on mplayer) has ridiculously low cpu utilisation when playing video files.

Yeah, I guess I didn't really notice that those minilaptops start to be more powerfull than my main PC (otoh - lighter software gives more battery time?)

BTW, if you're trying more games, you'll tell us what is the most visually impressive game that'll run, right?

[Mehen]

I would imagine it would run.

I have EVERY snes and nes game. (4x DVDs for the SNES and 1 DVD for the NES). Thank god for the 80gb HDD instead of those measley SSD's in other mini laptops. Msiwind.net says snes and nes emulators run fine. I hope I can get my 2 logitech playstation2 style controllers working on it. That'll be great for my trip to BC.

[Evildead666]

See if you can get MAME to run on it
Arcade Glory

[Mehen]

Phew - just installed a bazillion windows updates, opera, open office, media player classic, some codecs.

And gl-Quake - which it runs flawlessly
Installing Quake3 now.
Apparently it works perfectly with all nes, snes, and n64 roms too

[Mehen]

Close up of the power adapter. This thing is tiny:


The Wind, again with the 7-UP and a Logitech G5 for scale. Glossy finish:


The battery:


Where the battery goes, just slides in nice and easy:


And here it is opened up, and on top of my keyboard so you can see the size difference. It is only slightly smaller: