MSI Wind

[hyptix]

First off, Hi guys haven't been around for a while and have come back with a new screename!

So I have just bought an MSI wind, I chose it as it has the most normal keyboard and toucpad on a netbook and so far everything is very snappy. The build quality is great and is a great deal better than my 701.

I'll just outline a couple of things for you guys:

Battery: Very impressive managed to squeeze out 7 hours with underclocking but with wifi on aswell as a 3g data stick. Not so impressive with normal clock with brightness on full.

Screen and looks: the netbook itself looks amazing and has great build quality with a glossy lid and sturdy hinge, kind of opens like a macbook. The screen is a good size and is visible in all light. Also has bluetooth out of the box which I thought was a neat feature.

My only gripes with the machine is that the networking cards do not play nice with backtrack 3 does anyone know a good wifi card I could swap into this

If anyone has anymore questions about the netbook just fire away. For performance check Darren's blog post about his aspire one it has the same specs more or less bar the good networking!

-Hyptix-

[stingwray]

I was so tempted by the MSI wind, but in the end, the greater price than the AAO, MSI's crap supply chain over in the UK and no sign of any 6 cell batteries for a while, plus MSI's decision to keep changing parts to cheaper worse alternatives put me off. They changed the touchpad driver and I heard rumors that the 6 cell battery was going down from 5200mAh to 4400mAh.

You'll have a few people disagree about the keyboard being 'normal', it fits in a nice little rectangle, which I don't see the point, the cursor keys can stick down a little further to give room for more keys, and from memory it doesn't have Page Up or Down, can you confirm this?

On the upside you can get 2GB of ram in there I believe, comes with Bluetooth and is easier to take apart than the AAO.

Still waiting for the one netbook to rule them all, other wise its so close to really care most of the time.

[Emeryth]

All I can say is "msi windzor for teh win!!11".

I'm also really fond of mine, despite the lack of packet injection (it's a brand new chipset, maybe somebody will come up with something) and having the 3-cell (smaller) battery.

In my opinion it looks much more professional than the EEE PC 1000 ;P

What I love is the community at http://msiwind.net people there come up with great tips, tutorials and hacks.

I'm also thinking about swapping out the wifi card for an atheros one, but that is not a priority for me.

[hyptix]

I had an idea today do you reckon I could use my asus eeepc 701 wifi card in the wind?

[Esqulax]

@ stingwray: In PC World, the Advent 4211 == a Rebadged MSI Wind, and is about £250 ish.

And i love it!

@ Hyptix: i got this: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG beacuse it worked with ubuntu as is. and has limited monitor mode (i say limited, i havnt been able to sort it properly as of yet)

If your after an atheros, have a look at GN-WI01GT, although i dont know about monitor mode on it.

Fitting it is really straightforward,, if you want me to post a quick tutorial, just say the word ;)

[stingwray]

I know about the Advent and theres a Medion version as well, but they all have slightly different specs. The advent is £280 at the moment but has been £250 before.

Is the eee701 a PCIe card though? I thought everything was on the mainboard on the 701?

[hyptix]

@Esqulax would be awesome if you could post the tut.

@stingwray I think I can take it out. I'm pretty sure its PCI-e but I'll have to check was just wandering if anyone had already tried

[moonlit]

The wifi card in the 701 is indeed a miniPCIe card and in all but the very early models it occupies the only miniPCIe slot which has a connector soldered to it, the second slot has no connector.