Moding a MSI Wind

I like the MSI Wind and am thinking of getting it as a super laptop.

But if I was i would like to do a few things to it.

2GB RAM (if it can support 3GB great) what ram is recomended.

a bigger HD. I sould not find what the power consumption of the 80GB is but I would like to have a bigger one (like 320GB) what is recomended (if nothing works I will go external but would prefer not to)

and put in Vista, should it be Basic 32bit or Premium 32bit or Ultimate 32bit. I read the artical from NBR doing this and I liked what happened. The CPU shoiuld not be a problem because the x300 Lenovo can run Ultimate with a 1.2GHz

And a general question is the SD card reader SDHC?

 

WD 3200BEKT 7200rpm is power efficient and very fast.
Hitachi 5K320 is a good 5400rpm/320GB that is power efficient.

You could also get a OCZ Core SSD. 64GB for $288. Even faster than the 7200rpm.

Stick with Basic. The X300 has a Core 2 Duo CPU, the Wind has an Atom CPU. The X300 is way faster.

 

Great stuff. I like the Hitachi 5K320
I would prefer 5400 rpm. Is the original disk a Hitachi? Because i would like to keep with the same maker.
the SSD is a bit spendy

Forgot the atom is not the same as a Core 2 Duo.

Any ideas about Ram and if it can hold 3GB?

 

I would personally put Home Premium on there because the Wind has a GMA950 which supports Aero. Basic doesn't come with Aero and is geared more towards very low-end laptops that have 512MB ram or a GMA900 or less (like the Eee PC). It would be nice if ASUS did use the GMA 950 in their Eee because it does make a big difference.

-J.B.

 

to me Aero does not really matter because i have vista premium right now and I have it set to look like XP. I go more for preformance (battery life) than for looks.

I just do not prefer Aero.

Wich would get better battery life Basic or Premium?
What RAM and how much can be used (3GB nice)
Can I get a custom skin for the lid (like what Sager offers)? I can live with out it but I do not want to sand it and all the rest. No patents and not enough skill on my part (I dont even paint my own airplane models there all grey!)
And I like the media software I have right now (mediamonkey)

 

Original is a 5400rpm WD 80GB. But I do not recommend the WD320GB 5400rpm because it's power hungry.

By the way, I do not see any point in keeping the same maker but do as you like ofcourse.

 

I have the Seagate 5400.4 250GB in mine, and I am very happy with it so far, I have found it a little quieter than the original WD harddrive, and have not noticed any decline in battery life.

As for your other concerns, first, it will only support 2GB of ram, so don't waste your money on a 2GB dimm.

Second, many people I know run Vista Home Premium with no issues, but it is single core, so it will only run 32 bit.

Third, it does indeed support SDHC.

It only comes in 3 colours right now, black, pink, and white. But you can get custom skins for the lid, when mine comes in I'll let you know how it works.

Anything else you want to know, feel free to shoot me a pm.

Cheers!

 

Ok sweet
now I am excited

 

WD320GB 5400rpm/7200rpm are not power hungary at all. Normally read/write is within 2.5W which is comparable with any uptodate HDDs available. I bought one USB WD320, found it cool (cooler than any of my 2.5" USB HDD I owned) to run and fast file transfer and then bought another USB WD320 and a bare WD320 for my XPS M1330.

 

Wind can run vista 64 bit, it has nothing to do with dual core or single core. You have to have a 64 bit comaptible processor and I belive that the Atom is that. But I cant see the point with vista 64 on a wind... but you should be able to install it.

I belive that you prob could turn off anything in vista ultimate that vista basic dosent have so the performance could be the same.

 

Wind only sees total 2Gb RAM max. Put more in and it wont boot up.

 

I am probible going to go with the Basic 32bit. Is there any benifit to going to the vista premium 32bit besides the media player?

recomendations on what RAM to use would also be nice.

If I am to get a skin for the lid how would it attach? Whould it be an adhesive? And if it is adhesive wouldn't it have problems on the edges because there cruved?

 

Pretty much any ram you use that is 1GB should work, I used Corsair PC5300 in mine, because I have used their value select ram before and been very happy with it.

The stickers, or skins, for the lid attach by adhesive that is removable, I have never used it before, but they have gotten good reviews on this site, just search for "schtickers." And I got a custom size for mine that doesn't go all the way to the edge, just to where it starts to curve, but the cover is black, and the sticker background is black, so it should work out okay.

Cheers!

 

If I were you I would go with Home Premium, because really Basic doesn't look like Vista Ultimate or Home Premium with the Glass effect turned off... it looks like a crapier than XP skin. :S At least for me I would rather run XP than Vista Basic. Just my $0.02 though...

As for RAM, any 667 Mhz 5300 200 pin would work. I suggest Corsair or Crucial.

Hope this helps!

 

Is it better to have 2 1GB sticks or 1 2Gb stick.

I know 1 2GB stick is lighter but that is not something I am considering. lol

 

In the MSI Wind's case it can't handle 2 GB modules, so your only choice would be to buy a 1 GB version and add 1 more GB.

 

People. He has said repeatedly that he doesnt care for Aero and doesnt want to run it on his Wind. Geeze drop the Aero stuff already.

A buddy of mine has a wind with a 320gb WD 5400 RPM w/2gb RAM and is running Vista Basic. He absolutely LOVES it. He's always remarking about how well it does on battery.

Where in the WORLD did you get this? The amount of cores has nothing to do with its ability to run a 64bit OS.

 

Hitachi 5K320 5400rpm/320GB
2GB RAM (2 1GB sticks)
Vista Basic
6 cell battery
Black

 

In this case that is what it is. It cannot run 64 bit edition, people have tried.

 

Ok, that may very well be, but there's something else involved. 64bit OSes have run on single cores long before the dual cores were even thought of. ie-The original Athlon 64. I believe you when you say 64bit wont run, but theres something else causing the problem. Is the Atom even 64bit compatible? I havent done much in-depth research on it, so I'm not quite sure.

 

No, it is not 64 bit compatible. The desktop version, the N230 maybe, but I would bet the dual core N330 will be for sure.

 

Considering I'm on 64 bit right now on my single core proc......

 

Running a 64 bit only means that you have a cpu with atleast 64bit architecture.

But then on an MSI wind you wont be running any fancy CAD programs that might need a 64bit system so I see no advantage in having one.

 

I agree... since it really won't take advantage of 64, and since the Wind is limited to 2 GB... having 64 is not only overkill but kinda silly.

 

I'll get my MSI Wind in like 8days, which I'm looking forward too.
I will be adding some extra RAM (2gb total) and a larger harddisk. I'm not sure about the harddisk yet, but I would prefer a long battery life. So I'll have to find a harddisk that provides fairly battery life and as much disk space a possible.

Furthermore, I'll be getting an 6Cell battery when it's released.

 

Can you do a miny review with the new parts?

 

Well I do have an MSI Wind review with 2 GB of RAM installed located here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288005