Unboxing the Asus 701 (Eee)
W-Eee :) I’m now officially one of the coolest kids on the block! I’m typing this post on my Asus 701 (Eee)…
I’ve quietly been keeping an eye on the Eee since it was announced a few months ago. After all, who’s not interested in a $399 ultra-portable sub-notebook?
Not to mention, it’s a particularly interesting device if, like me, you’re a blogger on-the-go, especially with the built-in webcam.
After using it for less than 24 hours I’m pretty impressed, and so are others, apparently. The keyboard is surprisingly good. The screen is nice (albeit a bit small).
The trackpad is not that great – perhaps it’s just my Eee but it’s behaving erratically at the lowest and highest settings. I’m not too concerned, since I’m planning to mod my Eee extensively in the coming weeks/months – I’ll take a look at the trackpad then.
First on the agenda is to remove the warranty seal and upgrade the memory from 512 MB to 1GB! Then, I’m planning to add internal USB Bluetooth & HSDPA, and look at increasing built-in storage…
There’s an unused mini PCIe slot intended for an SSD that’s just begging to be used :)
So keep coming back, and enjoy my unboxing pictures for now, including a size comparison with the Apple iPhone and the OQO Model 02.
tnkgrl Mobile: Tech that Matters 
YES! If you have one that means there will be a lot of well documented mods :) Looks like there is more than enough space for an HSDPA Aerial in the screen part.
Jealous. I can’t wait to see what Frankensteinian surgery you perform on it!!
Awesome! I’ve been looking forward to getting one of those! I sense a trip to the store in the immediate future. Nice pictures too!
What an affordable price! I love it. Nice post!
Do you have the exact dimensions of the Eee? I even visited their site and it does not mention it anywhere.
can you use the firefox browser that comes with it to go to http://www.logmein.com and take control of a pc remotely?
Cracking post. May I ask, what you plan to do with the Eee pad? Can you switch them at all?
I love the idea of lower-price laptops, not only do they make the market available to entry-level users, but the price may encorage more modders and hackers into the arena.
What do you think?
Graham
Also, congradulations on the top posts feature!
Graham
how does it like an operating system? does it like compiz-beryl. tell you the truth, as macbook look-alikes go, i like the dell range better
where are these computers made? I’m from the U.S. and I have never heard of them but they seem pretty nice.
Great Ideas for Upgrades… but prepare to kiss your battery life Goodbye!
I guess a car power adapter might help, but that would turn it into a fossil fuel guzzling 3000 lb semi-portable.
3002 lbs with eee PC
How do you plan to add internal storage to the device? I’m thinking about getting one and putting ubuntu on it, however I’d really want something around 16gb, 32gb or more if possible. The SSD is sodered directly to the main board, and googling I haven’t found any mini pci-e storage devices. Also you should know that it supports up to 2gb of RAM, however the OS will only use 1gb. If you put XP, or another linux distro on there you can use all 2gigs.
Hey there! Great post…I just bit the bullet and ordered a nice black Eee for myself. I called in and the company swore they’d have it to me by mid-next week. I have also taken the liberty of buying a nice USB hub, and a very small Bluetooth dongle to get an internal hub going.
I’ve been poring over the chipset info from Intel, as well as taking looks at some Eee disassemblies, and it doesn’t seem like there’s an internal USB interface one could tap into. I’m currently looking at the possibility of there being some way to tap into the Intel GMA 900 chipset (including the ICH6-M Southbridge), but I’m not finding any open USB traces.
Here are the links to the Chipset/Southbridge, respectively:
Click to access 30526402.pdf
Click to access 30147302.pdf
I’ll look over these some more this weekend and post here with anything I find.
I’ve got it! The Webcam! It uses the last of the 4 hard-lined USB traces (the other 3 being the external ports), and is connected via a set of wires that can easily be tapped into! When looking at the top of the motherboard, you can see a very easy 4-pin connection just to the top-left of the processor that’s labelled “Camera.”
If you tap into this, using the lead-in connection for a hub, you can send a USB connection back up to the webcam using one of the hub’s ports. This would create 3 extra USB ports for your modding pleasure, while keeping the functionality of all 3 external ports! :D
Let me know what you think…
Please continue to update us all. As a short story writer I am personally very interested in this machine. Let us know how your upgrades go and if you are able to do them yourself.
Call ignorant but I didnt see a disc drive anywhere is there one? If not how do you install the bundled disc?