Breaking Wind - bit-tech.net Forums

Bindibadgi · 5th Jul 2008, 00:07

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...reaking-wind/1

As is now something of a tradition for sub-notebooks that come to bit-tech; we crack out the screwdrivers and dive inside MSI's Wind to see how it's done and what's mod-able in this little laptop.

teamtd11 · 5th Jul 2008, 00:23

wow thats a late release, going to read it now.

Edit: Nice bit of late night reading. looks live a very well put together little thing.

Oclocker · 5th Jul 2008, 01:29

oooh interesting.. but ya vandal any one who's been modding for a wee whilee (say 20 + years) can open anything and reassemble with warranty seals intact

Seriously it looks far better in a technical way than an eeepc IMHO. external looks a dead heat ! Acer Aspire (blue) best looker by miles so hopefully you get one to strip (send it north & I'll strip it take pics - warranty seals intact gteed)F course due to trade secrets act nevr able to return it

Tile · 5th Jul 2008, 08:54

Deleted

|V| 4 L k i 3 R · 5th Jul 2008, 09:33

Can we get a look at the opamps for audio? Would be a nice treat to upgrade the line out for the plane rides.

wuyanxu · 5th Jul 2008, 09:43

2GB RAM and replace HDD with SDD when price is right (up replace it with a 250GB). sounds like a perfect laptop compared to EEE's limited disk space

DougEdey · 5th Jul 2008, 09:44

*titter*

deeem119 · 5th Jul 2008, 10:05

Any chance of finding out which WLAN chipset is used?

ChriX · 5th Jul 2008, 10:16

All of these seem to be getting further and further away from what made the EEE 701 good, it's price. It would be nice to see someone attempt to better the 701 at the same price rather than just upping the spec and price and getting closer to conventional laptops.

Bindibadgi · 5th Jul 2008, 11:22

The whole point about sub-notebooks is that they are not conventional notebooks.

You can't have it both ways - it's either cheap or feature loaded. People complained the 701 wasn't enough - LCD size/hard drive etc, now they complain it's too expensive.

ChriX · 5th Jul 2008, 13:03

My only complaint with my 701 was the dead pixel smack bang in the middle of the screen - if it wasn't for that it'd still be with me today. It was cheap so I don't expect features a-plenty, I'm just happy that it was cheap.

Therefore I think it would be nice to see some competition at the same price point, rather than just moving up.

Oclocker · 5th Jul 2008, 13:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChriX

All of these seem to be getting further and further away from what made the EEE 701 good, it's price. It would be nice to see someone attempt to better the 701 at the same price rather than just upping the spec and price and getting closer to conventional laptops.

the Acer aspire 1 @199 quid upps spec a lot and cheaper - makes eee pc 701 look like the pile of tosh it is IMHO.

B3CK · 5th Jul 2008, 19:25

Any chance of getting info on what the maximum ram supported is? Say if I want to run linux with gobbles of ram?

Bindibadgi · 5th Jul 2008, 22:28

I'd guess the single DDR2 SO-DIMM size supported is 2GB if my memory on the 945 chipset serves correctly, so you'll max it out with 3. Why do you need so much?

Nigel - we've asked for an Acer One

slugbug · 5th Jul 2008, 22:30

Nice thread title

Imothep · 6th Jul 2008, 11:13

Hi, I Have a Medion Akoya Mini (OEM Version of the MSI Wind). I just looked at the board, it is nearly the same! Even MS-No.111 Rev.1.0 is written at the back of the mainboard!
It doesn´t have the onboard RAM and Bluetooth is missing.
But as you can see http://scr3.golem.de/?d=0807/Medion-Test&a=60827&s=1 I hope the only thing that´s missing is the connector. So i want to know which Bluetooth Device is build in the MSI Wind, so I can buy the same. If I have enough time I will try to solder it in

Dr. Strangelove · 6th Jul 2008, 11:17

Did I miss it or is the picture of the Atom CPU missing? or does everyone know what they look like and find it boring? Oh and whats under that shiny piece of metal that sits between the south bridge and the memory slot? hehe I'm a curious type of guy....

Anyway nice little article, I like it when you dismantle things like this!

Oclocker · 6th Jul 2008, 11:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imothep

Hi, I Have a Medion Akoya Mini (OEM Version of the MSI Wind). I just looked at the board, it is nearly the same! Even MS-No.111 Rev.1.0 is written at the back of the mainboard!
It doesn´t have the onboard RAM and Bluetooth is missing.
But as you can see http://scr3.golem.de/?d=0807/Medion-Test&a=60827&s=1 I hope the only thing that´s missing is the connector. So i want to know which Bluetooth Device is build in the MSI Wind, so I can buy the same. If I have enough time I will try to solder it in

you seen those tiny usb bluetooth dongles only protude around a cm max?
ok robs a usb port but zero risk?

Bindibadgi · 6th Jul 2008, 11:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove

Did I miss it or is the picture of the Atom CPU missing? or does everyone know what they look like and find it boring? Oh and whats under that shiny piece of metal that sits between the south bridge and the memory slot? hehe I'm a curious type of guy....

Anyway nice little article, I like it when you dismantle things like this!

The northbridge and CPU are under the metal heatspreader

I thought everyone knew what they look like

So to do: Pics of Atom and northbridge.

Disassemble the wireless (might require soldering iron)

and OpAMPs

Solinx · 6th Jul 2008, 13:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

I'd guess the single DDR2 SO-DIMM size supported is 2GB if my memory on the 945 chipset serves correctly, so you'll max it out with 3.

The max total ram is 2GB. If you get the model with 1GB soldered, you can add only 1 more GB in the empty slot.
Source: User experiences from forums.msiwind.net

Quote:

Originally Posted by deeem119

Any chance of finding out which WLAN chipset is used?

Quote:

Chip: RTL8187SE ( http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/p...n=4&ProdID=172 )
Hardware ID: VEN_10EC&DEV_8199&SUBSYS_68941462&REV_22

Source: http://forums.msiwind.net/mac-f32/wlan-thread-t813.html

Good luck with your mods

5th Jul 2008, 00:07	#1
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,231	Breaking Wind http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...reaking-wind/1 As is now something of a tradition for sub-notebooks that come to bit-tech; we crack out the screwdrivers and dive inside MSI's Wind to see how it's done and what's mod-able in this little laptop. __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

5th Jul 2008, 00:23	#2
teamtd11 I am a Dremel Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Saltburn-By-The-Sea Posts: 1,645	wow thats a late release, going to read it now. Edit: Nice bit of late night reading. looks live a very well put together little thing. __________________ Main: AMD X2 3ghz, x1900xt, DFI NF590SLI, 4gb pc2-8500 [Watercooled] Retro: AMD Barton 2ghz, 9600xt, 512mb pc-2700 Animal Crossing: LGTTC - 2492-7863-6464 Member of CK Appreciation Society Group

5th Jul 2008, 01:29	#3
Oclocker I Mod, Therefore I Own Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: N E Scotland Posts: 3,116	oooh interesting.. but ya vandal any one who's been modding for a wee whilee (say 20 + years) can open anything and reassemble with warranty seals intact Seriously it looks far better in a technical way than an eeepc IMHO. external looks a dead heat ! Acer Aspire (blue) best looker by miles so hopefully you get one to strip (send it north & I'll strip it take pics - warranty seals intact gteed)F course due to trade secrets act nevr able to return it __________________ e-mail njc123@gmail.com msn same

5th Jul 2008, 08:54	#4
Tile Banned Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 376	Deleted Last edited by Tile; 3rd Nov 2008 at 01:09.

5th Jul 2008, 09:33	#5
\|V\| 4 L k i 3 R Supermodder Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Iraq Posts: 252	Can we get a look at the opamps for audio? Would be a nice treat to upgrade the line out for the plane rides. __________________ {Asus A8N-SLI32}{Athlon64 3200}{2GB Mushkin PC3200} {XFX GeForce 6800GT PCI-E}{36Gb Raptor}{Lian Li PC-7}

5th Jul 2008, 09:43	#6
wuyanxu quad fuelled, GTX200 powered Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: in a room near Soton Uni. UK Posts: 3,938	2GB RAM and replace HDD with SDD when price is right (up replace it with a 250GB). sounds like a perfect laptop compared to EEE's limited disk space __________________ Death to consolification !!!Core i7 860 @ 4Ghz Cooled by Corsair H50 // Asus P7P55D Deluxe // 8GB of Corsair Dominators @ 1528Mhz 8-8-8-24 // BFG gtx260+ OC2 MaxCore 216SP 896MB // Samsung 64GB SSD // WD Raptor 74GB + Black 1TB + Green 1TB // Corsair Hx620w // Antec p182 // Samsung 24" T240

5th Jul 2008, 09:44	#7
DougEdey I pwn all your storage Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Southampton Posts: 13,933	titter __________________ Burnout: Paradise Stats!XBL: DougEdey Bindi PSN ID: DougEdey Twitter

5th Jul 2008, 10:05	#8
deeem119 What's a Dremel? Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 12	Any chance of finding out which WLAN chipset is used?

5th Jul 2008, 10:16	#9
ChriX ^ Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: North Cornwall, UK Posts: 2,588	All of these seem to be getting further and further away from what made the EEE 701 good, it's price. It would be nice to see someone attempt to better the 701 at the same price rather than just upping the spec and price and getting closer to conventional laptops.

5th Jul 2008, 11:22	#10
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,231	The whole point about sub-notebooks is that they are not conventional notebooks. You can't have it both ways - it's either cheap or feature loaded. People complained the 701 wasn't enough - LCD size/hard drive etc, now they complain it's too expensive. __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

5th Jul 2008, 13:03	#11
ChriX ^ Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: North Cornwall, UK Posts: 2,588	My only complaint with my 701 was the dead pixel smack bang in the middle of the screen - if it wasn't for that it'd still be with me today. It was cheap so I don't expect features a-plenty, I'm just happy that it was cheap. Therefore I think it would be nice to see some competition at the same price point, rather than just moving up.

5th Jul 2008, 19:25	#13
B3CK Supermodder Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Dallas, Texas Posts: 349	Any chance of getting info on what the maximum ram supported is? Say if I want to run linux with gobbles of ram? __________________ "God loves stupid people, that is why he made so many of them." My best friend at M$ Tech support.

5th Jul 2008, 22:28	#14
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,231	I'd guess the single DDR2 SO-DIMM size supported is 2GB if my memory on the 945 chipset serves correctly, so you'll max it out with 3. Why do you need so much? Nigel - we've asked for an Acer One __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

5th Jul 2008, 22:30	#15
slugbug Going Broke Saving Money Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 96	Nice thread title

6th Jul 2008, 11:13	#16
Imothep What's a Dremel? Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 1	Hi, I Have a Medion Akoya Mini (OEM Version of the MSI Wind). I just looked at the board, it is nearly the same! Even MS-No.111 Rev.1.0 is written at the back of the mainboard! It doesn´t have the onboard RAM and Bluetooth is missing. But as you can see http://scr3.golem.de/?d=0807/Medion-Test&a=60827&s=1 I hope the only thing that´s missing is the connector. So i want to know which Bluetooth Device is build in the MSI Wind, so I can buy the same. If I have enough time I will try to solder it in

6th Jul 2008, 11:17	#17
Dr. Strangelove Supermodder Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Dundee Posts: 306	Did I miss it or is the picture of the Atom CPU missing? or does everyone know what they look like and find it boring? Oh and whats under that shiny piece of metal that sits between the south bridge and the memory slot? hehe I'm a curious type of guy.... Anyway nice little article, I like it when you dismantle things like this! __________________ If it isn’t broken, fix it. If it is broken, mod it till it looks like it's meant to be broken.