Aside from a response to something GiantBomb related, I wanted to take today's update to express my elation to my latest endeavor.

I was looking to upgrade my laptop, an MSI Wind / Advent 4211 netbook. So far the thing had been doing well; 1.6ghz Intel Atom, 80gb HDD, 64mb internal graphics and 1gig of RAM.

As much as it was doing well, for the tasks I was using it for it was necessary to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows and so at 40gb partitions each it was beginning to be a bit of a squeeze; I couldn't really use it for managing my mp3 player, for instance. So yesterday I ventured out to Maplin, a hardware and electronics store. Not sure if it exists out with Scotland? Anyway, I was browsing through the "selection" - one 40gb 2.5 SATA for £40. To which I expressed a "hell no" and moved down the line, unveiling a Maxtor 320gb external HDD which was pretty much the size of a 2.5 hdd for a respectable £69.99. I looked at the casing and unfortunately it looked pretty solid, but I reckoned if worst happened then I'd just break open the case and take it out.

While there I also picked up another gig of ram for £5 and set on my way back. Got home, cracked open the laptop and put the ram in easily enough, and then somehow managed to open the shell of the external after about 30 mins of prying away, took out the 2.5 SATA 320, and replaced my 80gb with it, then proceeded to put my 80gb into the external -- and it actually worked.

So I now had saved myself a good deal of money, as well as getting an 80gb external hard drive out of it (which I'm actually running off just now 'til I get my OS discs USB-bootable -- the unfortunate downside to no DVD drive). So I was pretty pleased to say the least.

That is, until I had a little browse online today. New BIOS for the machine was released with safe 24% overclock option, and the ability to dedicate another 150+ megs of RAM for the graphics.

By the end of the proceedure today, I will have a triple booting (Windows, Mac O SX 10.5.6 and Ubuntu 8.10) netbook with 320gb hard drive space, 2 gigs of RAM, 2.00ghz Intel Atom and graphics settings which pick up as being 224mb internal (obviously not going to be anything like a 256 card but it'll play some nice classic Unreal Tournament!).

For those interested, the total cost for the laptop and this upgrade works out about £280. Not too bad at all in my books.

~ Lee

Aside from a response to something GiantBomb related, I wanted to take today's update to express my elation to my latest endeavor.

I was looking to upgrade my laptop, an MSI Wind / Advent 4211 netbook. So far the thing had been doing well; 1.6ghz Intel Atom, 80gb HDD, 64mb internal graphics and 1gig of RAM.

As much as it was doing well, for the tasks I was using it for it was necessary to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows and so at 40gb partitions each it was beginning to be a bit of a squeeze; I couldn't really use it for managing my mp3 player, for instance. So yesterday I ventured out to Maplin, a hardware and electronics store. Not sure if it exists out with Scotland? Anyway, I was browsing through the "selection" - one 40gb 2.5 SATA for £40. To which I expressed a "hell no" and moved down the line, unveiling a Maxtor 320gb external HDD which was pretty much the size of a 2.5 hdd for a respectable £69.99. I looked at the casing and unfortunately it looked pretty solid, but I reckoned if worst happened then I'd just break open the case and take it out.

While there I also picked up another gig of ram for £5 and set on my way back. Got home, cracked open the laptop and put the ram in easily enough, and then somehow managed to open the shell of the external after about 30 mins of prying away, took out the 2.5 SATA 320, and replaced my 80gb with it, then proceeded to put my 80gb into the external -- and it actually worked.

So I now had saved myself a good deal of money, as well as getting an 80gb external hard drive out of it (which I'm actually running off just now 'til I get my OS discs USB-bootable -- the unfortunate downside to no DVD drive). So I was pretty pleased to say the least.

That is, until I had a little browse online today. New BIOS for the machine was released with safe 24% overclock option, and the ability to dedicate another 150+ megs of RAM for the graphics.

By the end of the proceedure today, I will have a triple booting (Windows, Mac O SX 10.5.6 and Ubuntu 8.10) netbook with 320gb hard drive space, 2 gigs of RAM, 2.00ghz Intel Atom and graphics settings which pick up as being 224mb internal (obviously not going to be anything like a 256 card but it'll play some nice classic Unreal Tournament!).

For those interested, the total cost for the laptop and this upgrade works out about £280. Not too bad at all in my books.

~ Lee