Asus' Eee PC gets dissected

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. First the Eee PC gets reviewed, then it gets ripped apart, in this case by the always curious folks at TweakTown. While there's not too many surprises on the inside, TweakTown's organized destruction of the budget-friendly laptop is nothing if not thorough, including eight pages of pictures and descriptions of virtually every component. Like most others, they also seem to have been fairly impressed by the laptop as a whole, saying it is "perfectly positioned to prevail," although they admit it's "not for everyone." Check out a few more pics after the break, and hit up the read link below for the full blow-by-blow action.

[Via SlashGear]

[Tony @ Nov 1st 2007 9:50PM]

It's 'nothing if not thorough'? What?

[JohnTitor @ Nov 1st 2007 9:54PM]

translated to "it's thorough"

[Tony @ Nov 1st 2007 9:57PM]

From what I understand he says it's nothing.
Then he says if it's not nothing, it is thorough.

After some thought, I think he misused the phrase:
If it's not [blank], it's not [blank].
(ie. If it's not on the Internet, it doesn't exist!)

[insertAlias @ Nov 1st 2007 9:59PM]

It's just an expression. It meant that they were very thorough.
Back on topic...
I really want one of these. If some money happens to fall in my lap soon, I will defiantly buy one of these. I am actually on a business trip right now, and this would have been a *perfect* computer to take with me. I don't need my 15" laptop; I could get all my simple work done on this tiny little pc. BTW, does anyone know if this thing has a remote desktop client?

[daliminator2000 @ Nov 1st 2007 10:53PM]

Tony it's an idiom. It's exactly as JohnTitor says: it means "it's thorough." It's actually a pretty common phrase.

[Tony @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:57AM]

@Logic Master,

That is exactly what my grade school teachers taught me. I have no idea what everyone else is talking about when they say it simply means "it's thorough." If that were true, it would make much more sense to simply say it's thorough, than to mindlessly add "nothing" in there somehow.

Concerning it being an expression (idiom), I have already stated the proper way of using this expression. The writer did not use it properly.

[LordFarkward @ Nov 2nd 2007 6:07AM]

@ Logic Master

I'd like to see a truth table, please :)

Also, please deduce with logic as to why Tony's message, which was written after yours, is above yours, which was written (obviously) later. Thank you so very much.

[Marc @ Nov 3rd 2007 11:26AM]

The author didn't misuse the phrase -- do a search for "idiom 'nothing if not'" and you'll find plenty of examples, right back to Shakespeare.

The phrase "it's nothing if not thorough" means that the subject's "thorough-ness" is so central to its being, that were you to take away its thorough-ness, nothing would be left.

Just because computer languages developed over the course of decades are called languages doesn't mean that you can subject human-spoken and -written languages developed over millennia to the same binary, logic-gate tests.

[Ian Tullie @ Nov 4th 2007 5:10PM]

@LogicMaster and Tony
It's a phrase in English - you can't always break down language by sheer logic - ultimately, you have to learn that a word or a phrase means something without being able to logically deduce it. Language (and indeed human thought/culture) is nothing if not slightly illogical, and some people are nothing if not annoying when they try to disprove this. My tip - read more fiction and less O'Reilly manuals.

[Logic Master @ Nov 1st 2007 11:42PM]

Learn some logic. "It is nothing if not thorough" can be rewritten to say, "If it is not thorough, then it is nothing." The hypothesis of this if-then statement being the statement "it is not thorough." If it this is a true hypothesis (and we are to believe his statement is also true), then we would have to have that the conclusion, "it is nothing," is also true. But that is clearly ridiculous (a contradiction, if you will) because it IS SOMETHING, and hence cannot be nothing. Therefore the hypothesis must be false (And his if-then statement is still trivially true). The negation of his hypothesis (which we have argued is true) is that "it is thorough." Any questions or do you need me to make a truth table for it?

[Syliss @ Nov 1st 2007 10:04PM]

Gah, its ssd is 4 stupid chips, damn it, no upgrade of ssd, oh well. i hope its usb bootable. i hope someone can by pass that.

[Invisiblemoose @ Nov 1st 2007 10:05PM]

It's been confirmed USB bootable. :)

[futurepastnow @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:15AM]

It has to be USB bootable- there's no built in optical drive.

[JBrown @ Nov 1st 2007 10:19PM]

Hey, and if you want to test drive the Eee online to check out it's sweet interface, view: http://www.honeypothack.com/eee/internet.htm

-Josh

[craigsharp @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:27AM]

is it just me, or does every window have the silver XP theme to it? like when you click on internet and go to firefox, it has the Winblows XP theme to it...

[JBrown @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:27AM]

Yeah, they do look similar, but it's the real deal.

[anthony.lam @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:51PM]

is that ram i see? i thought they said it can't be upgraded...does that mean the ram could be upgraded now?

[D.L. @ Nov 1st 2007 11:06PM]

upgradeable RAM??

[futurepastnow @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:16AM]

Yep- one DDR2 SODIMM

[ryan @ Nov 1st 2007 11:09PM]

It looks to me like this is kinda what the foleo was shooting for...except it missed horribly.

[ryan @ Nov 1st 2007 11:24PM]

what missed? this or the foleo?

[ryan @ Nov 1st 2007 11:48PM]

to clarify for everyone:

1. the foleo missed
2. we are not the same ryan

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:03AM]

Too many "ryan"s all talking to each other!

[Ratteler @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:03AM]

So... what's the meanest processor this will take and will it run OS X?

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:06AM]

Oh, and before the Linux bashers get here... it looks really easy to use!

[linuxamp @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:13AM]

Holy closeups batman

[Phil @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:57AM]

I'm hoping lower power (and cheaper) displays come out soon that will allow Asus to give these machines 1200x800. That's when I'll buy a few dozen for our company's technicians (even at $399 each). 480 pixels of height just makes too many tasks too complicated, since most useful Linux (and Windows) programs and web sites are assuming at least 768 pixels high.

[Benson @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:01AM]

I agree that a lot of tasks aren't done well on WVGA (though “most” seems a little over-the-top), but WSVGA (1024x600) should be fine for practically all uses. I'm not too sure on the split keyboard (haven't used one), but the wibrain might come close? http://www.engadget.com/tag/wibrain/

[Kal-El @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:04AM]

I don't know about you guys, but the way this guy describes the innards of the Eee really, REALLY freaks me out.

[aoeu00 @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:11PM]

Hmm.. are you implying humans are next on his list? :)

[futurepastnow @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:18AM]

What I find interesting is that the fan is on the "wrong" side of the motherboard from the CPU. It doesn't look like it directly cools anything, it just circulates air around.

[xlandaux @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:56AM]

the fan sits right under the CPU.

[Valgas @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:49AM]

Can anyone buy some 8GB chips and use their home-mode surface mount soldering iron?

[Marko @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:35AM]

What I want to know, is can you fit a small (1.8 ipod classic type) hard drive in it!

[Jaywastaken @ Nov 3rd 2007 8:24PM]

Is it just me or does that interface remind anyone of a vetec? it really is far too childish and simple. I'm just waiting for the linux community to hack this thing to pieces and come up with a gui that wont make me feel like im playing with lego.

Give this 6 months to develop and I'll snap one or two up in a second.

Once the camera drivers are done, the 8gB drops to 299 and all the inevetable little niggles are worked out this thing will have a huge following.

[Magallanes @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:04PM]

It is... hummm robot pron!.

Anyways for the photo this device looks silent and lightweight.

[Marc @ Nov 3rd 2007 11:44AM]

Anyone know where to get one of these things in the US aside from mail order? CompUSA and BestBuy sites aren't bringing up any info.

[CAIN @ Dec 2nd 2007 1:49AM]

I got mine mail order from CDW. I haven't seen it in any stores, although I heard that Target, Micro Center, and Costco were supposed to start selling them but when, I don't know. I couldn't wait any longer.