A lot of folks (myself included) have pointed out that you can get an Acer Aspire One laptop with 1GB of RAM and an 8GB SSD for $20 less than the cheapest Dell Inspiron Mini 9. But Kevin Tofel of jkOnTheRun makes an interesting point - the Dell netbook may include a faster SSD module.

It appears that Dell is using a solid state disk from STEC which is capable of up to 85 MBps read speeds and 25 MBps write speeds, which means that it should be 2-3 times faster than the SSD in the Acer Aspire One.

Kevin also makes an educated guess that the SSD is a PCI Express card which could be easily upgraded. While Dell is only offering 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB options, STEC also makes a 32GB module which means Dell could release a system with a additional storage capacity later.

Does this mean the Dell Inspiron Mini is really a better deal than the Acer Aspire One? That depends on your needs — and on how the netbook performs in real world tests. Until I see someone post some benchmarks or perform some side by side comparisons, I’m withholding judgment. But the news is promising.

One of the goals of early low cost ultraportable laptop makers (like the OLPC Project and Asus) was to make computers that are both cheap and durable. The cheap side was pretty easy. By using older components like an Intel Celeron chip, Asus was able to keep the price of the original Eee PC fairly low. Newer models use the Intel Atom chip which is specifically designed to be both low cost and low power.

But durability comes at a cost. Many laptop makers have decided to use solid state disks in lieu of traditional hard drives. SSDs have no moving parts and are therefore less likely to break if you bump or drop your computer. But solid state disks are pricy, and so Asus, HP, Acer, and other companies that have offered liliputers with SSDs have typically used low capacity disks with just 2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB/20GB or at most 40GB of storage. And despite the fact that some solid state disks offer serious a performance boost over hard drives, many of these cheaper disks do not.

Now it looks like Samsung is targeting the low cost PC market with a new SSD designed to offer decent performance at a low price. According to a press release, Samsung officials say the company has refined its manufacturing techniques to make it easier to produce the new disks at a lower cost.

The low desnsity chip uses an SATA II controller and is capable of read speeds up to 90MB/s and write speeds of between 25MB/s and 70MB/s depending on which model you get. The chips will be available in 8GB, 16G, and 32GB capacities. These disks are most likely designed for computer makers to preinstall in systems rather than for direct sale to consumers. But if you want to upgrade your existing HDD or SSD, I’m guessing chips will wind up on eBay at some point in the not too distant future.

[via jkkmobile]

Asus has been shipping Eee PC units with solid state disks since day one. But by disks, I mean little flash memory modules that you can slot into various connectors on an Eee PC motherboard. Now DigiTimes reports that Asus is working on adding standard SSDs with SATA interfaces to its Eee PC line. In other words, the same type of solid state disk used in more expensive laptop computers. The advantage for Asus is that more and more companies are starting to offer SSDs as alternatives to hard drives, which is driving down the cost. And that could eventually make it cheaper for Asus to purchase standard solid state disks. Right now, they typically cost much more than the flash memory available in an Eee PC or other low-end netbook. The advantage for consumers is that it could be much easier to upgrade the SSD or HDD on an Eee PC in the future if Asus decides to go this route. Because all you’ll need to do is pick up an off the shelf component, make sure it fits in the space Asus has carved out in the case for it, and snap it into a standard SATA connector.

If you thought adding a Bluetooth module to the Acer Aspire One was cool, how about practically squaring the amount of storage available? Tnkgirl is back with part two in her Aspire One hacking series, and this time she’s replaced the solid state disk with a 60GB hard drive.

But wait, you might be asking, aren’t SSDs sturdier and faster than HDDs? Yes and no. On the one hand, there are no moving parts in SSDs, which makes them more durable and drop-resistant than hard drives. On the other hand, the particule SSD module included in the Acer Aspire One is kind of pokey, which means that most commercially available 1.8″ hard disks (like the type used in iPods) will give you better performance. And it turns out that there’s just enough room inside the Acer Aspire One case to cram a 1.8″ disc in there.

Acer does sell a hard drive version of the Aspire One. But Tnkgrl points out that the hard drive used in that model is a 2.5″ standard laptop drive, which adds weight to the notebook and requires a slightly larger case. By modifying the SSD version instead of paying for the HDD version, you get a lighter weight laptop with similar specs.

You can check out the video after the jump.

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Intel has announced a new, tinier version of its Z-P230 SSD designed for netbooks and low profile desktop computers. The new card weighs just 8 grams, making it noticeably lighter than the original Z-P230 that was announced just a few months ago. The older model weighs a whopping 11 grams.

The SSD comes in 4G and 8GB flavors, with a 16GB version coming soon. But it’s important to keep in mind that the Z-P230 is designed for low-cost mini-laptops in two ways. First, it’s a tiny disk that fits well in cramped spaces.

But it’s also a cheap disk, designed to help keep costs down for netbook makers. And low cost often means low performance. The new Z-P230 is basically the same as the disk used in the Acer Aspire One laptop, and many users have reported that the read and write speeds are slow enough to bog down system performance on that computer, especially if you install Windows XP.

[via PC World, jkkmobile, and jkOnTheRun]

Eee PC 900 running OS X

While the Asus Eee PC line only officially supports Linux and Windows, people have been finding ways to load OS X onto the diminutive laptops for ages. But if you care about little things like performance, here’s a tip: You might want to pick up an Eee PC 1000H instead of an Eee PC 901 if you want to run OS X.

MacEee reports that the 901 is just too slow to run the Mac operating system. The problem isn’t with the CPU. The two computers actually have identical processors. Rather, the Eee PC 901’s solid state disk just isn’t fast enough to keep up with the demands OS X places on it. The Eee PC 901 actually has two solid state disks, a 4GB disk for the operating system and a second, larger disk for programs and files. The 4GB disk is pretty zippy, but the secondary disk not so much. And according to MacEee that second drive makes OS X kind of sluggish. OK, that’s an understatement. It reportedly takes 7 minutes to boot OS X on the Eee PC 901.

The solution? Pick up an Eee PC 1000H. It comes with an 80GB hard drive, and happens to be about $50 cheaper than the 901 anyway.

While I would never actually condone installing OS X on unsupported software (which is a violation of Apple’s licensing agreement), you can find a ton of information on how to do it at the Eee PC OS X Project wiki.

While we’re hearing rumors that HP is already working on its next generation Mini-Note computer, the company has yet to make any official announcements. So we don’t know for certain if the next HP subnotebook will have a larger screen, faster processor, or different type of storage. But it’s a safe bet that it will have at least one or two of the three.

In an interview with PC World, HP’s Phil Devlin said the company is also thinking about adding a touchscreen display. When HP sends Mini-Notes to clients using the computers in educational settings, he says they often come back with fingerprints. That would seem to indicate that people, or kids at least, want to put their fingers on the screen. So why not make sure the screen responds when you do that?

Devlin says the company isn’t committed to touchsreens yet, but he says it is something HP is considering. HP is also thinking about using high capacity solid state disks in lieu of hard drives. Right now HP offers one HP 2133 Mini-Note model with a 4GB SSD. But higher capacity SSDs (think 32GB or 64GB) cost a lot more money and it’s more cost-effective to put a 120GB hard drive in a PC than a 32GB SSD. On the other hand, SSDs have no moving parts which makes them durable and typically much faster than hard drives. And those are features that can be valuable in educational markets.

Buffalo Inc is set to release new solid state disks designed for the Asus Eee PC in September. The PCI Express SSDs will come in 32GB and 64GB varieties and are designed to work with the Eee PC 900 and Eee PC 901.

Computer importer Conics is already accepting preorders. You can pick up a 32GB unit for $156.36, or a 64GB disk for twice the price. Orders are expected to ship in mid-September.

[via jkkmobile]

Solid state disks are kind of the next big thing, right? They have no moving parts, like hard drives, and are both more durable and offer potentially faster read and write speeds than hard drives. Sure, they’re far more expensive at the moment, but prices are coming down. And as Asus, Acer, and others have shown, if you’re marketing a laptop as cheap, ultraportable, and durable, you can get away with using low capacity flash disks.

But what if you want the best of both worlds: a fast, durable solid state disk with a high storage capacity? Then it looks like you’d better stick with Windows XP or Linux for your operating system. CNet reports that SanDisk officials are saying that Vista isn’t optimized for solid state disks — and the current generation of solid state disks aren’t optimized for Vista.

SanDisk is working on higher capacity, faster solid state disks. But because Microsoft has effectively told PC makers to stop installing Windows XP (with an exception for low end laptops like the Asus Eee PC the MSI Wind), SanDisk expects that most next generation computers will be running Windows Vista. And Vista doesn’t perform well with SSDs, so SanDisk has to design workarounds to cater to Vista’s demands instead of vice versa. For that reason, SanDisk is behind schedule in developing 128GB and 256GB solid state disks.

[via Small-Laptops]

The Acer Aspire One may be one of the cheapest ultraportable laptops around, with prices starting at just $379. But it’s also one of the slower laptops on the market. The folks at the Acer Aspire One User forums have discovered the hard way that the SSD or solid state disk used by the Aspire One A110 has a slow read speed. That means that while the laptop offers decent performance with Linpus Linux Lite, Windows XP is pretty sluggish.

So what do you do if you’ve already dropped $400 on a laptop and don’t feel like trading up for another model? Disconnect the SSD, buy a speedy CompactFlash card and get a CF to ZIF adapter to throw into your laptop. At least that’s what forum member andy53 did.

He picked up a Transcend 300x CF card, which has aread speed of 44MB/s and a write speed of 22MB/s. That’s a bit faster than the read/write speeds you’d get from an Eee PC 900 and nearly twice the read speed and 4 times the write speed of the internal SSD that ships with the Acer Aspire One.

[via jkkmobile]

Well, there are two answers to that question. First, they don’t have an Eee PC 1000 on hand at the moment. And second, they threw a blazing fast Samsung SATA II 64GB SSD in the Eee PC 1000H. The Samsung disk is significantly faster (And more expensive) than the SSD modules Asus includes in its computers. For comparison’s sake, Laptop compared read/write times, boot times, and application launch times on a stock Eee PC 1000H, an upgraded Eee PC 1000H, and an Eee PC 901 which basically has the same components as the 1000 series, including a SSD. But the 901 has a smaller screen.

Not surprisingly, the upgraded Eee PC 1000H blew the others out of the water… most of the time. In some tests (like Windows XP boot speed), it performed pretty much the same as the Eee PC 901. And in most, but not all application launch tests, it finished ahead of the competition. What’s interesting is just how much slower the Eee PC 1000H with its hard drive is in some tests than either the upgraded model or the 901. It takes 7 seconds longer to boot MS Word 2007, 4 seconds longer to start Adobe Reader, and 3 seconds longer to start Firefox 3.

It’s also noteworthy that the Eee PC 1000H with the SSD got about 20 minutes of additional battery life, but still crapped out about 40 minutes earlier than the Eee PC 901, which got about 5.5 hours on a single charge.

For anyone keeping track, Laptop Magazine performed a similar experimentwith the MSI Wind notebook a few weeks ago. But the SSD used in that test wasn’t as fancy as the Samsung SATA II and the tests weren’t as exhaustive. The conclusion at the time? SSD isn’t always better than HDD. The conclusion now? You get what you pay for.

Ever since Asus decided to slap 4GB of solid state memory in the original Eee PC, mobile computer makers have been struggling with a choice: hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state disk (SSD)?

Chip maker Intel and flash memory maker SanDisk have separately announced plans to develop solid state disks for use in low-cost subnotebooks.

For the most part, the Eee PC 900 is identical to the Eee PC 700 series, except it has a larger, higher resolution screen and more memory, right? Well, there are a few other significant differences under the hood. For example, Asus packed two solid state disks into every Eee PC 900. There’s a 4GB SSD for the operating system and program files, and an 8GB or 16GB SSD for extra storage (the 8GB disk comes with the Windows XP version, while you get a 16GB disk if you buy the Linux model).

Not happy with the 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 12GB, or 20GB of solid state memory that came with your Eee PC? It turns out that you can upgrade it — if you have a really steady hand, a lot of patience, and a soldering iron. Hoschi at Eee PC.de managed to upgrade his 4GB unit to 16GB.