Considering purchase of UMPC... need some buying advice

[Birchlabs]

Hey all. It's my first post here, so go easy on me if I'm asking in the wrong forum or something. :)

My friend is considering buying a UMPC for word processing and light gaming. He's got a spending limit of about £250, and wants to know what system he could get that would be able to run low-spec games such as Starcraft, Unreal Tournament Classic (although ideally 2004) and Teeworlds. His ideal OS to run would be Ubuntu (running the aforementioned games through WiNE) or Xubuntu, if that'd run faster.

He's adamant on getting an Eee PC 700 (http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0947865716.121209132 9@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceeadeefdhdggmcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=501232&category_oid=) (I think it's 700? Has a 7" display?), mainly for portability and price reasons. However, I'm convinced that an MSI Wind (http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/13/msi-wind-gets-official-pricing-and-availability-for-the-us-399/) would be a better investment.

Comparison:

Price... MSI: $399, ASUS: £219
RAM... MSI: 1GB, ASUS: 512 MB
Screen... MSI: 10", ASUS: 7"
Battery... MSI: 2.5 hours, ASUS: 1.5 hours
Processor... MSI: Atom, ASUS: Celeron
Hard drive... MSI: 80 GB, ASUS: 4GB

Could be that the ASUS's hard drive is SSD, and we might have to pay tax importing the MSI, but besides that the MSI Wind wins in every single respect. The Wind's not out yet, and I'm not sure if it will even ship to the UK, but we can afford to wait until about September before making the purchase. My friend is still interested in the ASUS because it's smaller, and portability is a prime concern for him (of course, the MSI's superior battery power is pretty relevant in this respect). To seal the deal, I need to know the answers to some of these questions...

1. Would the ASUS be able to run Starcraft in WiNE, and play Teeworlds? If it can handle those, then that's the main need fulfilled. Would also be nice to run something as intensive as UT2004 (I've seen it done on an Eee PC, but that was in Windows XP).
2. What would be the ideal Linux distro to install on this? (We don't want to shell out extra for XP)? Presumably it's preinstalled with Xandros for a reason, but we're more comfortable on Ubuntu. Would we lose any speed running Ubuntu on it instead? And could we gain any of this back by using Xubuntu (I hear it's a bit more lightweight)?
3. Will I have to jump through any hoops to get Compiz-Fusion running well on the ASUS? I've seen it run fine on YouTube, but I might be missing something here.
4. Which laptop would you recommend, and why?

Thanks in advance! :)

[madjr]

there are a bunch coming in the next months.

like the new dell mini inspiron
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=811964

the new asus with atom will ship soon.

about UT2004, i don't know. But the other 2 games will run fine.

these mini laps don't have that much graphic power.

i know you could run quake 3 arena (or all the cool linux derivatives on them, since quake 3 is open source), the original UT, etc.

you should try this yourself on old pc and integrated 3d and see if it runs.

xubuntu is lightweight or use LXE for gnome.

if you into gaming get one with a big enough HD

[klange]

The eee uses an Intel graphics chipset in the i915 family. I've never had good experiences in Wine myself on my i915, but it'll do Compiz right off the bat (heck, you'd probably be better off with compositing on such a slow CPU...)

[Birchlabs]

Hm, so it sounds like the Eee should be up to the task. That's good, since it's cheaper (if you factor in import tax and shipping costs) and available already in the UK. But I think I'll need to overclock it. Seems to be a common thing on YouTube to overclock that laptop, since it comes factory underclocked.

He'll be very happy playing Quake 3 (or one of its cool Linux derivatives), thanks for the suggestion. :)

As for the HD, we're thinking of using his iPod as an external HD for it to carry all the games. I've seen it done; works well, even though loading times are appalling (he'll be doing most of the gaming on holiday, though, so he can afford to wait a while).

I've seen this model of Eee PC run UT2004 at a brilliant framerate in Windows. There seems to be a Linux version of it, too, so that's looking pretty possible.

Thanks for the help!

[intense.ego]

Hey all. It's my first post here, so go easy on me if I'm asking in the wrong forum or something. :)

My friend is considering buying a UMPC for word processing and light gaming. He's got a spending limit of about £250, and wants to know what system he could get that would be able to run low-spec games such as Starcraft, Unreal Tournament Classic (although ideally 2004) and Teeworlds. His ideal OS to run would be Ubuntu (running the aforementioned games through WiNE) or Xubuntu, if that'd run faster.

He's adamant on getting an Eee PC 700 (http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0947865716.121209132 9@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceeadeefdhdggmcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=501232&category_oid=) (I think it's 700? Has a 7" display?), mainly for portability and price reasons. However, I'm convinced that an MSI Wind (http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/13/msi-wind-gets-official-pricing-and-availability-for-the-us-399/) would be a better investment.

Comparison:

Price... MSI: $399, ASUS: £219
RAM... MSI: 1GB, ASUS: 512 MB
Screen... MSI: 10", ASUS: 7"
Battery... MSI: 2.5 hours, ASUS: 1.5 hours
Processor... MSI: Atom, ASUS: Celeron
Hard drive... MSI: 80 GB, ASUS: 4GB

Could be that the ASUS's hard drive is SSD, and we might have to pay tax importing the MSI, but besides that the MSI Wind wins in every single respect. The Wind's not out yet, and I'm not sure if it will even ship to the UK, but we can afford to wait until about September before making the purchase. My friend is still interested in the ASUS because it's smaller, and portability is a prime concern for him (of course, the MSI's superior battery power is pretty relevant in this respect). To seal the deal, I need to know the answers to some of these questions...

1. Would the ASUS be able to run Starcraft in WiNE, and play Teeworlds? If it can handle those, then that's the main need fulfilled. Would also be nice to run something as intensive as UT2004 (I've seen it done on an Eee PC, but that was in Windows XP).
2. What would be the ideal Linux distro to install on this? (We don't want to shell out extra for XP)? Presumably it's preinstalled with Xandros for a reason, but we're more comfortable on Ubuntu. Would we lose any speed running Ubuntu on it instead? And could we gain any of this back by using Xubuntu (I hear it's a bit more lightweight)?
3. Will I have to jump through any hoops to get Compiz-Fusion running well on the ASUS? I've seen it run fine on YouTube, but I might be missing something here.
4. Which laptop would you recommend, and why?

Thanks in advance! :)

The $399 version of the MSI wind has SUSE installed by default and only has 512mb of RAM (you stated it has 1gb but your source says 512mb).

I personally prefer the MSI because

1) it has a bigger screen
2) it has more processor power3
3) bigger hard drive (though not solid state it is 20x as much capacity)
4) better battery life
5) (in my opinion) better looks

The only thing the ASUS seems to have in its favour is its head start.

[Birchlabs]

Ah, turns out the MSI is just upgradeable to 1GB. I read that spec from a different article to the one I linked. Yeah, I still think MSI is the right way to go, but apparently we don't have as long a deadline as I'd hoped; he wants to use the laptop for gaming while on holiday next month, rather than waiting until school starts again to use it for work. Guess this means the only option available to us is the ASUS. :(

[madjr]

whta about 1 of the regular refurbished/used 14" laptops for the price?

unless he needs something a lot more portable?

[Birchlabs]

As good an idea as that is, my friend's reluctant to use a 10" screen. 14" would be far too big for him. he also seems pretty stubbornly set on buying an Eee, so I don't think there's any merit in suggesting anything else. :/