The Technicist

Windows 7 on the Mini 1000!

I installed the latest build (Build 6956) of Windows 7 Ultimate onto my HP Mini 1000 test unit, just to see how well the next-gen Windows platform would work on the low-on-computing-power netbooks. I was pretty impressed actually - installation took under an hour, and most of the hardware drivers were found by the OS itself, so nearly everything relevant - gpu, wifi, touchpad, audio - worked. Unfortunately, the stuff that didn't have built in drivers - webcam, touchpad enhancements, etc - didn't have immediately obvious fixes for them either. HP's driver website was absolutely no help, as the only non-working thing they had drivers for was the Synaptics touchpad enhancements, and the installer didn't have a Win7-compatible profile, so no go there. Thankfully, the only thing I lose by sticking to the generic touchpad driver is the side scroll area, so its ok. Arrow keys are more precise anyways. I'll probably look harder for working drivers and such tomorrow/later today.

In actual use, its actually pretty smooth. Granted, with decent hardware, Windows 7 would likely run significantly better, but from what I can see, it doesn't have much of an increase in sysreqs from Vista. The base memory footprint has stayed the same as before, at roughly 600MB (so its usually taking 60-70% of the netbook's memory), and the CPU idle speed of the Atom processor is in the teens, with spikes up to 55% periodically. Not so great, but again, looking at the hardware I've got, I can't expect much better. Interestingly, I managed to keep music playing in the background while browsing the web and didn't notice a big slowdown from what I am used to in XP. This is a very good sign. However, due to the higher CPU idle speed and greater use of memory, I'd expect the battery life to sink from the already mediocre 2.6 hours to right around 1.8 or 2 hours of runtime.

Lastly, I know I've forgotten pics, but my camera has run out of battery, so I've left it for charge. I'll get pics up when I wake up (sometime in the afternoon, probably) and I'll probably get an install guide written to post as well. I've got another project up my sleeve, too...it involves the letters O, S, and X. We'll see if I can get Apple's vaunted OS X Leopard booting on the Mini. We know its been done on the Wind many times, but I really want to try to get it working on the Mini, since its a better overall netbook in my opinion.

UPDATE: I know, its not the afternoon anymore, but pics are pics nonetheless. Click after the break to view them.

HP dv4t shows up on HP's website!

The hotly anticipated HP Pavilion dv4t has shown up on HP's website here, though it is not immediately obvious where to find it on the HP Shopping site. The 14.1" dv4t replaces the venerable dv2000 line of notebooks, with the dv2500 and dv2700 updates along the way for the Santa Rosa platform and Penryn line of processors respectively.

The dv4t shares its style with the dv5z notebook released by HP earlier this month, and features some nice options that were not available in the dv2x00 line. While there is still no higher resolution than the standard 1280 x 800 WXGA available (other competing 14" notebooks like the Dell Inspiron 1420 have 1440x900 WXGA+ screens optional), there is an optional LED backlit panel option for a steep $200, and the completely flat Infinity glass-paneled screen as a $50 add-on. It features, as expected, the Intel Montevina platform, featuring Penryn-based processors ranging from the 2.0GHz P7350 to the 2.8GHz T9600 and the Intel PRO 5100 wireless card. The choices in graphics are the Intel GMA X4500 IGP or the Nvidia 9200M GS dedicated graphics card (+ $100). This is somewhat dissapointing, as the 9200M is expected to provide similar performance to the 8400M GS found in the previous dv2500t and dv2700t, and with Nvidia's recent struggles with both Windows Vista drivers and failure of mobile graphics cards, whether it is advisable to go with an Nvidia card at this time is very questionable. I would have liked to see a more powerful midrange graphics card like the ATI HD 3450 (available in the dv5z and rumoured to be optional in the dv5t as well) instead of the low-end Nvidia part. Rounding out the dv4t are optional Verizon mobile broadband, Bluetooth, a fingerprint reader, an available Bluray ROM drive for $199, a 6 cell battery (higher capacity 6 cell with 20% more battery life is a $29 option), and everyone's favorite Windows Vista operating system in either Home Premium (32 or 64bit), Business (32bit), or Ultimate (64bit) flavours.

Dimensionally, the dv4t remains very similar to the dv2700 that it replaces. The footprint stays nearly identical, with the same width and length increasing by .12". The thinnest point of the notebook goes from 1.05" in the dv2700t to 1.34" in the dv4t; however, the thickest point remains almost unchanged at 1.57" (vs 1.54" in the dv2700t), so it just is a much flatter notebook that doesn't slope down as much as the dv2000 did. Port-wise, the dv4t is much better than its predecessor, with 3 dedicated USB ports, an eSATA port (which doubles as a 4th USB port), and an HDMI port. However, it looses the IEEE 1394 port, though that is worth giving up for the additional USBs you gain, not to mention the eSATA port (for comparison, the dv2700t had 2 USB, one IEE1394, and a VGA).

Overall, the dv4t looks like a very worthy successor to the much loved dv2000 series of notebooks. It starts at $999, and should be shipping in early August.