Brian's Brain

This blog post references my feature article 'Solid-State Drives Challenge Hard Disks' in EDN's November 13, 2008 edition. It's one of a series of web addendums to the print writeup.

A bit over a month ago, I told you that for travel purposes, I was considering replacing my workhorse first-generation Apple MacBook with a newer, lighter and more compact descendant...and that instead of going with a MacBook Air, I was planning on hacking a MSI Wind netbook (now down to $350, and soon to $300?) to run OS X.

When I got home from WinHEC two Fridays ago, the final pieces of the Hackintosh puzzle were awaiting me. Here's a closeup of the OS X-cognizant IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi module (a Dell TrueMobile 1490) that I got off Ebay:

A 1 GByte SoDIMM (which originally came with my Dell XPS M1330) will populate the MSI Wind's now-empty second memory slot, bumping the total system memory allocation up to 2 GBytes (the most the Wind will accept). I happen to have two SoDIMMs on hand, so the image below shows both the front- and back-side:

Synaptics came through with a touchpad to replace the lame Sentelic one that MSI's now shipping with the Wind. Actually, Synaptics sent me several touchpads, so again the image below shows both the front- and back-side:

I ordered a (bulky but capacity-robust) 9-cell battery off Ebay to supplement the (wimpy) 3-cell battery that came standard with the Wind:

A Samsung 64 GByte SSD (the same one showcased in my hands-on project published last Thursday) will improve the Wind's ruggedness, (read) access performance and power consumption versus the 5400 RPM HDD which the Wind shipped with, although storage capacity will, and (write) access performance may, degrade as a result of the storage migration.

And a custom 'lid' sticker from Skinit completes the transformation:

Although I still plan to proceed with my Hackintosh experiment, I've had a change of heart regarding the travel system. As you can probably imagine, I do a lot of text entry while I'm on the road. Although my fingers are fairly svelte, and although the Wind's keyboard is generously apportioned compared to many other netbooks, I've still found the typing experience (not to mention the 10" LCD) to be more cramped than I'd prefer for extended-use purposes. As a result, late last month I revisited my prior MacBook Air fixation, which has become much more palatable than in the (recent past) due to three key factors:

• A substantial drop in the resale prices of first-generation systems on Ebay, courtesy of Apple's unveiling of second-generation systems a month back.
• A 10%-off (up to $100) coupon offered by PayPal, and
• Microsoft's ongoing Cashback promotion, which supplies a 25% rebate on Ebay purchases (up to $200 per transaction) found via Live Search results

Behold the mint-condition result, which will end up costing me just slightly over $800 once the Microsoft rebate hits my bank account in a bit over a month, and which I'm showing already swathed in a slick, inexpensive clear plastic case):

Not bad, considering the original $1799 MSRP on the unit, and that this particular one also came with the $29 USB Ethernet adapter, eh? This particular system still had five months' worth of the original 1 year AppleCare warranty on it and, after I decided I was going to keep it, I bought a two-year AppleCare warranty extension package off Ebay. Ebay also delivered me a brand new SuperDrive and a travel power supply...all were candidates for 25% Cashback rebates. Here's a picture of it with an iSkin keyboard protector installed:

which I heartily recommend to you all. I'd also like to get protection for the MacBook Air's palm rest areas, as the aluminum tends to discolor over time, so I'm going to see if Rasfox will send me one of their silicone skins for review.

I'm quite happy with the new system, in spite of the fact that it doesn't include the advanced Nvidia-supplied graphics or Intel-supplied 45nm Penryn CPU of second-generation MacBook Airs. Its dual-core CPU is actually more feature-advanced (albeit clock speed-deficient) than the one in my MacBook (and functionally compatible to the one in my XPS M1330); a 65 nm-fabricated 1.6 GHz Merom model, versus the MacBook's 2 GHz Yonah CPU. The single USB port is a bit of a bummer, as is the lack of a Firewire port; I've circumvented the former issue by means of a Belkin 4-port USB hub (I'm also using the company's neoprene sleeve), and the latter limitation will probably keep the MacBook in my long-term possession for use in HDV camcorder tethering situations.

With that said, application launch performance (especially under virtualized Windows XP) is fairly underwhelming, primarily a function of the system's battery-friendly but molasses-slow Samsung 4,200 RPM 1.8" HDD. As such, take a look at what I've gotten my hands on courtesy of the fine folks at DV Nation:

Am I going to be able to do the SSD-for-HDD exchange without voiding the terms of the AppleCare warranty extension I just bought? Dunno; stay tuned as I figure out if I can manage the disassembly, swap and reassembly without leaving traces that'd tip off Apple to the surgery. Until then, take a look at AnandTech's impressions after undertaking the same procedure I'm contemplating.

One other grumble about the system, in closing...although I have no trouble tethering it to my Windows Mobile Smartphone via a Bluetooth PAN connection, the resultant Internet connectivity is so slow (a few kbps, best case, and sometimes nothing at all) as to be unusable. Bluetooth PAN works fine with the exact same phone on my OS 10.4-based MacBook, and widespread Apple support forum complaints concur there's something amiss with OS 10.5's Broadcom Bluetooth transceivers' drivers. Pragmatically, Apple's probably got little motivation to fix the problem right now since partner AT&T doesn't offer a phone-as-modem data plan for the iPhone, anyway. AT&T executive comments suggest that a tethering option's enroute, though, and I therefore hope that currently-in-beta OS 10.5.6 will fix this annoying flaw.