Gaming/3D Performance
As this model is running Windows, let's investigate what this system is capable of, and try to find something a little more entertaining than Tux Racer.
3Dmark 2001SE
We had to dig through the mothballs to get this out, but given the speed of the CPU, we had to go back this far to get something that would run smoothly.
The results look less than stellar, but the framerates themselves weren't bad. 640x480 is not a supported video mode, and crashed partway through.
Ah, that's why it's unsupported.
Low detail
High detail
3Dmark 2003
What does this tell us? Not much, other than this benchmark is already getting outside of the Eee's reach. Glancing at the laptop while running this would usually look something like the following image.
Ouch…
So we've seen a couple of synthetic benchmarks, but what about real games? There are many games the Eee will "run", a.k.a. it will start and progress at a snail's pace, but we wanted to focus on games that run well and will be fun to play on the Eee.
Unreal Tournament
No, we're not talking about UT2003, 2004, or UT:3, but the original from November 1999. This title is still fun to play, and ran flawlessly at the native resolution of 800 x 480.
This was roughly a 90-second battle with bots enabled, and should represent average gameplay. Framerates were smooth with no issues.
Diablo II
Released in June 2000, Diablo II was a fantastic sequel that nearly everyone played. Initial installation of this game didn't look good, as it produced the following screen after the video test.
Attempting to run the game anyway generated a crash. A little digging online revealed that adding the -w switch to the executable (windowed mode) solves the problem.
800x600 works fine for this game; you'll just need to center the window. 800x480 results in not being able to press the necessary buttons to proceed in the game. Framerates hovered around 25-30 FPS in town, but may drop in large battles or with lots of magic onscreen.
American McGee's Alice
Alice is a fun game released in October 2000 and based on the Quake III Arena engine. (Interesting side note: a film adaptation is due for release this summer.)
Not quite fullscreen.
Tests were run at 640x480, which ran well but not fullscreen (it stays anchored to the left side). The average framerate is a little low here. The game is generally playable, but unless we can increase the framerate, it's probably not enjoyable long term.
The general conclusion when it comes to gaming: look for titles from about 2001 and earlier, and you should be able to find a plethora of games that will run well and are still exciting and fun to play. Who knows, you might get re-hooked on an old classic, or discover a new one. You could also look into some of the emulation options to open up a large library of titles that won't quickly fill up the limited storage capacity.
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cputeq - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - link
Because....he didn't install it?regnez - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
That looked like an IE6 icon on the desktop. If that is true and this computer ships with IE6, shame on Asus.johnsonx - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
IE6 is what comes with Windows XP SP2. From what I've seen, it is NOT standard practice for PC vendors to install IE7. Perhaps it should be, but it isn't so far.JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
I haven't installed XP lately (been doing more in the way of Vista installs), but I'm pretty sure XP SP2 doesn't include IE7. Should ASUS install all the current Windows Updates? Probably. But it wouldn't shock me if they didn't. At least SP3 should be out soon....Matt Campbell - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
It is, indeed, IE6.strikeback03 - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
43/68 don't seem too bad for idle and load temps. That's around what my T43 runs with the 1.86GHz Sonoma if I'm getting the load number from batch processing files in Photoshop CS2.Baked - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
You trimmed down the toolbars in IE, but you didn't hide the windows taskbar. Do that and you'll get another line of extra space for your browsing experience.ChronoReverse - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
They could even press F11 and get full screen mode.Zap - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - link
F11 full screen still forces a status bar. IE can be configured to take as little screen space as F11 full screen mode by reducing the toolbar buttons and placing them on the same bar as the file/edit drop down menus. Then, disable the status bar and hide the Start menu bar. Voila!grgraphics - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
I would be interested to see some benchmarks comparing XP vs Linux on the EEE.1. Boot time
2. Web browser performance
3. Battery life
4. Video playback