[TriLUG] Eee performance, configurations

[Tom Roche]

Tom Roche Thursday, March 27, 2008 12:21:27 PM
 >> * I'm wondering if it makes sense to get a 4G instead of a 2G: one
 >>   could get an additional 2G thumbdrive ~$20 instead of paying the
 >>   $50 delta (2G->4G),

Turns out there are several differences between the 4G Surf and 2G
Surf, not to mention between the 2G Surf and 4G (not-Surf). Per

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC#Specifications

"Surf" ~= {no camera, less battery capacity/life} and there is no 2G
not-Surf. In addition, both the 4G and 4G Surf come with a faster CPU
(though it seems it's the same chip at a higher clock) and faster
RAM. Furthermore the RAM is soldered in the 2G Surf, while the
socketed RAM in the 4G is upgradable to 2 GB.

 >>   but perhaps the installed drive space is much more performant?

My impression is, it's not (e.g. booting from a USB stick is not
significantly slower than booting from the internal SSD), but I'd
appreciate hard data anyone might have.

Maxwell Spangler Sun Mar 30 01:52:27 EDT 2008
 > So my suggestion to [jonesjc:] use add another 256M to stop swapping
 > and give it more breathing room.  If you could, go to 1G so it'll
 > use the disc cache instead of a slow, dated hard drive.  Given all
 > that, we have to realize that there is a cycle with software and
 > hardware.

True that. I'm wondering: given that the Eee's drive is flash (which
presumably is The Next Big Thing in portable/consumer storage), will
the swap penalty be lessened?

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche at pobox.com>