Samsung NC10

Supercell

quarryman wrote: »

When Vista first came out I hated it and went back to XP. Then after SP1 was released I decided to give another try, I won't ever be going to XP now.

Yep, exactly the same here. I thought it would be nice to go back to XP but now realise that is a step back tbh

quarryman

smccarrick wrote: »

but what really kills Vista for me are the constant annoying popups asking me to I really want to do things, and the onerous security settings that are a bitch to play around with. XP might be a bit more buggy- and inherently less secure- but please, I'd love to strangle who ever decided to lock down Vista like that......

That is the first option I turn off after a new Vista install. Takes 10 seconds.

Supercell wrote:

Will report back once installed. I'll be using the smartboost feature of Vista, plus the extra memory should help too. Though i expect it to be a pig until the memory is upgraded..updates later today!

Vista benefits significantly from extra memory. It actually uses it intelligently by having as much program info in RAM as possible. People whine that Vista uses way more RAM when they check through Task Manager, it suppposed to use the RAM, that's what its there for!

More reading here.

Supercell

Hopefully the sandisk extreme 3 card will help too, so many deliveries next week I think!
Haven't had such nerdy fun in ages!

quarryman

Is that not an SD card? How does that help performance?

Supercell

quarryman wrote: »

Is that not an SD card? How does that help performance?

Going to be used for readyboost in the card slot, might as well use it for something and it seems to work well in these laptop from what i've read online.

Rsaeire

Supercell wrote: »

Will report back once installed. I'll be using the readyboost feature of Vista, plus the extra memory should help too. Though i expect it to be a pig until the memory is upgraded..updates later today!

Readyboost will only really benefit users with 512MB – 1GB of ram, and not those with more. The performance gains even with 512MB are negligible when compared to buying actual ram, and doing this, especially at the current low cost, will always be the better option. Save yourself the hassle and the system resources by turning the Readyboost function off.

quarryman

Just google Readyboost there, very interesting, at least for lower spec computers running Vista.

vibe666

got one for the missus for xmas and it's killing me that i have to wait to give it to her.

of course it's not wrapped yet and i'll have to install a few bits of software etc. (obviously) in the mean time just to make sure it's up to scratch.

i was going to try installing tinyxp on it (have usb cd drive) but didn't get around to it yet. anyone try it yet or anything similar? maybemicro 2003 might be a good move.

so, questions would be... vista home premium sp1 eh? does it really run okay on it?

2gb ram upgrade? worth it?

sandisk extreme sd card for readyboost really gonna make a speed difference?

anyone tried office 2007 on it? i'm finding it's working faster on my desktop pc at work than office 2003 did and i like the new interface (now i'm used to it) but would the sammy be up to the task or would it be better sticking to 2003?

tried to convince herself that openoffice on the old laptop is better than MS but she's not having it so i'll have to switch back to MS sooner or later and if it can handle 2007 i'll just go with that.

is there anything else cool i should know about?

i've stuck notebook hardware control on it but it's not stepping up/down the cpu like it does on my old dell d600 so maybe some of the pre-installed sammy software is getting in the way, or maybe it's just not 100% compatible with the atom? it's a shame too, the latest version seems to still be a beta and i'm not sure if they'restill developing for it. it was a great addition to my d600 and something i'd willingly have paid for for the pro version.

Supercell

Vista ultimate going on mine now as I'm writing this, should be able to report back in an hour or so once its installed and drivers etc configured.

Alanstrainor

Office 2007 works fine on my advent 4211, should work just as well on the samsung.

Rsaeire

vibe666 wrote: »

anyone tried office 2007 on it? i'm finding it's working faster on my desktop pc at work than office 2003 did and i like the new interface (now i'm used to it) but would the sammy be up to the task or would it be better sticking to 2003?

I installed parts of Office 2007 on my NC10, Word, Excel and Outlook, and it works fine.

vibe666

Rsaeire wrote: »

I installed parts of Office 2007 on my NC10, Word, Excel and Outlook, and it works fine.

thanks guys, that's pretty much all she'd be using anyway, so might lash it on there and see how it goes.

Supercell

Ok, Vista installed with no problems at all.
Only one gb ram installed but have to say its just fine, haven't really noticed any slowdown from XP at ALL.

Here's some pics..

Vista Ultimate installed ..


Overall Vista Experience score of 2.7..



Four windows open (Firefox twice, Irfanview, control panel ) , still ram to spare, however as I will be using photoshop withthis ocassionally will be installing the 2gb max once the chip arrives..



Aero works just fine..



If anyone wants more screencaps, happy to provide.
Definitely would recommend the Vista upgrade if you have a license for it.

quarryman

Thanks for that.

I rest my case

quarryman

Supercell; can you provide links to all the drivers you used and also a brief summary of the steps to install it?

vibe666

cool, might give vista a go so, thanks.

Supercell

quarryman wrote: »

Supercell; can you provide links to all the drivers you used and also a brief summary of the steps to install it?

Sure, was pretty simple really :-

1) Setup usb drive - XP didnt list the usb drive so had to do this on a Vista box
2) Set boot order on NC-10 to flash drive first - Just hit F2 on boot and move it to the top of the boot order screen
3) Boot off the flash drive, install goes surprisingly fast, remember to remove the usb drive when setup reboots the laptop or it'll just boot of the usb stick again and restart setup
4) Install drivers, I'd recommend installing the chipset drivers first.

I got the drivers from various places, to make matters easier for boards people interested in doing this, I've put them all into a zip file and am uploading it to rapidshare atm, will post the link when that completes the upload.

Supercell

I've uploaded the Vista drivers to rapidshare here.
Have fun !

vibe666

legend, thanks.

will give me something to do tonight ifi still can't get into playstation home.

smemon

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-Atom-330-D945GCLF2,6390.html

http://www.samsungb2b.co.kr/ProductInfo/ProductDetail.aspx?Pid=5704&rModel=NC11

Dual Core Atoms ready and rumors of an NC11 with vista pre-installed. I'll be holding off until the new year to see how this pans out.

NC10's are already in short supply so i'd imagine they'll be taking out a new line in the not so distant future to cash in on this netbook craze

Rsaeire

smemon wrote: »

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-Atom-330-D945GCLF2,6390.html

http://www.samsungb2b.co.kr/ProductInfo/ProductDetail.aspx?Pid=5704&rModel=NC11

Dual Core Atoms ready and rumors of an NC11 with vista pre-installed. I'll be holding off until the new year to see how this pans out.

NC10's are already in short supply so i'd imagine they'll be taking out a new line in the not so distant future to cash in on this netbook craze

I wouldn't hold my breath on the dual-core Atom, as it is more power hungry, obviously, and gives less than stellar performance considering its dual-core nature.

Supercell

Interestingly Vista shows two processors, is this hyperthreading or something?

The_Conductor

Supercell wrote: »

Interestingly Vista shows two processors, is this hyperthreading or something?

Yes- its a chip level rather than the operating system though. Its a technology that was in the original Pentium 4s, which they've brought back to life again. Apparently its a lot more effective this time

ongarite

Great work getting Vista running on it. Still not keen on Vista myself, stick to my XP.

Bios update for NC10 improves Vista Aero score & performance:
http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.com/downloadfile/ContentsFile.aspx?CDSite=us&CttFileID=2026184&CDCttType=FM&ModelType=N&ModelName=NP-NC10&VPath=FM/200811/20081128144007375/WIN_NC10_03CA.exe

Supercell

Just installed that, thanks Ongarite. My Aero score went from 3.9 to 4.0
Every little helps I suppose!

Supercell

ongarite wrote: »

Great work getting Vista running on it. Still not keen on Vista myself, stick to my XP.

A few hours later and i have to wonder why?
Vista runs perfectly fine on the NC10 out of box, in fact if I wasn't installing Photoshop I'm beginning to think that the 2gb ram module was a waste of money.
Its pretty zippy, and the eye candy is great. Can see no reason at all to stick to XP tbh.
Everything works great, no issues at all.

EKRIUQ

Rsaeire wrote: »

I installed parts of Office 2007 on my NC10, Word, Excel and Outlook, and it works fine.

I installed photoshop CS2 and it runs fine:)

vibe666

stuck vista on too, was going to triple boot tinyxp, vista and ubuntu, but had probs with the tinyxp cd so just stuck vista ultimate on for now and its grand.

Can't see any need for xp considering how well vista is running on it tbh, not tried vista in ages and was a tad disappointed at the time but i'm well impressed this time round and doubly so with the sammy making such a good job of it.

double thanks to supercell for the drivers, saved me some time and effort getting everything up and running. Anyone have issues with the fn keys tho? Maybe i missed something but they're not working for me.

Everything else is perfect tho, dead happy with it.

Alanstrainor

All this talk about vista ultimate made me go ahead and install it on my advent 4211, and i have to say, i'm very impressed. Was expecting it to be slow as hell, but for basic stuff, even with aero on, it's perfect, not slow in the slightest. Very surprised indeed, im dual booting xp/vista, i think ill stick with vista for the time being, although i might revert back to xp if i want to run some more intensive apps like photoshop etc.

Supercell

vibe666 wrote: »

Anyone have issues with the fn keys tho? Maybe i missed something but they're not working for me. Everything else is perfect tho, dead happy with it.

Good to hear you are up and running on Vista, no going back now

You need this and this.

dropper79

Hi,

I'm looking to get a mini notebook and after some research the Samsung NC10 seems like it would suit my needs.
I already have a PC with plenty of spec and a DVD RW drive so what I'm looking for is a more portable laptop that can connect through WiFi and has basic MS apps on it e.g. Word, Excel etc.

I'm not the most technical savvy but can usually figure out things, so this might be a really silly question but I was wondering, if I buy the NC10 or another mini notebook and I want to install new software, how can I do this without a CD drive? Which is how I normally would on the PC.

Thanks a mill!:)

Ricky91t

dropper79 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking to get a mini notebook and after some research the Samsung NC10 seems like it would suit my needs.
I already have a PC with plenty of spec and a DVD RW drive so what I'm looking for is a more portable laptop that can connect through WiFi and has basic MS apps on it e.g. Word, Excel etc.

I'm not the most technical savvy but can usually figure out things, so this might be a really silly question but I was wondering, if I buy the NC10 or another mini notebook and I want to install new software, how can I do this without a CD drive? Which is how I normally would on the PC.

Thanks a mill!:)

Well alot of apps you can download,you could also burn .iso of bigger apps and copy them across to the nc10 and use deamon tools lite(free version) to run these on a virtual dvd/cd drive...Also you could buy a cheap external cd/dvd drive and install apps that way...

The_Conductor

If you're not too techie- I'd suggest keeping away from mounting virtual drives etc- just pop into Maplins/PC World/Peats or online and get a USB DVD drive (they are incredibly cheap- EUR20-25). You won't need a CD Writer/DVD Writer- they are cheap too though- 60-70 will get you a reasonable one.

Worst case scenario- give one of the friendly folk here a yell, and they'll guide you through it........

vibe666

the external drive i used was actually an internal ide dvd drive with a usb to ide/sata adapter i got for a couple of quid off ebay.

worked a treat, just comes iwth a psu and apapters for ide and sata power (or bus powered for 2.5" ide drives) and i've tried it with all of them (hdds, 2.5", 3.5" sata and ide) and the dvd drive and they all work perfectly.

i did have trouble getting the sammy to correctly mount my trekstor 1tb usb drive though, seems to mount it but can't see any data. same drive working fine on the g/f's old dell d600 laptop under xp and my ubuntu desktop, so not sure what the deal is with it.

anyways, it's away now again hidden away from her (still can't convince her to take the pressie before xmas!:().

still have office 2007 etc. to put on it (ran out of time last night whilst she was out) and get the fn keys working, but should be grand.

do we know if the webcam is working? someone on sammynetbook said it doesn't work under vista?

still contemplating a sandisk extreme III 2gb sdcard and a 2gb ram upgrade (can't hurt) since I heard that vista sp1 improves the effectiveness of readyboost by a factor of several times over.

i actually have a standard 2gb card in my car stereo right now, so i might whip that out for a test during the week if i have time and see how much quicker everything is and if it does help i'll grab one from 7dayshop.

anyone have any recommendation for a cheap and quick place to get a 2gb ddr2 667mhz sodimm and a 2gb sandisk extreme III sdcard relatively quickly and cheaply?

and triple superthanks to supercell too (again) for the encouragement and driver links.

Supercell

vibe666 wrote: »

do we know if the webcam is working? someone on sammynetbook said it doesn't work under vista?
and triple superthanks to supercell too (again) for the encouragement and driver links.

You're welcome!

Webcam works fine in Vista, was using it earlier in messenger. If anything, it works better, picture was much clearer than in XP

blobert

Would this method, in particular step 1 work for a fresh Windows XP installation from a USB drive?

Supercell wrote: »

Sure, was pretty simple really :-

1) Setup usb drive - XP didnt list the usb drive so had to do this on a Vista box
2) Set boot order on NC-10 to flash drive first - Just hit F2 on boot and move it to the top of the boot order screen
3) Boot off the flash drive, install goes surprisingly fast, remember to remove the usb drive when setup reboots the laptop or it'll just boot of the usb stick again and restart setup
4) Install drivers, I'd recommend installing the chipset drivers first.

I got the drivers from various places, to make matters easier for boards people interested in doing this, I've put them all into a zip file and am uploading it to rapidshare atm, will post the link when that completes the upload.

blobert

Also does anyone have any suggestions where the cheapest place to get a 32+Gb Solid State HD for this would be?

Had a look on eBay but they seem very pricey.

Thanks

AlmightyCushion

blobert wrote: »

Also does anyone have any suggestions where the cheapest place to get a 32+Gb Solid State HD for this would be?

Had a look on eBay but they seem very pricey.

Thanks

I wouldn't recommend going with a cheap one. They are worse than normal hard drives for read/write speeds. I'd consider it a downgrade. Even some of the more expensive ones have their downsides. The ocz cores would be one of these, they are very reasonable priced but seem to have a problem with random writes that can cause them to lock up for a second or two. Whether or not you'll notice it frequently enough to annoy you is another story.

The mtron mobi range are meant to be very good. You can get them on realta.ie but they might be more expensive than you are looking for.

ongarite

Just want to remind people of the superb program that someone has written for all touchpads that you can download called TwoFingerScroll

It fixes the one bad point of the NC10 which is the poor trackpad. This application mimicks Apple Mac trackpad behaviour with 2 finger scrolling, one finger fixed and other scrolling (doesn't matter which finger and it uses the whole trackpad as scroll area), 1 finger + assigned tap (great as middle mouse button for internet links, etc) and you can also 2 finger zoom with images.

I disabled virtual scrolling, momentum & pinch in synaptics control panel.
I reduced the TwoFingerScrool speed to 2, disabled acceleration and enabled smooth scroll mode.

vibe666

thanks for the tip ongarite, sounds good but i might leave it till she actually starts using the thing before i stick that on, she might not like it.

The_Conductor

For those of you who've upgraded your Windows installs- ccleaner will clean up the registry and Windows folder, and make your install a lot cleaner (it also gets rid of backed up system files- and a little tinkering can manipulate your restore point settings to reasonable levels.)

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

dropper79

Ricky91t wrote: »

Well alot of apps you can download,you could also burn .iso of bigger apps and copy them across to the nc10 and use deamon tools lite(free version) to run these on a virtual dvd/cd drive...Also you could buy a cheap external cd/dvd drive and install apps that way...

Thanks a mill Ricky91t and everyone else who took time out to reply, think I'll go with the external hard drive option - sounds like I would be able to handle that!

ongarite

The Scientist wrote: »

Whats the story with the Orange + Black sticker to the left of the Trackpad.
Has it something to do with the warranty? (theres a barcode on it).
Mine's beginning to peel...

I peeled the sticker off mine. Its more of a quick info sheet for a potential customer to see in a store.
The Samsung serial no. is on the back of the device along with the XP UPMC license key.

Villain

Jees big thread and I never saw it, I bought one last week savage little laptop, I have XP PRO on it and it's running sweet. I work in the trade so got it for €310, 2gb Ram stick is only about €35 so I'll get one in Jan and I picked up a USB DVD burner for €59 nice and slim.

The_Conductor

Villain wrote: »

Jees big thread and I never saw it, I bought one last week savage little laptop, I have XP PRO on it and it's running sweet. I work in the trade so got it for €310, 2gb Ram stick is only about €35 so I'll get one in Jan and I picked up a USB DVD burner for €59 nice and slim.

You obviously didn't see the thread over in Bargain Alerts
€301 delivered!

Wahoooo!!!!

Villain

smccarrick wrote: »

You obviously didn't see the thread over in Bargain Alerts
€301 delivered!

Wahoooo!!!!

Ah I ordered mine Last Wednesday at 2pm and had it at 10 am Thursday morning

The_Conductor

Villain wrote: »

Ah I ordered mine Last Wednesday at 2pm and had it at 10 am Thursday morning

Nice one......

Brimmy

I'm going to be installing Football Manager 07 on mine, possibly tomorrow, as I don't want to keep lugging around an external hd I'll probably use a no cd key after I install. What would be the best way for installing it without an external drive or would I need it?

I've never done this before but if I created a network with my desktop which already has the game on it could I just transfer all the files over and boot it immediately?

Alanstrainor

Discussion of illegally installing software, or using cracks etc is strictly forbidden on this forum.
Consider yourself warned.