According to our buds JKKMobile and Kevin O'Brien over at Notebook Review, Vista running on Intel Atom powered mini-notebooks isn't only not bad, it works like a charm. In fact Kevin proved that installing Vista on the MSI Wind made it faster; benchmarks, such as WPrime, were higher in Vista over XP.
Vista better than XP on a mini-notebook? Puzzling? Yep. I had to see it to believe it. So loading Vista Home Premium onto the Eee PC 1000H was my weekend activity.
Simple Install, Drivers Needed
Installing Windows Vista Home Premium onto the Eee PC 1000H was a breeze and took about 45 minutes. When I first went to boot the system I was, of course, missing all the necessary drivers. ASUS lays out all the necessary drivers of the 1000H on its Web site and even though they are designed for XP they each work flawlessly in Vista.
Note that I had to use another computer to download the Ethernet and wireless drivers but once I ported those over to the 1000H via a USB stick I was able to download the rest of the drivers directly to the system. Those that are planning to put Vista on their Eee PCs should be sure to download the ASUS Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Driver; this driver is necessary for getting the wireless LAN hardware to work correctly.
Once all the drivers were installed everything just worked. The quick launch buttons on the top of the keyboard were programmable and the Super Hybrid CPU engine integrated with Vista.
Swift Application Launching
Granted I was a bit put off by the 1 minute boot up time, but when it came to actual everyday performance I was seriously impressed. Application launch times and the multi-tasking proved to be no obstacle. It was nothing like I had experienced with the HP Mini-Note 2133 (powered by VIA's CM7 chipset) running Vista. Opening Windows Media Player was swift and took less than 2 seconds. Simultaneously chatting in Skype and Digsby while surfing the Web in Firefox 3 didn't hold up the system at all. For those that are interested, the Vista Experience score is rated at 2.7.
Smooth Graphics and Video
I was even more impressed when it came to making a video call in Skype (which I wasn't even able to do on the HP Mini-Note). The call connected quickly and our video launched within 5 seconds. The quality was pretty good as well; images of our caller were clear and void of any pixelation.
Streaming an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia over Hulu.com looked sweet. There was no blur or pauses. Similarly, a downloaded HD clip from Microsoft had no motion blur or skips when played back in Windows Media Center.
Shorter Battery
Vista on the Eee PC 1000H performs almost as well as Windows XP, except in the area of battery life. On our battery test (which cycles Web sites over and over again in Firefox) Eee PC 1000H running Windows XP lasted 4 hours and 28 minutes. With Vista running the system got about 4 hours of run time.
So do I beleive it now? Does Vista run just as well, if not better, than Windows XP? It surely runs better than I ever thought it would. Those that need to run Vista or want to run Vista should have no fear. The Eee PC 1000H its Intel Atom processor can handle "the wow."
