If you’ve been looking for an ASUS Eee PC 8G, you may have to wait just a little longer.
According to this Digitimes article, ASUS is blaming a flash and battery shortage for the recent lack of 8G shipments to retailers:
Asustek company president Jerry Shen admitted SLC NAND flash is running tight, although he noted that the shortage of batteries is more of a concern for the company. [link]
The good news is that ASUS expects to resume shipments of the 8G units in 1-2 weeks.
This could be part of the reason why extra Eee PC batteries are not yet available for purchase from ASUS- and with the batteries (and other accessories) rumored to be arriving in late February- maybe the problems are indeed just about solved.
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Mine has been delayed with an expected shipping date of 7th Feb. I placed the order in mid-January.
When is Asus or Everex going to get smart and switch to standard 1.8″ drives or Compact Flash as the HDD. If the EEEPC used an internal Compact Flash card it would be easy to upgrade to whatever you want. CF also used IDE and UDMA 133 just like a regular HD and the 2gb ones are only $10 and $20 for the 4gb ones.
I really hope they can make a change when the 8.9″ screen EEEPC’s come out. I would far rather have an EEEPC with a 2gb internal Compact Flash that I could switch out to something else than a custom flash that you can’t get anywhere if it starts to corrupt.
Actually the Cloudbook does use a 1.8″ drive. To bad about the VIA chip in it.
Actually you are right. But of course this would future proof a product that ASUS would prefer you to bin in 2 years and buy another.
Who knows, someone out there may already be working on a hardware mod…get that soldering iron out!
If Asus wants to be in the top tier of laptop sales their number one goal has to be selling as many as possible now and not worry about the future. Building a competitor to the EEEPC isn’t hard but no one seems to be able to do it right.
1.Use the EEEPC small size format with 3 usb, 1 ethernet, 1 vga out, build in wireless, audio out , mic in and a CF, SDHC or PC Card slot. A big plus if you throw in Bluetooth.
2. Use a decent Intel chip with 950 or better integrated graphics. The latest Celerons are OK.
3.Use an upgradeable (not welded on) ram slot for memory so users can upgrade memory or you can sell “approved” memory. Make sure it can go to 2gb of ram via user or reseller upgrades.
4.Use a 1.8″ HDD or CF card that’s replaceable for the HDD.
5.Use a 7-9″ screen that has 800×600 or 1024×600 resolution NOT 480 resolution.
6.Keep the price below $500 if with Linux or $600 if with XP.
That’s it. Anyone doing that will beat Asus or any other small form manufacturer. Too bad no one is smart enough to do it. There would be a lot of money to be made.
Imho, bluetooth is unnecessary, 9′ screen with at least 800×600 is a must, I believe SSD shall be retained, as it speeds up things significantly. 1.8HDD would probably slow things down. Newer proc and chipset are also the way to go. If ASUS listens, I am ok to spend up to 1k on the next generation.
A 1.8″ HDD would be the same speed. So would a decent CF. The advantage of a flash drive is durability and it’s limits are tied to the bus interface more than the memory. Currently the SDD’s aren’t upgradeable and many people would trade off the durability for more storage. I agree the increase in resolution is a must if they plan on increasing sales or even holding on to sales as the economy tanks.
Dude, I have no idea who told you that a crappy 4200 RPM 1.8inch drive is the same speed as an SSD or integrated flash memory, but you’re so wrong its not even funny. Not even a 7200 rpm drive is as fast as an SSD. You don’t go back to ancient technology like hard drives when you’ve set a flash storage standard.
are the larger screens still only a rumor or is there any confirmation? I couldn’t wait for the 8g I am happy with the 4g with a ram upgrade
to NWW5657, yes we are working on a hardware mod, and we may have it figured out, no one has tested it yet but we have mapped out the sm223 SSD controller chip so that it could be replaced with a CF adapter, or add a second one as a slave device
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=11975
Thanks for helping us out!
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